nlCuber22
Member
Oh yeah and I proved myself or something like that.
I remain an embarrassment.
I remain an embarrassment.
I don't see how that is relevant to the thread.
I remain an embarrassment.
I don't see how that is relevant to the thread.
Was I not throughly embarrassing today?
I remain an embarrassment.
I remain an embarrassment.
Oh yeah and I proved myself or something like that.
I remain an embarrassment.
Did you get back already?
Oh yeah and I proved myself or something like that.
I remain an embarrassment.
He got a 13 on his first solve. (I highly doubt this was legitimate)
How could it not be legitimate if it was official? Confused...
People have told me how it could have been done, but I don't really want to post it here as people might be able to use this in a competition. (I doubt that it could be used much, unless the runner makes a mistake, or the competition was very busy, and people weren't paying attention to things - which could easily happen.)
I don't want to assume it was fake, but I doubt that someone who averages 50-60 seconds can get a 13 second solve.
I remain an embarrassment.
In all seriousness, I did have fun at the competition because of the people, but I think there are a lot of organization lessons to be learned from this competition. Among them are: Have score sheets printed beforehand; print scrambles (especially FMC sheets) with color ink so that the color scheme is not several shades of gray; have people you expect to judge in each round; run rounds in groups (heats) and use two sets of scrambles when necessary; go over the schedule beforehand so that very obvious things aren't missing; and many others.
Basically my point to those that might run another competition and to anyone else is that preparation is more than just securing a room and ordering pizza. I'm not trying to demean anybody, problems can only be rectified when they're addressed head on. I do this so that more people won't make the same mistakes. All competitions have flaws, our goal should be to reduce them.
Again, I will reiterate that I had a great time, as I always do, but I just could have done without the complete lack of order and not doing FMC just because I was afraid we would fall too far behind if we didn't have a number of people available to get through other puzzles concurrently. It's so much that I care about the event as much as it just shouldn't be necessary to do what I did, and I feel it was.
Yes you did lose time there. When rounds were supposed to be starting, the cards were being written--that meant also I had to stop doing data entry so that the spreadsheet could be used to write cards. The reason the round started in a timely manner was that people like Dave, Bob, Kian, Dan, and I just went ahead and started rounds anyway, making our own scorecards.1. The score sheets were printed ahead of time. Filling in everyone's names ahead of time could have helped, but we did not lose any time there.
This is the kind of thing that, regardless of whose job it is, it's your job to make sure it's done properly. You should have checked in advance that Bob was going to generate the right number of scrambles (there's no need for two groups if you have a judging staff, which many competitions do). You should have checked that they were going to be printed properly--I'm sure that, had you asked and told him you didn't have a color printer.3. The WCA delegate is supposed to provide the scrambles according the the new rules. It's not my fault that Bob did not get several groups of scrambles, print them in color ahead of time, or that we did not have color ink.
This is a good lesson for all organizers: non-cubers who have no reason to show up (basically, people who aren't family members or girlfriends/boyfriends) are, for the most part, horribly unreliable at showing up to judge. Hard to blame them--cubing competitions are pretty boring for non-cubers, especially judging.4. I tried to gather people to help with judging and scrambling, but many people that I asked said that they did not want to do the work. It was also a bit disappointing that a few friends that were supposed to show up and help did not show up. I was busy most of the time; there simply wasn't a lot of people who were willing to help. The other 2 organizers did not do as much work as I expected.
Yes you did lose time there. When rounds were supposed to be starting, the cards were being written--that meant also I had to stop doing data entry so that the spreadsheet could be used to write cards. The reason the round started in a timely manner was that people like Dave, Bob, Kian, Dan, and I just went ahead and started rounds anyway, making our own scorecards.1. The score sheets were printed ahead of time. Filling in everyone's names ahead of time could have helped, but we did not lose any time there.
This is the kind of thing that, regardless of whose job it is, it's your job to make sure it's done properly. You should have checked in advance that Bob was going to generate the right number of scrambles (there's no need for two groups if you have a judging staff, which many competitions do). You should have checked that they were going to be printed properly--I'm sure that, had you asked and told him you didn't have a color printer.3. The WCA delegate is supposed to provide the scrambles according the the new rules. It's not my fault that Bob did not get several groups of scrambles, print them in color ahead of time, or that we did not have color ink.
