DONT WORRY, WE CAN SAVE 2 PAD

From January 2, 2027, all official WCA attempts performed with a speedsolving timer will be required to use a Speed Stacks G5 StackMat™ Pro Timer in 4-pad mode. The adoption of 4-pad mode will provide greater certainty that official times are achieved in accordance with the WCA Regulations and will strengthen the integrity of the results recognized by the WCA.

Since our formation, the WCA has recorded times based on a speedsolving timer with two sensor pads. Although these timers are capable of precise measurement, the accuracy of this measurement in timing a speedsolving attempt requires the timer to be started and stopped in accordance with the WCA Regulations.

It has become clear that the use of speedsolving timers with two sensor pads causes difficulties in enforcing these Regulations, especially since Regulation infractions may not be visible to a judge when viewed live. Frame-by-frame video offers one route around this, but performing this analysis is time consuming and reliant on high quality video being available. No viable changes to the current Regulations wording or other suitable means have been identified that would provide a satisfactory resolution using existing timer requirements.

The WCA has therefore decided that switching to 4-pad represents the best solution to these challenges. This new requirement will replace the existing requirements in the WCA Approved Timer List, which currently requires 2-pad mode, and also allows for use of the G4 StackMat™ Pro Timer and G3 StackMat™ Pro Timer.

4-pad mode will require changes to the Regulations for starting and stopping the speedsolving timer. Draft Regulations changes will be published for community feedback in September, as part of the annual Regulations cycle.

Time differences between 2-pad results and 4-pad results are negligible for the vast majority of competitors and events. As such, existing records will stand until broken under 4-pad mode and 4-pad results will be ranked alongside 2-pad results. Although no record reset is considered necessary, the WCA Rankings page will be updated to support filtering between all results and 4-pad results for 2x2, Clock, Pyraminx, and Skewb.

All regions which are currently using timers without 4-pad capability will have Speed Stacks G5 timers provided in time for the effective date of this change. Costs will be covered and logistics will be handled by the WCA.

For more information on the factors behind this change and the process followed by the WCA to arrive at this decision, please refer to the 4-Pad Decision Process Explainer Document. They have not said 'This desicion is final' unlike the latest clock news
 
Michael Wimberly said:
There is a problem with 4 pad as illustrated in the attached video at 6:43 where you can lift your thumbs and place them back in less than 0.6 seconds to get a different scramble if you don’t like the one you got according to a WCA regulation.

Click to expand...
I understand that it would be hard to tell, but the regulations do say this:

If the timer stops before the competitor has solved the puzzle and the timer shows a time strictly below 0.06 seconds, then the attempt is replaced by an extra attempt. Exception: No extra attempt is required if the WCA Delegate determines that the timer was stopped deliberately, or as a result of interacting with the timer in an unusual way (e.g. making only minimal contact with the timer, not lifting the hands cleanly away from the timer).
 
-Cube Kid- said:
The problem with 4-pad is 2x2, Pyraminx, and BLD is cooked.
Click to expand...
This isn't even true though. Kevin Hays streamed last night, and talked a bit about 4-pad throughout. He had some really insightful things to say, but the majority of the points come from around 17-25 minutes into the stream. I do really recommend at least watching this 8 minute section, since it's gonna be the basis of a lot of my talking points here.


Now to actually talk about your point a bit more, no, sprint events aren't cooked. Like Kevin mentioned, if you're complaining about 4-pad making you slower in sprint events, and you're not world class, then you're definitely cheating with starts, or more likely stops, like he showed. And I can personally verify his claim about people stopping the timer early, whether intentional or not. Even with sprint events, unless you're actively cheating your starts/stops, you won't be losing almost any time. Kevin has talked with top level 2x2 solvers, and they've verified that it is still possible to beat all of the current records on 4-pad, but it's less likely to be you or me, which, lets be honest, should never be the case anyway. WR single is still totally possible for any of the world class solvers, who have clean starts/stops, so sprint events aren't cooked.

