Possibility of 8x8 becoming an official event?

[Derek]

I asked myself the question would 8x8 ever become an official event?
Personally I would love if they added 8x8 as an official event.

The main problem most people would have is the time issue. I worked
out a reasonable solution. When MBLD or FMC is happening only a small
portion of competitors compete in these events which leaves a free hour
for a lot of people. Why not take advantage of that free hour to do 8x8.

 

[Ollie]

Why not take advantage of that free hour to do 8x8.

This isn't so straight forward. Taken from the experience of UK comps, you need to take into account scrambling time for 2/3 solves per competitor and the time it takes for competitors to find someone to judge them.

Most importantly, there would be no time for lunch

 

[SirWaffle]

If 8x8 were to become an official event the only way that would be good to run it in my opinion is to have a limit as to how many people can sign up for it, have really strict cutoffs and force people not doing multi/fmc/8x8 to judge and scramble. But even then it would be a very a tight schedule considering how slow most people are at 8x8. As much as I'd like it to be an official event the cubing world is just not ready yet. But whatever just my opinion.

 

[DrKorbin]

I asked myself the question would Teraminx bld ever become an official event?
Personally I would love if they added Teraminx bld as an official event.

The main problem most people would have is the time issue. I worked out a reasonable solution. When 8x8 is happening only a small portion of competitors compete in these events which leaves a free hour for a lot of people. Why not take advantage of that free hour to do Teraminx bld.

 

[Derek]

yeah the main problem is the time and getting judges along with scrambling etc.
maybe they can have an area set up to the side throughout the competition and
you do your solves when you have free time. The judge could also be a volunteer that
has free time. As far as scrambling goes the scramblers could scramble it in between
their normal scrambling and set your cube to the side for when you are ready.
It seems like a lot of work though unless you just dedicate a large portion of the competition
to it but I think most people would rather use the time for a lot more smaller events like
clock and square-1

 

[Renslay]

I asked myself the question would Teraminx bld ever become an official event?
Personally I would love if they added Teraminx bld as an official event.

The main problem most people would have is the time issue. I worked out a reasonable solution. When 8x8 is happening only a small portion of competitors compete in these events which leaves a free hour for a lot of people. Why not take advantage of that free hour to do Teraminx bld.

I see what you did there.

 

[Dapianokid]

^ as sarcastic and snotty and just plain mean that comment was, his point is accurate, and pretty much sums up the invalidity of 8x8 as an event at this time.
Seriously, the world record holders of the day in 8x8 take about as long as your average 3x3 blindfolded. That's just too long, and the bigger the cube, the longer it takes to scramble and validate the scrambles. The world isn't ready yet, as he said. First off, more companies need to make 8x8s, and second, people need to get generaly better at bigcubing. SirWaffle, you don't count.

 

[Kirjava]

7x7x7 is bad enough

 

[Kian]

I cannot imagine 8x8x8 ever becoming an event. There is no way it would have popular support from the existing delegates or board.

Also, you note that a number of competitors don't participate in MultiBLD or FMC, but you aren't acknowledging the resources that are required for MultiBLD. We need a judge per competitor. It is one of the most difficult events to run, even when it is not done so concurrent to other events.

There is rarely any "free time" at a competition. You might feel you have free time, but the people running the competition probably don't.

Regardless, it's not going to happen, so I wouldn't get your hopes up.

 

[kinch2002]

When MBLD or FMC is happening only a small
portion of competitors compete in these events which leaves a free hour
for a lot of people

Sorry, but that's not true. Last time we had those events, 21 people did FM, 16 did multi. Given that some people attend the first round of 3x3 only, there were only around 35 competitors left at the venue during these events, minus a few at lunch. Running FM and multi at the same time isn't even possible/fair because of the amount of overlap of competitors, and that doesn't account for the judges that are needed. Running 8x8 at the same time as those 2. Just lol. I don't even need to touch on whether 8x8 should be official to start with.

 

[nibble4bits]

Why to add another big cube event to the list when you could think of puzzles like Skewb, cuboids, Helicopter Cube, Fisher's Cube, Pyramorphix, Rubik's Snake, Snake Cubes, Void cube... etc.

 

[Bunyanderman]

It is very much like supply and demand, i think cubers as a whole would be much faster/efficient at 8x8 if it was an official event because they would practice more. I don't practice 8x8 much due to it not being an official event.

