WCA Hall of Fame

[cmhardw]

btw idk how dan cohen hasn't been thrown out there yet. I think he has the third most WRs of all time

I agree with Dan Cohen being nominated.

Thibaut Jacquinot should be nominated in my opinion, as well as others who were the first to break major psychological barriers (I.e. The first ever sub-X where X was viewed at one time as a prestigious "wall" to be broken)

I have many more names I am thinking that I would like to nominate, but I am still not clear on what the criteria is that I am selecting for with my nominations. Am I nominating those who, to me, "obviously" should be in the Hall of Fame? When everybody nominates this way do we then search for those who are nominated the "most" times?

The more I think about this the more it seems that you will have people like me who nominate for "improvement of the sport of cubing" reasons and others voting for a "best of the best cubers" reason.

Which is it? Or both?

 

[tseitsei]

I must have different criteria in mind for what inclusion into a Hall of Fame would entail.

I agree. We have different criteria in mind.

I think there should be 2 main ways to get to the Hall of fame both of which require something that not everyone can do:

1. Be totally amazingly fast and awesome in some events and break several WRs (and/or by a huge margin). Example Feliks Zemdegs
2. Contribute something original, new and useful to the community. Example Lars Petrus (method developement) or Herbert Kociemba (his two-phase solving algorithm and other puzzle theory stuff)


I strongly disagree that Hall of fame should be something that anyone can get into if they try hard enough. Hall of fame in every other sport is something that only most talented individuals get into and that is how it should be IMO.

 

[Dene]

btw idk how dan cohen hasn't been thrown out there yet.

He has been.

How did you come to the conclusion that you would? He clearly spoke about WRs (in several events and by a big margin...).

You obviously didn't read his requirements thoroughly enough. I still think I qualify.

 

[cmhardw]

I agree. We have different criteria in mind.

I think there should be 2 main ways to get to the Hall of fame both of which require something that not everyone can do:

1. Be totally amazingly fast and awesome in some events and break several WRs (and/or by a huge margin). Example Feliks Zemdegs
2. Contribute something original, new and useful to the community. Example Lars Petrus (method developement) or Herbert Kociemba (his two-phase solving algorithm and other puzzle theory stuff)

Should Patrick Kelly be in the Hall of Fame? (i.e. PJK, the creator of this forum?)

I strongly disagree that Hall of fame should be something that anyone can get into if they try hard enough. Hall of fame in every other sport is something that only most talented individuals get into and that is how it should be IMO.

If this is to be the "spirit" of the Hall of Fame for cubing, then I am with those who do not agree with the creation of a Hall of Fame. I think effort and contributions to the community as a whole should be rewarded equally with skill and cubing prowess. A Hall of Fame that excludes those who through their effort work toward improving our community should not be called a Hall of Fame and should be called a "Best of the Best" cubers list or something like that.

 

[ender9994]

If this is to be the "spirit" of the Hall of Fame for cubing, then I am with those who do not agree with the creation of a Hall of Fame. I think effort and contributions to the community as a whole should be rewarded equally with skill and cubing prowess. A Hall of Fame that excludes those who through their effort work toward improving our community should not be called a Hall of Fame and should be called a "Best of the Best" cubers list or something like that.

I agree with this completely. If this is going to be a list created with only pure speed/skill in mind, then it is completely useless. For judging just skill, the WCA database will suffice. Almost every other "Hall of fame" list also has sections for people that might have never played, or not competed much, but have put lots of time/effort in bettering that sport in different ways.

 

[tseitsei]

I agree with this completely. If this is going to be a list created with only pure speed/skill in mind, then it is completely useless. For judging just skill, the WCA database will suffice. Almost every other "Hall of fame" list also has sections for people that might have never played, or not competed much, but have put lots of time/effort in bettering that sport in different ways.

That is why I put my second option in my criteria to get in to the hall of fame:

2. Contribute something original, new and useful to the community. Example Lars Petrus (method developement) or Herbert Kociemba (his two-phase solving algorithm and other puzzle theory stuff)

 

[cmhardw]

Here are my nominations:

