[WCA Regulations 2014] Specific Regulations That Every Competitor Must Know

[Sa967St]

https://github.com/cubing/wca-documents/issues/69

2t) Each competitor must be familiar with and understand the WCA Regulations before the competition.

This Regulation is often not followed, and is difficult to enforce on new competitors. My idea was to have a separate page with only the Regulations that competitors should be required to know, rather than expecting every competitor to understand everything about competitions.

I've went through the 2013 Regulations and marked the ones that competitors should know before competing, which you can view here:
https://github.com/cubing/wca-docum...-competitor-MUST-know/wca-regulations-2013.md
Two asterisks means "necessary for all competitors to know", and one asterisks means "necessary for competitors competing in the specified event(s) to know".

My questions for everyone:

1) Do you think there should be a separate document available with only Regulations specific to competitors? If yes, do you agree with the compilation in the link above?

2) As a competitor, would you find a separate document helpful? If yes, how would you like to see it organized?

 

[Randomno]

I'd like to have the rules more organised.

 

[cubizh]

I think this is a good idea and could help out both young and/or new competitors and general cubing audience (eg. parents) to know about what's going on and how to act.
I think something like a tri fold brochure, with the rules would be convenient to hand out and keep (or something like those multiwrapped chinese booklet manuals that come with certain cubes, although those require more printing power than what most people have available).
But a downloadble PDF that organizers can easily get and distribute with the most important information from a competitor's point of view is a nice addition with value in itself.

If I may add a suggestion, it would be interesting to reintroduce in this document the old (or create new) visual aids regarding puzzle alignment, alleviating the wealth of text and making it more compelling to read.

Good work, Sarah!

 

[Dene]

Personally, I don't think there is any point in this idea. Plain and simple, no one will read it anyway. Even if they do, it's so difficult to get your head around it without seeing it in practise. By far and away the best solution to "New Competitor Syndrome" (I just made that up, but I'm sticking with it ) is to have a demo at the start of the competition, and let every competitor practise with a timer and judge.

I'd like to have the rules more organised.

So... all of those useful headings aren't simple to follow, or something?

 

[Sa967St]

Personally, I don't think there is any point in this idea. Plain and simple, no one will read it anyway. Even if they do, it's so difficult to get your head around it without seeing it in practise. By far and away the best solution to "New Competitor Syndrome" (I just made that up, but I'm sticking with it ) is to have a demo at the start of the competition, and let every competitor practise with a timer and judge.

There are people who would benefit from having a condensed version of the Regulations for competitors. For new competitors who do decide to read the Regulations, it's less of a burden since they won't have to read all of it an figure out which ones are safe to ignore. For other competitors, it's a good overview to pick up on details they may have not noticed before. For competition organizers, it would be useful to have as a reference when new competitors ask what they have to know. I agree that the best way for new competitors to learn how to compete is through demonstrations, but that alone isn't a reason not to do this.

 

[AvGalen]

This sounds like a great idea that shouldn't be necessary. There are already a separate document for rules, another one for guidelines and now a "quick guide"?
I have asked if it would be useful for me to go through the entire regulations. If I receive a positive answer I will surely look at your "quick guide" as well.

Also: I admit that I don't know each and every single rule in the current regulations. That means that even someone with my experience still violates rule 2t) Each competitor must be familiar with and understand the WCA Regulations before the competition. Now what is my penalty?

 

[TheZenith27]

I think the regulations are fine as they are. However, inexperienced competitors would likely benefit from an additional shorter document in the same format. It should include as little as possible while still covering all the essentials. I would not find it useful though because I read the regulations all the way through when they are released anyway.

 

[Stefan]

I admit that I don't know each and every single rule in the current regulations. That means that even someone with my experience still violates rule 2t) Each competitor must be familiar with and understand the WCA Regulations before the competition. Now what is my penalty?

I don't think "know" and "familiar+understand" are equivalent, I think this regulation doesn't require you to "know" everything (perfectly). Why else would we have for example regulation 1c10?

"1c10) Making a copy of the WCA Regulations available at the competition."

I believe there is no penalty (I'd expect it to be mentioned right there in that regulation). Would also be hard to prove that you weren't familiar with and understood them before the competition, as you could have forgotten them in the meantime.

 

[Ranzha]

I believe there is no penalty (I'd expect it to be mentioned right there in that regulation).

You know, there's always the penalties that can be incurred through the course of the competition because of being unfamiliar with or not understanding the regulations.

 

[Stefan]

You know, there's always the penalties that can be incurred through the course of the competition because of being unfamiliar with or not understanding the regulations.

Hmm. Excellent point. I wish I had thought of that