speedBLD standard

[Lucas Garron]

I don't time to read the whole thread right now, but have you seen my 2009 proposal?

EDIT: Most people here seem to be suggesting 10 minutes. I feel this is too short, for now, although it fits conveniently on a Stackmat timer.

 

[Stefan]

Most people here seem to be suggesting 10 minutes. I feel this is too short, for now, although it fits conveniently on a Stackmat timer.

Probably because I suggested it. Stackmatability wasn't a concern for me, but future-proofness was. Wouldn't want to repeat the multibld evolution, lower the limit and invalidate old records. That said, this is mostly a concern once it's official. As long as it's only unofficial, I see less trouble with lowering the limit. So we could start higher now and decide on a good official limit if we ever get there.

I don't time to read the whole thread right now, but have you seen my 2009 proposal?

Darn, I had a feeling we discussed this before. Need to read that again. Hope I haven't duplicated too much.

 

[Mike Hughey]

I hadn't noticed that thread before, Lucas. Yours is not a bad proposal, but I see these issues:

1. I strongly prefer that the competitor place the cube before donning the blindfold and starting the timer. I think allowing the judge to place it creates far too much danger for issues, without any real benefit. I hadn't thought of the issue that people might change the scramble while inspecting, so I agree that the judge (or someone) should verify that the scramble has not been changed, and then hand it to the competitor to place it before starting the solve. Then again, I never thought of it before - this could happen today with regular 3x3x3 BLD. Theoretically, the judge should be watching for any surreptitious turns on BLD attempts during memorization - I wonder how many judges really pay close attention as they should to BLD memorization to make sure no one makes any turns? If we went with a 10 minute memorization limit, it seems like there's not enough difference between speedBLD and regular BLD to require verifying the scramble for speedBLD but not regular BLD.

I have to admit it disappoints me to think that it might be possible for someone to cheat this way with regular BLD. I hope no one has ever done that - it would be very sad.

In any event, I still think the competitor should place the cube before solving. Then it's the competitor's fault if it's misoriented.

2. As a competition organizer, I definitely see the benefit of allowing inspection to happen away from the timer. But I think that if our time limit is as short as 10 minutes, it's probably not that practical - variation due to timer not being available could give too big of an advantage to someone who is delayed. If the limit were 30 minutes, it probably wouldn't be as big of a deal. But having the competitor seated for the solve really would guarantee the time is strictly enforced, which is a nice advantage for doing it my way.

Overall, I think I like my rules better than yours (and I like the 10 minute limit, even if it is incredibly tough), but I could be persuaded to change my mind.