3x3 Multiblind Old Style

[NmeCuber]

So I was looking at Derrick Eide's WCA profile and I came across this event with a weird symbol. Anyone know what this event is?

 

[VincentCuber]

I've seen it but don't know what old style means

 

[Mastermind2368]

If I remember right, Multi-Blind Old Style didn't have an hour time limit. Instead, the time limit was 10 minutes per cube, so you could be doing 60 cubes and have 10 hours for the attempt. Scoring was also based on the ratio of cubes rather than the point system, so there were cases where a 2/2 would beat a 12/13.

 

[Thom S.]

Old Style Multiblind got cancelled in 2006/2007 I believe.
Most has been said already.
From how I remember it, you were able to continue solving until either
You have a single DNF
You stop
The Venue tells you to stop
Stopping yourself early could lead to you winning against someone with 5 solved cubes more than you but 1 DNF

 

[Mike Hughey]

Actually old style multiBLD had 2 forms: very early on you were required to get them all right, but later it worked like today with points, and you didn't need to get them all right to avoid DNF. The 100% accuracy thing went away first, then the hour requirement went in a little later.

I competed officially in the later version of old-style, but never the earlier version. I don't remember the rule Thom described allowing stopping early to get full credit for all cubes solved so far, but it might have been that way. Since I never competed under those rules, I don't really know the details of the earlier version very well.

It finally got changed to the current version when people started doing huge attempts with 60 cubes, which at 10 minutes per cube meant 10 hour attempts. That became ridiculous, so the one hour limit was suggested to make it more sane.

The one time I did it officially, my total time was 2 hours and 14 minutes. Yeah, it was pretty exhausting. Rowe Hessler did a 5 and a half hour attempt in the same competition I did the event in. I remember we all went to dinner and came back, and he had just started the solving phase.

 

[ProStar]

Actually old style multiBLD had 2 forms: very early on you were required to get them all right, but later it worked like today with points, and you didn't need to get them all right to avoid DNF. The 100% accuracy thing went away first, then the hour requirement went in a little later.

I competed officially in the later version of old-style, but never the earlier version. I don't remember the rule Thom described allowing stopping early to get full credit for all cubes solved so far, but it might have been that way. Since I never competed under those rules, I don't really know the details of the earlier version very well.

It finally got changed to the current version when people started doing huge attempts with 60 cubes, which at 10 minutes per cube meant 10 hour attempts. That became ridiculous, so the one hour limit was suggested to make it more sane.

The one time I did it officially, my total time was 2 hours and 14 minutes. Yeah, it was pretty exhausting. Rowe Hessler did a 5 and a half hour attempt in the same competition I did the event in. I remember we all went to dinner and came back, and he had just started the solving phase.

It’d be insane to see like a 24 hour competition with Old Style MBLD; Graham has done 200+ cube attempts at home and iirc did quite well

 

[UncleFrank]

Graham has done 200+ cube attempts at home and iirc did quite well

Yep. 238/250 in 7 hours 52 minutes.
He said he wanted to eventually try 300.

 

[Thom S.]

I don't remember the rule Thom described allowing stopping early to get full credit for all cubes solved so far, but it might have been that way.

I mean, this rule might not have existed (or officially existed) but I do genuinly think to have seen this in old forum posts.

 

[Mike Hughey]

I'm pretty sure the last time I went looking for the old rules, they weren't available on the official website going all the way back. But I just now checked again, and they are available, which is nice. So I decided to collect this information here, in case it is ever useful to anyone else.

I don't see any mention of multiBLD until the 2007 rules. In 2007, the rules looked like this (the first version that I remembered):

2007 rules
9f16) For the 3x3x3 Cube: Multiple Blindfolded event the order in the results is based on:
Highest in the ranking are the competitors who solved all puzzles, among these competitors a larger number means better. For equal results the lower total time means better.
Next in the ranking are the competitors who solved at least one of the puzzles, among these competitors a larger number of solved puzzles means better, and after this a lower number of attempted puzzles means better. For equal results the lower total time means better.
Next in the ranking are the competitors who did not solve at least one puzzle, these competitors all finish at the worst position.
H1) Standard procedure is followed as described in Article B (Blindfolded Solving).
Additional/special regulations for Multiple Blindfolded Solving are described below.

