Yiheng mom's comments
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I just want to address a few things that I’m feeling skeptical about.
Firstly, what is the exact thing or regulation that Yiheng had even violated in his 3.38 3x3 single, or even his 0.49 2x2 single? Let’s just put this aside, the moment after Yiheng achieved this 0.86 2x2 average, his sponsor and CubeRoot (a Chinese social media creator) has posted high quality videos on every single social media platform, in which I told them that, we should not have early celebration before WRC had verified this record. Yes, we are indeed cautious in this case. Not only because we want to prove that this result is valid, but we want to prove that Yiheng’s achievement was done fair and square while complying with the regulations. Not anyone from WRC not say anything wrong about the videos, but still, it took them a total of 11 days for the green light of this record, when result submission for a competition typically takes at most 7 days. About one month had passed, as the authorities from WCA already contacted us for details for the Guiness World Record before this, we thought everything was in the clear by now. All of a sudden, WRC just decided to penalise this record by not just one, but three +2 penalties to the record? They mentioned that Yiheng violated Regulation A4b in this particular case, which claimed that he did not make his palms facing down, flat on the timer, or maybe by Regulation A4b1 too, which he touched the puzzle while starting? If that’s the case, and since this average has such a high profile in the cubing community, did WRC actually verify the 4K footage before having WRT to publish the results? Or else, was it that WRC had always been skeptical regarding the validity of this record, but still asked Guinness World Record to verify and send us the official GWR certificate? Since world records are one of the largest drivers of the WCA’s public outreach, wouldn’t WCA make sure the validity of the record before actually publishing it?
Secondly, is there any clear definition of ‘The competitor's palms must be facing down’ as per Regulation A4b in WCA Regulations? Could WRC kindly provide us with a video reference with decent video resolution and quality, then put an explanation that, if the attempt doesn’t fulfill the requirements shown by the reference, it is a violation of the WCA Regulations. Additionally, we would humbly request for the clarification as if there is any specific Regulation or Guidelines stating that how many degrees, in terms of angle, a competitor cannot exceed with their hands on timer while starting, while complying with the Regulation A4b?
Thirdly, did WRC check the videos of all other world records thoroughly, while having frame-counting and screenshotting done in a cautious and skeptical manner to make sure that no violation was done in the nature of those records? I personally gave feedback and screenshots regarding some other world records, but WRC did not give any direct responses about that.
In Dalian Open 2024 2x2x2 Cube First Round, Yiheng’s second solve, which was a 0.49, was penalised by a +4 penalty by WRC. When the only available footage, being blurry and unclear, how did WRC come to the conclusion that the result should be penalised? Was that result being penalised just because the video cannot be seen clearly? I’m decently sure everyone, including WRC, understands the importance of that particular attempt because it determined whether Yiheng had successfully broken the 2x2 World Record with an average of 0.90, after the previous 0.78 2x2 average in Johor Cube Open 2024 getting penalised. If that’s the case, I provided WRC with alternative video footage with high resolution and frame rates, which they claimed would be able to analyse it in a better way. In the end, they did lift a +2 penalty for violating Regulation A4b1, but claimed the timer start was still illegal in a subjective and vague manner. Hence, a +2 penalty still remained.
Here’s a question, if any national, continental or world record is broken without any video evidence, but only under the supervision of the organisers and delegates of the competition, does that mean the record-breaking result would stand without any reason, or vice versa? We have a problem finding any single piece of Regulations or Guidelines that requires us to film our official solves, or any regulation that restricts us from blocking the view of our solves to the crowd. If so, for example, can we place our bags or other items in front of the competing station to avoid our attempts to isolate the visibility to the public in order to not get filmed by them?
Usually when we are competing in WCA competitions, people always film Yiheng’s attempts, which we understand, and gladly let them have their own fun if they can witness any record in the making. It’s completely fine, as the videos can be used as some kind of useful resources for the cubers out there to gain more insights, we are obliged if people are learning and improving through Yiheng’s solves, but over time, WRC has been exploiting this and keeps looking for a quarrel in a straw. After all, I have reason to believe that WRC just doesn’t desire Yiheng to keep his world records. This belief might be subjective to some of you, but does WRC not give out penalties to Yiheng by voting inside the committee based on their subjective point of view? If that’s the case, does that give me a reason to believe that, if we are able to befriend and have good personal relationships with any or some of the WRC members, they will indeed, turn a blind eye to violations on some petty matter?