Spoiler

Ron van Bruchem
Jaap Scherphuis
Mirek Goljan
Jessica Fridrich
Guus Razoux Schultz
David Allen
Julian Chilvers
Minh Thai
John White
Katsuyuki Konishi
Shotaro Makisumi
Matsuyuki Akimoto
Stefan Pochmann
Patrick Kelly
Bob Burton
Lucas Garron
Jeremy Fleischman
Jasmine Lee
Emile Compion
Dene Beardsley
Frank Morris
Dan Harris
Jess Bonde
Dan Knights
Dror Vomberg
Ryan Patricio
Matyas Kuti (speedsolve events)
Yu Nakajima
Andrew Kang
Thom Barlow
Thibaut Jacquinot
Dan Cohen
Milan Baticz
Zbigniew Zborowski
Gilles Roux
Lars Petrus
Erik Akkersdijk
Mitsuki Gunji
Yu JeongMin
Yumu Tabuchi
Anssi Vanhala
Lars Vandenbergh
Daniel Beyer
Mate Horvath
Rafal Guzewicz
Ryosuke Mondo
Jean Pons
Eduardo Chambon
Yuki Hayashi
Leyan Lo
Tyson Mao
Toby Mao
Dan Dzoan
Richard Carr
Grant Tregay
Richard Patterson
Thomas Zolnowski
Breandan Vallance
Syuhei Omura
Michal Halczuk
Timothy Sun
Tim Reynolds
Rowe Hessler
Oliver Perge
Bence Barat
Balint Bodor
Simon Westlund
Oscar Roth Andersen
Dennis Strehlau
Kai Jiptner
Tim Habermaas
Piotr Michal Padlewski
Michael Gottlieb
Michal Pleskowicz
Feliks Zemdegs
Mats Valk
Giovanni Contardi
Zane Carney
Marcell Endrey
Daniel Sheppard
Sebastien Auroux
Henrik Buus Aagaard
Piti Pichedpan
Kevin Hays
Yu Da-Hyun
Cornelius Dieckmann
Sebastian Weyer
Marcin Zalewski
Marcin Kowalczyk
Frederick Badie
Joel van Noort
Stefan Huber
Clement Gallet
Robert Yau
Rama Temmink
Ton Dennenbroek
Oliver Frost
Ville Seppänen
Chester Lian
Sarah Strong
Rob Stuart
Stachu Korick
Mike Hughey
Vincent Sheu
Shelley Chang
Andy Camann
Brent Morgan
Ian Winokur
Jon Morris
Erno Rubik
Tom Rokicki
Herbert Kociemba
Chris Mowla
Morley Davidson
Dan Brown

I am editing this list as I think of more. It will probably be in flux for a day or so.

 

[obelisk477]

Here are my nominations:

Spoiler

Ron van Bruchem
Jaap Scherphuis
Mirek Goljan
Jessica Fridrich
Guus Razoux Schultz
David Allen
Minh Thai
John White
Katsuyuki Konishi
Shotaro Makisumi
Matsuyuki Akimoto
Stefan Pochmann
Bob Burton
Jasmine Lee
Emile Compion
Dene Beardsley
Frank Morris
Dan Harris
Jess Bonde
Dan Knights
Dror Vomberg
Ryan Patricio
Matyas Kuti (speedsolve events)
Yu Nakajima
Andrew Kang
Thom Barlow
Thibaut Jacquinot
Dan Cohen
Milan Baticz
Zbigniew Zborowski
Gilles Roux
Lars Petrus
Erik Akkersdijk
Mitsuki Gunji
Yumu Tabuchi
Anssi Vanhala
Lars Vandenbergh
Daniel Beyer
Mate Horvath
Rafal Guzewicz
Ryosuke Mondo
Jean Pons
Eduardo Chambon
Yuki Hayashi
Leyan Lo
Tyson Mao
Toby Mao
Dan Dzoan
Richard Carr
Grant Tregay
Richard Patterson
Thomas Zolnowski
Breandan Vallance
Syuhei Omura
Michal Halczuk
Timothy Sun
Rowe Hessler
Oliver Perge
Bence Barat
Balint Bodor
Simon Westlund
Oscar Roth Andersen
Dennis Strehlau
Kai Jiptner
Tim Habermaas
Piotr Michal Padlewski
Michael Gottlieb
Michal Pleskowicz
Feliks Zemdegs
Mats Valk
Giovanni Contardi
Zane Carney
Marcell Endrey
Daniel Sheppard
Sebastien Auroux
Henrik Buus Aagaard
Piti Pichedpan
Kevin Hays
Cornelius Dieckmann
Sebastian Weyer
Marcin Zalewski
Marcin Kowalczyk
Frederick Badie
Joel van Noort
Stefan Huber
Robert Yau
Rama Temmink
Ton Dennenbroek
Oliver Frost
Vincent Sheu
Shelley Chang
Andy Camann
Brent Morgan
Ian Winokur
Jon Morris

You can nominate yourself, you know

 

[cmhardw]

You can nominate yourself, you know

That feels awkward for me. I like it when nominations are for those (minus yourself) who you want to be included.

 

[rowehessler]

That feels awkward for me. I like it when nominations are for those (minus yourself) who you want to be included.

i nominate chris hardwick

 

[Sir E Brum]

i nominate chris hardwick

Seconded.

 

[Stefan]

Chris, did you just list everyone you know? Btw, why Emile Compion? Yes, he has tons of CRs, but that seems pretty much just because he's an African citizen living in North America. Not much of an achievement unless he swam there.