 

[PeelingStickers]

What does 8x8 add to the current list of events? Anyone that can solve a 7x7 can solve and 8x8. In fact anyone that can solve a 4x4 could realistically solve any cube of higher order. Adding 8x8 accomplishes nothing but wastes time. This argument is similiar to the one that asks for events to be removed. Good reasons for an even to be added/kept are that the event is fun/can be speed solved, shows off interesting puzzles that can be speedsolved and enjoyed, adds a new spin to an existing puzzle yet still retain the original concept of the puzzle and is not too long and boring to hold up a competition (events such as Big/MultiBLD do not count here as they are normally ran alongside the main competition - and besides they are very impressive when executed correctly).

8x8 does little of this except perhaps being a little bit more fun, (wow I can solve such a large cube! -.-) and add a little bit more to already existing puzzles. Because of this, and already mentioned reasons above, I doubt that any new events (except for maybe skewb) will be added soon.

 

[elrog]

The main problem is not the time, although that does play a factor. It is the fact that you solve an 8x8 the same exact way as the 6x6 and there's nothing new/interesting about it. This would also lead people to try and get the 9x9 as an official event which also does not need to happen.

 

[KongShou]

The main problem is not the time, although that does play a factor. It is the fact that you solve an 8x8 the same exact way as the 6x6 and there's nothing new/interesting about it. This would also lead people to try and get the 9x9 as an official event which also does not need to happen.

So lets cancel 5x5-7x7. Cos u solve them the same way as a 4x4.

 

[uberCuber]

When MBLD or FMC is happening only a small
portion of competitors compete in these events which leaves a free hour
for a lot of people. Why not take advantage of that free hour to do 8x8.

Or (assuming your comment about their being plenty of free time were actually true) why not take advantage of that free time to do more events that are already events?

 

[Derek]

Thanks for all the opinions guys. I mainly wanted to see if 8x8 would be in the future so I could practice for it but from what I have seen so far it is very unlikely. Personally I think a few smaller puzzles would be a better add such as skewb or helicopter cube.

 

[tx789]

If 8x8 is every added it won't be for a long long time.

 

[qqwref]

I mainly wanted to see if 8x8 would be in the future so I could practice for it

And what's stopping you from practicing for it anyway? A lot of people find unofficial events fun and interesting. The experience of solving bigger cubes can help you improve on smaller ones, too.

 

[Dapianokid]

And what's stopping you from practicing for it anyway? A lot of people find unofficial events fun and interesting. The experience of solving bigger cubes can help you improve on smaller ones, too.

THIS MAN says what I've been waiting for. +1, new best bro.
I averaged 17 on 3x3 a few weeks back. I got an SS 4x5-5x5 and exclusively solved both until sub-5 at 5x and sub2 at 4x and suddenly when I came back to 3x I was sub-15. MAJIKZ, U ASK?!1!!!1!11!!! No, just experience with cubing and learning better lookahead with bigger cubes.
Take the Skewb, for example. Or 7bld. Both of the unofficial events are practiced outside competition and even at comps with similar popularity to all other events (and more so than magics and clock) all around the world. Practically, they are just as valid as the other events. However, Skewb is much more likely to becme an official event than 7bld anytime soon. Why is that? Because 7bld is not substantially more impressive than 5bld, or even 4bld. For that matter, any cuber who has tried/does perform bigbld understands that it's not only minimally more difficult, but knows that it's not any more impressive to cuberes than a 3x3 is once you've learned how to solve it. Such events get old. Now, when I see pyraminx solvers? I get excited! Why? Because I don't understand that and it's as mindblowing to me as 3x3 was back before I started.

Conclusion? New, interesting, original events are more tempting for the WCA board than just another cube with a few extra pieces with the exact same solving mechanics as the smaller sizes. This is what we cubers see: 3x3? X pieces. 4x4? Y pieces. 5x5? Z pieces! 6x6? Hmm. I'd say that doesn't look like a significant higher number than Z so we'll label that as Z. Same goes for 7x-10x and beyond.

Basically, don't stop doing unofficial events, but don't get your hopes up on events that are clearly just boring to the cubing world as official. The reason we don't exclusively do 3x3 in comp is because it gets boring after a while. I want Skewb!