2010 Oklahoma Open

I'm getting my practice on for my first tourney. Average is dropping, pll is nearing completion, and under the guidance of woner I will hopefully drop to a 22ish avg in two weeks.
 
Sorry I haven't been on for the last few weeks. The forums stopped sending me emails when people updated, lol.

So it seems a few points have been recurring in this thread, so I'll go ahead and address them:

1. In terms of cutoffs, what we usually do is aim for a certain number of people and then see where we can cut it off so that people don't get screwed over if they were like, .03 seconds behind the last person. Let's take 3x3x3 for example: for the secound round, we usually try to get it down to about 16 people. However, if places 15-18 are all within a second of each other, and then place 19 is 2 seconds behind place 18, then we'll make the cutoff 18. This is usually the way we handle it, and I think it's the most fair way at the moment.

2. In regards to square-1, we'll try it out if there's time. We have a tendency of running late because we have an enormous number of side events, plus everyone wants more rounds of the main events as well. In reality, there's just not enough time to do it all in one day unless the organization is absolutely perfect (which it isn't, because most of the time the judges get bored and just leave). Hopefully having volunteers from high schools will make this better, but in the event we don't get volunteers from high schools, the people judging absolutely do need to try to help us out. I believe somewhere in the rules there is something that says that if people are asked to help judge and they don't, they can be disqualified (and if there isn't.... well, there should be, because it's very frustrating for the people running the competition when people who are supposed to be judging just randomly go away).

3. In regards to 5x5x5... screw you guys. We're going to have it. I don't understand why so many people hate big cubes, but if we don't have them in our competitions, then less people will practice them, and thus everyone's times will stay slow. Eventually I would like it so that we could have 6x6x6 and 7x7x7 events too, but since we barely ever do 5x5x5 because everyone keeps *****ing about how long it takes, we never will get there. Yea, maybe we'll have to cut some time from another event, but if we don't do it, then we're depriving people who can only make it to Texas competitions the opportunity to do big cubes, which I'm not going to let happen (yes, i do actually get emails from people asking why we don't do 5x5x5 at every competition).

Bottom line is this; during competitions, we'll try to accommodate everyone as best as possible, but we have to think about the bigger picture as well. In my opinion, side events are just that; events that happen on the side. We will try to fit them in if we have time, but main events should have priority over side events and multiple rounds for other events.

anyway, sorry for being so harsh, just had been bugging me for some time. Hope you guys are practicing hard, see you at the competition!
 
Point 1: Yeah, what we've been doing seems to be the best way to handle it.

Point 2: David just really wants Square-1 because he hasn't had the opportunity to compete in it since August of last year and he has improved a lot since then.
As for what you mentioned about judging:
Article 1e2 in WCA Regulations said:
1e2) All competitors should be available for judging, if needed by organisation team. Penalty: disqualification of the competitor for the competition.

Point 3: Like I said earlier, I agree that it's about time we hold 5x5 again, but I do feel that we need decent cutoff times because even though we keep "bi***ing" about how long it takes, it's the truth, it does take us an extremely long time to hold.
 
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(which it isn't, because most of the time the judges get bored and just leave).

Haha you are clearly too nice of a person. I can make sure this doesn't happen.

Eventually I would like it so that we could have 6x6x6 and 7x7x7 events too, but since we barely ever do 5x5x5 because everyone keeps *****ing about how long it takes

I don't hate big cubes. Honestly, I'd rather just do 6x6 in the place of 5x5, but I figured that was unrealistic.
 
I agree, I would like to do 6x6 more than 5x5 (although this might have to do with me owning a rubiks 5x5 and a moded v-6) Even number cubes (2x2, 4x4, 6x6) are so much better then the odd ones (5x5, 7x7).

(We should have a 1x1 event :D)
 
Bottom line is this; during competitions, we'll try to accommodate everyone as best as possible, but we have to think about the bigger picture as well.

I think its funny that you talk about the big picture but insist on spending a huge amount of time on an event that only a small amount of people are seriously interested in.

In my opinion, side events are just that; events that happen on the side. We will try to fit them in if we have time, but main events should have priority over side events and multiple rounds for other events.

Frankly, the differentiation between "side events" and "main events" is complete ********, and I think you know it. Magic and Pyraminx are considered "side events" but more people are registered for those than for 5x5, OH, or BLD. I don't understand why people still cling to such an outdated and arbitrary system of categorization.

I don't understand why so many people hate big cubes, but if we don't have them in our competitions, then less people will practice them, and thus everyone's times will stay slow.

This is what combined finals are for. If you need a 7 minute cutoff, clearly people aren't practicing anyway. If someone wants an event, they need to understand that they can't be really slow at it. It's inefficient to hold an event and hope that people get faster. NASA doesn't hire highschoolers in the hopes that they go on to get degrees in astrophysics.
 
Do you remember the days when most people took upwards of 6-7 minutes to solve? Well, we held BLD anyway, and it took a long time. But now we have the majority of people solving it under 4-5 minutes per solve, and it doesn't take as long now. Plus, we have more people interested in it. There were like 3-4 people interested in BLD before; now we have about 8-10 people competing each competition (i'm just guesstimating). So yea, maybe there aren't a lot of people "seriously interested" in 5x5x5 right now. Well us cutting it (like we've been forced to in the past) isn't helping. The point I was trying to make was I would much rather cut a round of another event (say maybe OH) so we could have a 5x5x5 round than have 2 rounds of OH (just an example) and no 5x5x5 round.

The whole main event/side event thing, you're probably right to some extent. Pyraminx at the least should become a "main" event, since we do consistently seem to have a lot of people competing in that. However, other stuff like Magic, Square-1, MBLD, should be considered side events, because they are either gimmicky or there's only a handful of people who want to do it. I think the distinction should definitely be there though, mainly because in the event that we are running behind, it's a lot easier to tell people that we're cutting a side event rather than saying we're cutting a round from (or the entire) main event (which, most of the time, has been 5x5x5).

Maybe what we can start doing is moving some of the side events to the end of the competition, so that we won't run out of time for the main events. Or maybe make it that people have to give up another event if they want to do side events. I'm not sure what's the best way to deal with it yet, but I'll give it some thought before the competition. I'll change up the schedule a bit as well before the competition to reflect these changes.

In terms of the cutoffs being pretty big, yes, I agree with you. The ones I have up are pretty outdated, and I have gone ahead and shortened them to slightly more reasonable times.

Sorry if this post doesn't make sense, it's 5am here ><.
 
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