Yes, with one competitor it is not a competition but a time trial.
I know this isn't the place to talk about this, but I will give my opinion on here for now. I totally disagree. By completing an event, you are competing, whether no one else competed in
that competition or not. For example, I've seen several competitions where the first place finisher in the 3x3 is several seconds ahead of second (like 14 sec vs 20 sec avg). Do you think that person that got the 14 sec avg was planning on winning? He/she was most likely competing against the rest of the world in the WCA rankings, and didn't really care who took second, where he placed, etc. Whenever I go to a competition, I always have the mindset that I am competing against the rest of the world, not really just whomever is in the room at the competition. Take Dan (Dzoan) for example. He knew coming to the competition that he would most likely win nearly all the events (which he did). Do you think he cared about that? I bet he was more focused on improving all his world rankings, which he did. So when I see Dan's result in the MM, I see that at as competition against the other 174+ competitors worldwide who have competed in MM.
Another thing about this rule is that if you want to compete against the WCA rankings, you have to have someone willing to compete with you at that competition. If I'm in the only 5x5 BLD solver in Colorado or the surrounding states, I cannot possibly compete in 5x5 BLD until I find someone else who wants to try. I find that quite ridiculous.
