World Championships 2013 - Las Vegas

There's a basic problem here, the WCA is dominated by young people and youth simply doesn't understand how money works. It's not that the amount of money you need for prizes is a large amount, it's that you don't know anything about money and so are inept at obtaining it. For that knowledge you need to look to age.

It's a sad fact of human life that young people have faster reactions but less money than old people. In addition, old people have more responsibilities and most of them don't have the time needed for sufficient practice. The result is that the awards are dominated by young people.

If you want the old people to donate prize money for your contests you need to take it upon yourselves to arrange the contests in ways that are more attractive to old people. Then you should simply ask people to donate prize money. Old people have more money than they need. I've donated it before. The Cube Kingdom 2013 contest in Seattle had over $200 donated, most of it by slow cubers. There are two ways to do make the old folks happy:

(1) You need to keep records by age so that old people can compete against other old people. This was never actually done, but recently the "age vs speed" graphs at the WCA were taken down. If you didn't see the discussion on the "Odd WCA Stats/ Stats request" thread, it starts around here:
http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/s...s-request-Thread/page150&highlight=statistics

(2) You need to allow competitors to be able to obtain an average even though their first solve wasn't very fast. In particular, you need to adjust the cuts so that old people (and young people, and people in other special cases) can obtain WCA averages.

WCA contests should not be about "who is fastest". They should be about "how fast are you." The purpose should be more to support cubing in the general public and less to support cubing among a very small number of very fast solvers.

There have been some people here complaining that there aren't any cash prizes for the "with feet" contest. That's easy enough to fix. Let me show you how it's done:

I pledge $100 for 1st place for 3x3 with feet.

There now, was that so hard? Why didn't the people complaining about it donate the money themselves?
 
CarlBrannen said:
There's a basic problem here, the WCA is dominated by young people and youth simply doesn't understand how money works. It's not that the amount of money you need for prizes is a large amount, it's that you don't know anything about money and so are inept at obtaining it. For that knowledge you need to look to age.

It's a sad fact of human life that young people have faster reactions but less money than old people. In addition, old people have more responsibilities and most of them don't have the time needed for sufficient practice. The result is that the awards are dominated by young people.

If you want the old people to donate prize money for your contests you need to take it upon yourselves to arrange the contests in ways that are more attractive to old people. Then you should simply ask people to donate prize money. Old people have more money than they need. I've donated it before. The Cube Kingdom 2013 contest in Seattle had over $200 donated, most of it by slow cubers. There are two ways to do make the old folks happy:

(1) You need to keep records by age so that old people can compete against other old people. This was never actually done, but recently the "age vs speed" graphs at the WCA were taken down. If you didn't see the discussion on the "Odd WCA Stats/ Stats request" thread, it starts around here:
http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/s...s-request-Thread/page150&highlight=statistics

(2) You need to allow competitors to be able to obtain an average even though their first solve wasn't very fast. In particular, you need to adjust the cuts so that old people (and young people, and people in other special cases) can obtain WCA averages.

WCA contests should not be about "who is fastest". They should be about "how fast are you." The purpose should be more to support cubing in the general public and less to support cubing among a very small number of very fast solvers.

There have been some people here complaining that there aren't any cash prizes for the "with feet" contest. That's easy enough to fix. Let me show you how it's done:

I pledge $100 for 1st place for 3x3 with feet.

There now, was that so hard? Why didn't the people complaining about it donate the money themselves?
Click to expand...

Visionary, and he puts his money where his mouth is which is greatly appreciated. This was enlightening
 
Dene said:
That settles it, I'm practising feet again.

Up for a rematch, Mr. Hughey?
Click to expand...

Heh, I'm terrible at feet in competition for some reason. Probably largely because of the difference in surface, but I also seem to have more trouble seeing the cube in competition than at home for some reason.

Still, sure, I'm up for the rematch (although I think you'll probably kill me).

AvG's obligatory video:
Yes, the music is the funniest part.

A comment about my promise - I'll be happy to give the cash to the organizers if that's what they want to do; if they don't, if you come in second and you see me before you leave the awards ceremony, I'll give it to you myself. Must be present to receive the award - I won't mail it or otherwise deliver it after the competition. And I will not go to the bank myself and convert it to $2 bills (if the organizers want it converted to $2 bills, they have to do it themselves); the only way I will give it in $2 bills is in the unlikely event that I actually win a cash prize first so I can pay out from it.

Oh, and while we're at promises, I can't remember who I promised a cookie several years ago - I know there were at least a couple of people. If you're going to come to WC and I owe you a cookie (or two), please remind me so I can fulfill my obligation. :)

I'm really looking forward to WC.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
shelley said:
People who wish to donate to our event or pledge money for cash prizes can now do so at http://www.cubingusa.com/wc2013/index.php#donate

Please note that while we will do our best to honor cash prize pledges, the awarding of prizes will ultimately be at the organizers' discretion.
Click to expand...

Nice, but this warning makes me wonder if we shouldn't withhold our prizes to award them privately. I know there are some among the organizers (cough*Bob*cough) who would do anything they can to prevent feet from getting awards.
 
Henrik said:
Sure I will pledge 25$ for the 3rd place in feet!

So I guess the podium prizes are as follows:
1st: 100$ (Carl)
2nd: 50$ (Mike)
3rd: 25$ (Henrik)

I will give mine to the 3rd place right after the ceremony!
Click to expand...

That's really nice of you to give money to an event that you will obviously podium in! Thanks to Carl, Mike, and you!
 
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