H1a) Competitor must tell during registration how many puzzles he wants to solve blindfolded.
H1b) Total time allowed for memorising and solving is the sum of: 15 minutes per cube for each cube up to 6 cubes, 10 minutes per cube for each cube more than 6 cubes.
H1c) Time is measured with a stopwatch.

In 2008, which are the rules I first competed under, the rules looked like this:

2008 rules
9f16) For the Rubik's Cube: Multiple Blindfolded event the order in the results is based on number of puzzles solved minus the number of puzzles not solved (higher is better). If the result is lower than 0, the solve is disqualified.
If competitors have the same result, then the order is based on total time (lower is better).
H1) Standard procedure is followed as described in Article B (Blindfolded Solving).
Additional/special regulations for Multiple Blindfolded Solving are described below.

H1a) Competitor must tell before the start of the event how many puzzles (>1) he wants to solve blindfolded for each attempt.
H1a1) A competitor must not change the number of puzzles after the start of the event.
H1a2) The selected number of puzzles per competitor must be kept secret until the start of the event.
H1b) Total time allowed for memorising and solving is 10 minutes per cube, measured with a stopwatch.
H1b1) When the total time is reached, the attempt is stopped and the number of solved and not solved puzzles is counted.

Then in 2009, the rules changed to basically match what they are today:

2009 rules
9f16) For the Rubik's Cube: Multiple Blindfolded event the order in the results is based on number of puzzles solved minus the number of puzzles not solved (higher is better). If the result is lower than 0, the solve is disqualified.
If competitors have the same result, then the order is based on total time (lower is better).
H1) Standard procedure is followed as described in Article B (Blindfolded Solving).
Additional/special regulations for Multiple Blindfolded Solving are described below.

H1a) Competitor must tell before the start of the event how many puzzles (>1) he wants to solve blindfolded for each attempt.
H1a1) A competitor must not change the number of puzzles after the start of the event.
H1a2) The selected number of puzzles per competitor must be kept secret until the start of the event.
H1b) Total time allowed for memorising and solving is 10 minutes per cube, measured with a stopwatch.
H1b1) When the total time is reached, the attempt is stopped and the number of solved and not solved puzzles is counted.
H1c) Maximum total time for all cubes is 60 minutes.

The 2008 rules went into effect on April 9, 2008. You can see a good example of a competition under the first set of rules in the Belgian Open 2008, which took place in February, and so was still under the 2007 rules:

Belgian Open 2008 | World Cube Association

The World Cube Association governs competitions for mechanical puzzles that are operated by twisting groups of pieces, commonly known as 'twisty puzzles'. The most famous of these puzzles is the Rubik's Cube, invented by professor Rubik from Hungary. A selection of these puzzles are chosen as...

www.worldcubeassociation.org

You can see that Dennis Strehlau won with 10/10, which would fit the later points rules, but Milán Baticz and Edouard Chambon came second and third, both with 2/2. Tim Habermaas came in fourth with 12/16! So the perfect 2/2 result was considered winning over the 12/16.
From these rules, it appears that, even in the earliest rules, a perfect score wasn't required for the result to count (to avoid a DNF) - it was simply true that a perfect score was considered winning over one which was not perfect. But, like Thom, I do remember some discussions here that make me wonder if perhaps very early on there might have been rules that weren't properly codified that were slightly different from those 2007 official rules. In particular, the idea that Thom mentioned of stopping solving in the middle to keep a perfect result might be indirectly referenced in the 2008 rules by H1a2, which is an interesting addition that might have been made to prevent it. If anyone has any better history, I'd love to know it!

 

[abunickabhi]

Yep. 238/250 in 7 hours 52 minutes.
He said he wanted to eventually try 300.

It has been 10 months since the 250 cube attempt, we should see something soon.

I have 180 cubes and 80 rooms. I do not have a well defined review system. I want to do more old styled MBLD attempts.