Should stickerless cubes be allowed in WCA competition?

[Godmil]

out of curiosity how would people feel if each sticker on an edge piece had a small piece of the colour of the opposite sticker, so you could tell which piece it was from just seeing one side?

 

[Escher]

out of curiosity how would people feel if each sticker on an edge piece had a small piece of the colour of the opposite sticker, so you could tell which piece it was from just seeing one side?

Nope nope nope.

 

[Kian]

I think it should just be up to the delegate as to whether they allow stickerless cubes in a competition or not, and no regulation should specifically regard the use of them.

This is the exact opposite of what we should do for all issues. Ideally delegates should be a means for applying the regulations, not deciphering them. We need to adjudicate our regulations fairly and evenly across the board. Having different opinions in different parts of the world is a serious problem considering that we rank cubers from separate competitions in a single database. I realize this still happens to some extent, but it should not be encouraged.

As for the legality of this puzzle, it clearly does not conform to the regulations. That's not really debatable. If you want to argue the regulation should be changed, fine, though I disagree with that sentiment. I don't like that I can see completely different parts of the puzzle on the colored GuHong than anything else.

The earlier argument that "anyone can buy it, so it shouldn't be illegal" is specious. While you could argue that makes it inherently "fair", we are establishing rules for solving within reason. We would also judge a self-solving puzzle to be illegal, even if everyone "could" buy one.

 

[Pyjam]

The statement "anyone can buy it, so it shouldn't be illegal" alone is not sufficient. I say : "This is not a killer cube. Practically, it does not provide an unfair advantage because you can see small part of hidden pieces. But if you think it does, then buy it, and turn this to your advantage."

In fact, the main advantage for me is a better recognition of the visible parts during inspection. I use the ZZ method.

 

[foolish]

If a stickerless cube gives you advantage, how about speedcubes in general then? And what about modded and lubed ones? All of them are by far more of an advantage than a stickerless cube imo. So this would mean any cube apart from original, unmodded, unlubed Rubik's Cube should be disallowed.

 

[Kirjava]

ban them from BLD or allow them everywhere

the current inconsistant rule is crazy

 

[Mike Hughey]

ban them from BLD or allow them everywhere

Agreed. I think that maybe the reasoning behind allowing them for BLD was that Ron didn't realize that it gave an advantage while not turning the cube. The thought was that if the only advantage was seeing the interior piece parts while turning the cube, it wasn't an advantage for BLD. Clearly from Bob's picture, this is not the case, and they could potentially provide an advantage for BLD, so they should be disallowed for BLD.

Or we could allow them for all events; either way is okay with me. But we shouldn't make it different for BLD than for speedsolving.

 

[Stefan]

I see blue on the bottom of this puzzle.

I'm not sure you do. That's quite dark, could be a mix of shadow and table surface, possibly supported by the blue without it being visible directly. Hard to tell from this edited picture.

I'm pretty sure these are officially legal, though (notice especially the green on the right of the first pic):

 

[Cubenovice]

In reference to Bob's image: several stickers on my stickered Zanchi (as bought) are just protruding past the onset of the radii of the cubies.
These areas of the stickers are becoming unglued over time and I can actually see these stickers' edges before I can see the actual face they are on.

Does this make my cube illegal?
Does this mean we need regulations that mention that stickers may not go past the onset of the radii of the cubie they are on?
Does this mean we need regulations mentioning a specific height that the unglued edges of my stickers' edges may stick upward?
Perhaps we should rewrite the regulations for tiled cubes too?

With the current situation where the non-stickered cubes are already allowed / tolerated in BLD / FMC my vote goes to allowing them across all events.

 

[Pyjam]

Just to know, is this cube allowed in competition ?

Spoiler

I found this here.

 

[ben1996123]

Just to know, is this cube allowed in competition ?

Spoiler

I found this here.

no. it would be if it wasn't missing the green sticker

 

[Godmil]

Cubenovice, if you have stickers with bits sticking up then there already is a reg about that, something about notbeing able to destinguish stickers by touch, or something to that effect.

 

[Kirjava]

no. it would be if it wasn't missing the green sticker

actually, you could probably get away with it

 

[samchoochiu]

I don't understand why this is an issue. What's wrong with a black or white dayan cube?

 

[applemobile]

How would people feel if my cubes colour scheme was in varying shades of ultraviolet, that could only be distinguished by wearing my specialist prescription glasses?

 

[Bob]

I'm not sure you do. That's quite dark, could be a mix of shadow and table surface, possibly supported by the blue without it being visible directly. Hard to tell from this edited picture.

I'm pretty sure these are officially legal, though (notice especially the green on the right of the first pic):

Could you put my mind at ease and show me that the tiles are less than 1.5 mm thick? ...although the way the regulation is written, I'm not sure that is good enough. It gives two measurements--do we use the thicker or the thinner?

3f) Stickers/tiles/textures/paint must not be thicker than 1.5 mm, or the generally available thickness for non cube puzzles.

actually, you could probably get away with it

Not if the delegate is doing his job. That puzzle is a clear violation of 3j. I would not allow it.

3j) Puzzles must be clean and must not have any markings, elevated pieces, damages, or other differences that distinguish one piece from a similar piece.

How would people feel if my cubes colour scheme was in varying shades of ultraviolet, that could only be distinguished by wearing my specialist prescription glasses?

It would not be allowed.

3e) The colours of puzzles must be solid, the same per colour, and clearly distinct from other colours.

If they look the same to me with the naked eye, then they are not clearly distinct.

 

[Kirjava]

That puzzle is a clear violation of 3j.

Yeah, it's not like that rule gets violated at every competition I ever go to.

 

[Bob]

Yeah, it's not like that rule gets violated at every competition I ever go to.

It doesn't get violated at the ones I go to. Sounds to me like Daniel isn't doing his job.

 

[Kirjava]

Of course it does. Unless all the stickers on every cube at every comp you've been to are pristine, you can use chips, cuts or marks to distinguish one piece from another.

 

[Cubenovice]

Of course it does. Unless all the stickers on every cube at every comp you've been to are pristine, you can use chips, cuts or marks to distinguish one piece from another.

And that's actually how you identify your cube in a pile of cubes
Unless you have a personalised logo...