And this isn't even an issue with BLD events either. The thumb pads aren't small or difficult to tell apart, it's just building up different muscle memory for the stops. It's not any more difficult, and won't be costing time. For world class solvers, they're gonna get used to 4-pad stops very quickly, like the rest of the events, so they won't be losing time from searching for the thumb pads. And for slow solvers, it's still not gonna be an issue because it's literally a skill issue if you can't stop the timer quickly, and it's still fully possible for slower solvers to have trouble stopping 2-pad quickly, but that's not talked about. The timer is still in the same place, and unless you're moving around a lot with the blindfold on, the timer isn't gonna move, and you'll be able to find it easily.

There is literally no downside to 4-pad, because with clean 2-pad starts, you won't even be losing more than 0.1 at worst. The only people I've ever heard that are mad at this change are little kids who aren't even fast, who also likely have poor stops, which is especially noticeable in sprint events, so they are losing more time because they have to stop cheating. This is very contrasted to what the top solvers' opinions are, which is that 4-pad is a great change for the integrity of results, especially immediately, since we will no longer have to check for sliding and wait potentially months to see if the result will stand. This is something I've heard my local delegates say, and I definitely agree, only little kids who cheat think this is an issue. We already have high ranking cheated results from Yiheng, his 0.87 2x2 AsR ao5 is cheated, but the WCA hasn't done anything about it. With 4-pad, we won't have to worry about records being cheated and being allowed to stand.
 
AJT17 said:
This isn't even true though. Kevin Hays streamed last night, and talked a bit about 4-pad throughout. He had some really insightful things to say, but the majority of the points come from around 17-25 minutes into the stream. I do really recommend at least watching this 8 minute section, since it's gonna be the basis of a lot of my talking points here.


Now to actually talk about your point a bit more, no, sprint events aren't cooked. Like Kevin mentioned, if you're complaining about 4-pad making you slower in sprint events, and you're not world class, then you're definitely cheating with starts, or more likely stops, like he showed. And I can personally verify his claim about people stopping the timer early, whether intentional or not. Even with sprint events, unless you're actively cheating your starts/stops, you won't be losing almost any time. Kevin has talked with top level 2x2 solvers, and they've verified that it is still possible to beat all of the current records on 4-pad, but it's less likely to be you or me, which, lets be honest, should never be the case anyway. WR single is still totally possible for any of the world class solvers, who have clean starts/stops, so sprint events aren't cooked.

And this isn't even an issue with BLD events either. The thumb pads aren't small or difficult to tell apart, it's just building up different muscle memory for the stops. It's not any more difficult, and won't be costing time. For world class solvers, they're gonna get used to 4-pad stops very quickly, like the rest of the events, so they won't be losing time from searching for the thumb pads. And for slow solvers, it's still not gonna be an issue because it's literally a skill issue if you can't stop the timer quickly, and it's still fully possible for slower solvers to have trouble stopping 2-pad quickly, but that's not talked about. The timer is still in the same place, and unless you're moving around a lot with the blindfold on, the timer isn't gonna move, and you'll be able to find it easily.

There is literally no downside to 4-pad, because with clean 2-pad starts, you won't even be losing more than 0.1 at worst. The only people I've ever heard that are mad at this change are little kids who aren't even fast, who also likely have poor stops, which is especially noticeable in sprint events, so they are losing more time because they have to stop cheating. This is very contrasted to what the top solvers' opinions are, which is that 4-pad is a great change for the integrity of results, especially immediately, since we will no longer have to check for sliding and wait potentially months to see if the result will stand. This is something I've heard my local delegates say, and I definitely agree, only little kids who cheat think this is an issue. We already have high ranking cheated results from Yiheng, his 0.87 2x2 AsR ao5 is cheated, but the WCA hasn't done anything about it. With 4-pad, we won't have to worry about records being cheated and being allowed to stand.
Click to expand...
But the only reason of this change is becuase of litreally Yiheng Wang, meaning its not our fault, and BLD solves is kinda hard becuase we are all used to 2 pad. (Sorry of spelling mistakes)
 
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