Speedcubing is competitive, and there’s not any record that can last forever, but we hope everyone indeed tries their best by putting a tremendous amount of effort into their skills to break any existing record. Same for Yiheng, as we also went through an unimaginable amount of practice at home to achieve what he had today. Even if he just retires from cubing from now on, he already proved himself that he’s capable in competitive speedcubing based on his efforts and past results. Even when his solves keep getting penalised, we are not stopping there and will try improvising his solves. We never hide anything from the public, as we never intended to. We held our integrity upright and honorable, to anyone and everyone in the community. Behind all that, we indeed faced a lot of pressure from all sides, but we managed to turn that into motivation to put more time and effort into practice and break the record again, as we believe that if a record becomes unbreakable, the said event will have no point of staying as an official event anymore.
If what we said above did offend WRC, WCA can just impose a long-term ban on Yiheng for disrespecting WCA, so we can just stay away from competing instead of having his records getting penalised time after time. Hence, WRC or even WCA can let other people hold the record if WCA hopes them to become a record holder. That’s completely fine.
Since we first joined the WCA competition back in 2019, this is the first time we have ever raised a public statement, being skeptical and questioning the validity and fairness of the WRC's decision. In the previous communication between us and WRC through emails, I’ve always been humble and polite as we only want to know as if we might misunderstand some of the Regulations thus causing the violations, but in opposite, they never did the same to us, they never give us a definitive and clear-cut answer to all our questions and doubts, the responses were rather vague, or subjective. Before writing this statement, my friends keep asking me to keep my cool, because of the upcoming World Championship in Seattle, as they don’t think it’s a good idea if Yiheng is going to compete in the championship. In the end, I insisted. I tried writing as calmly as I possibly could. Even when I’m a lone wolf while having to face the entire committee of WRC, fear is not stopping me from speaking up for ourselves. You know, sometimes you just can’t run away.
At this point, we don’t really want to keep appealing for all those retroactive penalties anymore. It doesn’t mean that me, as Yiheng’s mother, think Yiheng’s starts and stops were a violation to some Regulations, we spent a lot of time analysing his 3.38 3x3 single, and also 0.49 and 0.86 2x2 single and average, I strongly believe that they are perfectly fine. If that’s the case, why don’t I think appealing this decision by WRC is a right call to make? Even if we did, I don’t expect the decision to get overturned. In order to prove ourselves that we were not in the wrong, we have to spend a lot of time gathering evidence for all sorts of questions from the authorities. In the end, the appeal will eventually go to the same group of people, and all those efforts will go into the drain anyway. Of course I’m frustrated and upset regarding the decision, but it’s more like, both of us are really tired by now. This is just an endless loop where everything will happen one time after another. As Yiheng’s mother, I feel like I don’t want to, and don’t have to try proving anything, anymore. When the terminology of sliding started to spark discussion among the community last year, we tried placing a camera right beside his solving station just to make sure he did start the timer properly, also acting as our respect towards the existing Regulations and Guidelines. Still, even if we had tried our best to prove that he is capable, they can still find a way to penalise his results anyway. We had always wanted to prove his capabilities by actual results instead of being nothing more than words. We do not merely talk the talk, we walk the walk. Ironically, we keep ourselves in the game and strive for the greater good every single day, yet, the feeling of powerlessness is also growing everyday. To us, cubing, as well as speedcubing are supposed to be fun and enjoyable, and everyone is on the same starting line when it comes to competitive speedcubing, especially a prestigious governing body like WCA, but after all this we realised, the efforts we put in will not reflect on what we desire in the end, even though it is supposed to be a fair and square game for everyone.
To be really frank, even though I’m Yiheng’s mother, I do think that he is already one of the greatest in this field. All the achievements he had over the years, it’s all him. He had successfully proven himself by constantly pushing himself to the edge even if it only meant one slightest bit of improvement. From what I see, I do believe that more and more people are starting to pick up a Rubik’s Cube because of him, a boy who doesn’t believe in failure, and will try to remove the first two letters of what we called, impossible.
As his mother, I’m grateful that he has his supporters from all around the globe. Even though we don't know most of them, their kind words and support eventually turned into a soothing flow of river that kept pushing us forward, and we kept our ground on every challenge we faced. Thus in the end of this long wall of text, we want to express our highest gratitude to everyone who supported us, we really mean it. Other than that, we would like to thank all his coaches, as well as the sponsors. Of course, deep down, we really appreciate WCA for the opportunities so Yiheng was able to perform his skills and get recognition worldwide.
All men are created equal（declaration of independence ）. Everyone who works hard will eventually shine and thrive in their own pathways, and this cannot be simply obstructed by negativity, not even in the slightest."
forum.worldcubeassociation.org