Basically, as the competition organizer, anything that goes wrong needs to be corrected by you, and everything that could likely go wrong and mess up the competition should be thought of in advance and made plans for. It doesn't matter whose fault something is--it ends up coming down to the organizer.
This is a good lesson for all organizers: non-cubers who have no reason to show up (basically, people who aren't family members or girlfriends/boyfriends) are, for the most part, horribly unreliable at showing up to judge. Hard to blame them--cubing competitions are pretty boring for non-cubers, especially judging.4. I tried to gather people to help with judging and scrambling, but many people that I asked said that they did not want to do the work. It was also a bit disappointing that a few friends that were supposed to show up and help did not show up. I was busy most of the time; there simply wasn't a lot of people who were willing to help. The other 2 organizers did not do as much work as I expected.
Basically what it comes down to is that the competition organizer needs to know exactly what's going on and what needs to be happening. Experienced competitors shouldn't be the ones deciding when a round should start--that's the organizer's job to figure out. When a round starts, the organizer should know who's available to judge/scramble, and should ask those people to do so.
I don't mean to call you out in particular--nearly every problem I saw was something that came up at competitions like DC, Brown, Fort Lee, Captain's Cove, Cumberland Valley, etc. But I'd just like to see competition organizers be, in general, more organized and more in control of what's going on.
This is why I've been sending out surveys after competitions. It gives people a chance to point out things that went both poorly and well. But if you do create a survey, you definitely have to be receptive to criticism, and not try to point-counterpoint everything in your head. If you can do that, then coming up with good solutions that address issues and suggestions people come up with is really the hard part.As mentioned by both Kian and Tim, the organization could definitely have used some work.
On my 21.xx solve the PLL took ~7.5 seconds :S
It's on video.
Yes you did lose time there. When rounds were supposed to be starting, the cards were being written--that meant also I had to stop doing data entry so that the spreadsheet could be used to write cards. The reason the round started in a timely manner was that people like Dave, Bob, Kian, Dan, and I just went ahead and started rounds anyway, making our own scorecards.1. The score sheets were printed ahead of time. Filling in everyone's names ahead of time could have helped, but we did not lose any time there.
This is the kind of thing that, regardless of whose job it is, it's your job to make sure it's done properly. You should have checked in advance that Bob was going to generate the right number of scrambles (there's no need for two groups if you have a judging staff, which many competitions do). You should have checked that they were going to be printed properly--I'm sure that, had you asked and told him you didn't have a color printer.3. The WCA delegate is supposed to provide the scrambles according the the new rules. It's not my fault that Bob did not get several groups of scrambles, print them in color ahead of time, or that we did not have color ink.
Basically, as the competition organizer, anything that goes wrong needs to be corrected by you, and everything that could likely go wrong and mess up the competition should be thought of in advance and made plans for. It doesn't matter whose fault something is--it ends up coming down to the organizer.
This is a good lesson for all organizers: non-cubers who have no reason to show up (basically, people who aren't family members or girlfriends/boyfriends) are, for the most part, horribly unreliable at showing up to judge. Hard to blame them--cubing competitions are pretty boring for non-cubers, especially judging.4. I tried to gather people to help with judging and scrambling, but many people that I asked said that they did not want to do the work. It was also a bit disappointing that a few friends that were supposed to show up and help did not show up. I was busy most of the time; there simply wasn't a lot of people who were willing to help. The other 2 organizers did not do as much work as I expected.
Basically what it comes down to is that the competition organizer needs to know exactly what's going on and what needs to be happening. Experienced competitors shouldn't be the ones deciding when a round should start--that's the organizer's job to figure out. When a round starts, the organizer should know who's available to judge/scramble, and should ask those people to do so.
I don't mean to call you out in particular--nearly every problem I saw was something that came up at competitions like DC, Brown, Fort Lee, Captain's Cove, Cumberland Valley, etc. But I'd just like to see competition organizers be, in general, more organized and more in control of what's going on.