Competition Methodology

[blade740]

That may be good for small side events, but when you have more competitors than you have timers, you end up with each timer being idle more than 50% of the time while the judge is scrambling the next cube. The efficiency you get from not having to find the cuber doesn't overcome the fact that you can grind through twice as many cubers with a dedicated scrambler and a judge.

 

[qqwref]

Yeah, and when you have less competitors than timers, the competitors don't have to get up, so you can basically do Dan's idea in a less formalized way - once a competitor's done their cube is quickly brought to the scrambling table, then scrambled, then quickly brought back. It may take a few seconds longer but you don't have to change anything or move scramblers around, and you can still make do with one or two copies of each scramble.

 

[Doudou]

Hi all,

What you did Tyson, we also did it in Madrid Open (4-5 april 2008), i was WCA deleguate. You probably can read what I wrote in the report. ;-)

Running is tiring for the judge, but that's not all. He also has to call somebody that he can not know, and that's mentally tiring because most of the time nobody replies.

With these ideas, there are less people moving on the stage, and that's easier for competitor to know who can call them. That's also better for the audience, who can easier see the times and the results.

And that avoid judges to leave before the end of the round, which slow down the competition.



We also went very fast with this way to go. And could move best of x into average of 5, etc...

The only "problem" is that you need more judges than with the other way. You need 2-3 running men.

For big competitions, I think that's very good.

 

[Bob]

I tried this today in Virginia. This was very efficient. We were so far ahead of schedule that I changed 4x4 to a final instead of combined final, added a 3x3x3 one-handed final, and added a 2x2x2 final. We even had fewest moves running parallel with only 5x5x5 BLD for an entire hour (best hour of the day for organizers). Genius.

 

[Tyson]

Dan says I'm kind of a big deal.

 

[Jhong253]

I tried this thing at Indiana. The whole cube-runner thing didn't really work out because judges got confused about who was what, where they were supposed to be, etc. I think the main issue was that so many of the judges were used to the "old" way where the judge walked back and forth between scrambling table and their stations. But this idea did save a lot of time though.

I added a 2x2 final, made 4x4 from combined final to a final (although this turned out this way accidentally, it still worked out), and added megaminx.

This method, I think, requires a bit of space between timer stations and scrambling table. This decreases the possibility of people getting confused on who's the judge and who's the cube-runner.
In my competition, the tables were so close together that there really wasn't any need for cube runners anyway, but I ended up having some people cube run.

 

[blade740]

This method, I think, requires a bit of space between timer stations and scrambling table. This decreases the possibility of people getting confused on who's the judge and who's the cube-runner.

At Caltech fall, we had very little space between the scrambling and judging tables. Enough room for someone to sit on a chair in between to scramble, but that's it. You just have to make sure the judges know not to move and the runners know not to judge.

 

[AvGalen]

Sorry for not responding earlier, but I am catching up on older posts.

I have often wondered why some competitions are running so smoothly and others get very out of hand and even have to cancel some events. The answer is two-fold:
1) A smooth running competition has a good organisation.
2) A smooth running competition has many competitors helping with judging and scrambling (2 or 3 groups, if you are not competing you should be judging or scrambling)

Problematic competitions often start late, have (too) big delays between events and a lot of empty tables during an event (no judges or scrambled cubes)

As mentioned before in this thread we were completely overwhelmed at German Nationals. There weren't enough tables, there was chaos all around, a lot of slow competitors, not a lot of help with scrambling and judging and (because of the chaos) competitors often didn't show up when their names were called.
Yet dispite all of this, the experience of Ton (providing scrambles, getting help, processing results and simply scrambling/judging/solving continously at the table made everything work out just fine.

Having timers occupied as much as possible should be every organisers priority. So much time is lost waiting for a scrambled cube, waiting for a competitor to react after calling his name, walking to a table, preparing, inspection, finally the actual solve, writing down the result and walking back to the scrambling table.

