Behind Team USA (+FOB): The Team that Brought You Worlds 2013

[Dene]

On a smaller scale that would be doable, but on the scale of WCs, trying to get through enormous amounts of people in a short space of time, things can get mixed up and moved around by any number of people at any time.

What we did this weekend was the runners would come back and remove the cube and scorecard from the box. This way, scrambled cubes go in boxes, solved cubes stay out of boxes. This avoids the issue of cubes getting taken to the stations without having the scramble applied. Despite this, still on many occasions, when runners weren't doing their thing properly or were rushing too much, non-scrambled cubes were being left in boxes, and then taken up to the stations. This is the very thing the system was designed to avoid XD

 

[AvGalen]

5 - Runner takes scrambled cubes to judges
* solving solving solving*
6 - Once cube is solved, scorecard filled and signed, runner takes the cube inside the cover back to the scrambling table.
7 - Scrambler takes one cover, checks scorecard to see which scramble to apply next, does that and puts cube back into cover.
go back to step 5 until someone is done with the solves.
8 - Once someone is done, the cover returns to scrambling table with only the scorecard inside (obviously)
9 - The MC/announcer takes the empty cover, places a new scorecard inside and calls the next competitor
REPEAT UNTIL EVERyBODy IS DONE

1) So person A would do 5 solves before person B would do any solves although they are in the same group? That would make person B a very relaxed and warmed up cuber compared to person A and it would give person B a lot of information about "nice scrambles".
2) And while the runner is running and the scrambler is scrambling and then the runner is running again person A just waits while occupying a timer for no reason? That wouldn't be very good for bigger cubes or if the scrambler is busy

 

[shelley]

The process should be happening simultaneously with multiple timers and multiple people. While Person A's cube is being scrambled, Person B's scrambled cube can be brought to the timers. When Person A's cube is ready, it will be brought to the next available timer.

 

[Pedro]

Yeah, what Shelley said.

I forgot to make it clear that competitor solves, goes back to waitiing area, and another person solves.

We always try to do that, except for cases when we don't have enough space for people to wait between solves.


Quoting myself (maybe it got lost on the end of last page)

Another question to the US-WC-people:
How was the stage phisically set up? I mean, where was the scrambling table located for each colored stage, and where was the competitors waiting area?

And I know you guys had staff rounds earlier (thursday, I believe). But that's not always possible (actually most of the time it's not), so my question is:
What do you think is better: having 2 (or more) separate groups or having a group composed of 1 person and the other with the rest?
I'll explain...

First option -> suppose you have 100 people. You make 2 groups of 50, and each group has a diferent staff. So you go through the first group in whatever way you can (depending on the number of timers and space available). Then you change all the staff (because they'll need different scrambles) and do the 2nd group.

Second option -> you choose one person who's willing to have different scrambles from everybody else. Then you take another person and they scramble each other cube and do 5 solves. After that, they scramble and judge for 2 more people for the 5 solves. Then those 4 who are done scramble and judge for another 4. Then the 8 people done scramble and/or judge for X more (depending on the hardware and space). Once you have enough people, you make a complete staff and call all the remaining competitors.

We've done both ways, but since I'm dumb, I never remember to keep track of the exact time it took. Both ways have pros and cons, so I was looking for input from other organizers.

 

[flee135]

How was the stage phisically set up? I mean, where was the scrambling table located for each colored stage, and where was the competitors waiting area?

The stage was set up with three sections, as you know, and the scrambling tables were situated behind the stage in the middle of each section. The competitors waiting area was just off to the side of each scrambling table so that they didn't get in the way of the runners, and could still hear their names when called.

And I know you guys had staff rounds earlier (thursday, I believe). But that's not always possible (actually most of the time it's not), so my question is:
What do you think is better: having 2 (or more) separate groups or having a group composed of 1 person and the other with the rest?

The reason our competition runs so well is because we have a staff round the day before, and we can utilize every individual on the day of the competition. Without doing this, half of our staff would be sitting out part of the time, which is a huge waste of time when you need to run a competition efficiently. A system like this is only really necessary for competitions on the scale of Nationals or Worlds, where I would highly recommend getting the staff out of the way prior to the competition.

That being said, if I had to pick one of your two options for a smaller competition, I'd probably take just enough people to run the competition efficiently and put them in group 2. Prioritize getting other staff members through first, and slowly have them replace the working staff members so that you can maximize the efficiency (making sure that the first group of people get different scrambles). It resembles the second option the most, except using more than only one person in a separate group.

 

[shelley]

A small portion of the Worlds crowd that made their way to the San Francisco Bay Area got to experience a competition in Berkeley today. You guys should know that kind of chaos (well, minus the scrambling mishaps) is much more typical of our local competitions. We unfortunately can't plan out all our events for months in advance.

 

[Pedro]

Another thing I forgot to ask.

How was the 3x3 with feet handled? Was the main stage used? Did you move chairs and tables back, to put the timers on the floor and such?

 

[Tim Reynolds]

Another thing I forgot to ask.

How was the 3x3 with feet handled? Was the main stage used? Did you move chairs and tables back, to put the timers on the floor and such?

It was a side stage event. The side stage was already on the ground, rather than up on the stage, and we had enough room between the tables and the front row of chairs.

 

[Yes We Can!]

It was the best organised competition I have been to. My favourite part is the separation scrambler/runner/judge. It seems super efficient.
At European competitions, the judge has to go to the scrambling table and get a scrambled cube, then find the competitor, then find an open timer, then judge him, then bring back the solved cube to the scrambling table. And then the same all over.
Of course the (imho much better) system used at Worlds only works if you have enough people that are willing/experienced enough to be judges at a fix timing station. If I was in charge, I would try to set it up like this every time.

EDIT: I almost forgot--huge thank you to all the organisers and the staff. I have organised one competition before, it wasn't a big one and I was still tired to death afterwards. I can't imagine how much responsibilty and stress it must have been to you. All my respect!

 

[TMOY]

It was the best organised competition I have been to. My favourite part is the separation scrambler/runner/judge. It seems super efficient.
At European competitions, the judge has to go to the scrambling table and get a scrambled cube, then find the competitor, then find an open timer, then judge him, then bring back the solved cube to the scrambling table. And then the same all over.
Of course the (imho much better) system used at Worlds only works if you have enough people that are willing/experienced enough to be judges at a fix timing station. If I was in charge, I would try to set it up like this every time.

The runner system is not very new, in France we have already used it for French Nats 2012 and 2013 for example. And yes it's fine for relatively large comps, but it's not really needed every time, small comps (20-30 competitorss) IMHO work probably better without..

And the runners, more than the judges, need to be experienced people: when you're judging, you only have to sit and wait for the competitors to come to you, when you're running, you not only have to call people, but also to try to feed all judging tables with competitors equally (I've experienced the situation when you're the judge sitting the farthest from the scrambling table and no runner comes to you for a while because there's always a closer free table; not only is it a bit annoying, but when you finally happen to have someone to judge, his cube then sits forever on your table and you end up bringing it back fo the scramblers yourself...)