Btw: In my nominations I left out people that had been nominated already. I thought once is enough, but I see a lot of repetitions now. Are nominations usually already perceived as a kind of voting?

 

[cmhardw]

Chris, did you just list everyone you know? Btw, why Emile Compion? Yes, he has tons of CRs, but that seems pretty much just because he's an African citizen living in North America. Not much of an achievement unless he swam there.

I want my list to be fairly inclusive I think that the number of people who should be included in the hall of fame is more than 10 and less than about 100 or so. I tried to set my "bar" for nomination accordingly. I did try to be discerning for speed/skill while also trying to reward those who have contributed to the betterment of our community in some substantial way.

Emile is a motivating factor in my eyes because he holds 7 current ARs, the oldest of which were set as far back as 2009. A number of up and coming African cubers have Emile as the bar for getting an AR for their chosen event. I view his performances as a motivating factor for African cubers to improve, and he has been this motivating factor since 2007, so 8 years of positive contribution to the community for a large land area over a large number of WCA events.

Btw: In my nominations I left out people that had been nominated already. I thought once is enough, but I see a lot of repetitions now. Are nominations usually already perceived as a kind of voting?

I'm unclear on this point as well. I listed everyone whom I wanted to nominate in case it is a voting system. If it's a one nomination system then I will remove the duplicates from my list.

Right now I think people are voting as a mix between the nominating as a voting system, and making sure that all of those they want nominated have been nominated by someone so far.

 

[Stefan]

Emile is a motivating factor in my eyes because he holds 7 current ARs, the oldest of which were set as far back as 2009. A number of up and coming African cubers have Emile as the bar for getting an AR for their chosen event. I view his performances as a motivating factor for African cubers to improve, and he has been this motivating factor since 2007, so 8 years of positive contribution to the community for a large land area over a large number of WCA events.

Still feels odd, but I can also understand that view, thanks.

 

[StachuK1992]

If there is any hall of fame (and I doubt there will ever be, and do not agree with one), Chris' metric of "have they improved the community/hobby/whatever as a whole" guideline is probably the best.

 

[Deleted member 19792]

I just took Chris' list and pasted it into a word processor. Hoping to narrow that list down to 12 candidates to be inducted.

Eight of them will be cubers. Active, inactive, or retired.
Two of them will be celebrities, those who presented the puzzle and started another cube craze (Or pushed towards teaching the puzzle.)
The last two will be developmental cubers. These candidates didn't really compete, but they wanted to push puzzle theory or competitive speedcubing overall.

PM me if you want to be on selection.

 

[StachuK1992]

Is your plan to basically just ignore all of the counterpoints to this idea as a whole, proceeding further and appoint yourself in charge?

 

[Ollie]

If there is any hall of fame (and I doubt there will ever be, and do not agree with one), Chris' metric of "have they improved the community/hobby/whatever as a whole" guideline is probably the best.

Totally agree with this. World record holders, former and current, are already immortal in the sense that their records will remain on their individual WCA profiles, on the rankings pages and on the records page. Recognize the people that:

1. Developed the methods that made their skill possible.
2. Write the software that speedcubers everywhere use to find the fastest algs, produces fair competition-worthy scrambles, build the websites that allow us to see our results (and even live results as they happen) all of which we take for granted.
3. Create clear and engaging tutorials/walk-throughs that will reach hundreds of thousands (even millions) of people, teach them to solve the cube and encourage them into speedcubing.
4. The most senior members that have dedicated thousands of hours to organizing competitions, adjusting the regulations to make them fair for everyone, delegating competitions etc, at no small expense to themselves.

Even after all that, sticking the names of anyone worthy on a WCA page that barely anyone will see just doesn't come close to truly recognizing their accomplishments.

 

[BaMiao]

@strakerak:

No offense (I like the initiative you've taken), but no one is going to take this "hall of fame" seriously unless it is done in some official capacity. If it is really going to be called the "WCA Hall of Fame", it should be organized by the WCA board, and with input from the worldwide community- not organized by one person who thought to do so and voted on by the subset of people within this small forum. You're more than welcome to form the "strakerak hall of fame as voted on by users of speedsolving.com".

On another note, I'd find that this "hall of fame" would have more weight with some level of exclusivity. Induction should really be seen as an honor.

Here's my idea for the induction process: Something like ~10-20 people become inducted at the formation of the hall of fame. After that, 2 more become inducted on a yearly basis. Induction can be decided by appointed committee, delegate vote, community vote, or some combination. The numbers of inductees can change based on how exclusive we want it to be.

 

[scottishcuber]

...I referred to Erik Akkersdijk to a certain cuber in the USA, who is competively one of the fastest in the country, and he did not know who he is....thats just ridiculous

wow