Having a seperate competitors area, knowing most competitors and short walking distance help a lot, but most of all I would like to stress these points:
1e2) All competitors must be available for judging, if needed by organisation team. Penalty: disqualification of the competitor for the competition.
1f2) All competitors must be available for scrambling, if needed by organisation team. Penalty: disqualification of the competitor for the competition.

 

[Dene]

waiting for a competitor to react after calling his name

The solution for this is simple. At the start of the competition say:
"You must be ready when your name is called. You will receive a DNF if you do not come immediately when called."

When the time comes:
"John Smith, you have 5 seconds to report to the table, or you will receive a DNF for your solve. 1, 2, 3, 4..."

 

[Bob]

waiting for a competitor to react after calling his name

The solution for this is simple. At the start of the competition say:
"You must be ready when your name is called. You will receive a DNF if you do not come immediately when called."

When the time comes:
"John Smith, you have 5 seconds to report to the table, or you will receive a DNF for your solve. 1, 2, 3, 4..."

I'm pretty sure that isn't one of the allowed reasons given by the regulations:

2k) Disqualification of a competitor for a competition may be enforced by the WCA delegate for the following reasons:
2k1) competitor fails to show up in time for registration for the competition;
2k2) competitor is suspect of cheating or defrauding the officials during the competition;
2k3) competitor behaves in a way that is unlawful, violent or indecent, or intentionally damages venue facilities or anyone's personal property within the venue;
2k4) competitor interferes or becomes a blatant distraction to others during the competition;
2k5) competitor refuses to abide by any of the WCA regulations during the competition.

2k1 comes close, but explicitly says registration.

 

[Dene]

I didn't say disqualify, just DNF the solve.

 

[blade740]

We usually set them aside if they don't show up fairly quickly, and at the end ask for anyone who should have been called to compete but "didn't get called" (usually means either "didn't register" or "missed their name being called")

 

[qqwref]

The solution for this is simple. At the start of the competition say:
"You must be ready when your name is called. You will receive a DNF if you do not come immediately when called."

When the time comes:
"John Smith, you have 5 seconds to report to the table, or you will receive a DNF for your solve. 1, 2, 3, 4..."

This is exceedingly harsh. Especially at German Nationals (assuming I'm thinking of the right competition), the competition waiting area was very busy and pretty much standing-room-only, and it was also in the middle of a very busy festival. So if you were ready but perhaps at the other end of the crowd you might take longer than 5 seconds to get through to the table. Also, personally I also had to help out at the V-cube booth, so I'm sorry if I was late to some things, but it really was impossible for me to stand there all day.

I think a better solution would be to just ask every competitor who is in the middle of a round to sit in a waiting area behind the stage. This ensures that they will be in the area when called and makes it easy to see if someone is missing. Of course this requires a bit of extra space (although in any kind of auditorium this space would already be available), but if at all possible it is better to have a separate non-busy competitor's area near the tables.

 

[Dene]

The solution for this is simple. At the start of the competition say:
"You must be ready when your name is called. You will receive a DNF if you do not come immediately when called."

When the time comes:
"John Smith, you have 5 seconds to report to the table, or you will receive a DNF for your solve. 1, 2, 3, 4..."

This is exceedingly harsh. Especially at German Nationals (assuming I'm thinking of the right competition), the competition waiting area was very busy and pretty much standing-room-only, and it was also in the middle of a very busy festival. So if you were ready but perhaps at the other end of the crowd you might take longer than 5 seconds to get through to the table. Also, personally I also had to help out at the V-cube booth, so I'm sorry if I was late to some things, but it really was impossible for me to stand there all day.

I think a better solution would be to just ask every competitor who is in the middle of a round to sit in a waiting area behind the stage. This ensures that they will be in the area when called and makes it easy to see if someone is missing. Of course this requires a bit of extra space (although in any kind of auditorium this space would already be available), but if at all possible it is better to have a separate non-busy competitor's area near the tables.

Well of course you give them more than 5 seconds. The countdown is a last resort.

 

[AvGalen]

The solution for this is simple. At the start of the competition say:
"You must be ready when your name is called. You will receive a DNF if you do not come immediately when called."

When the time comes:
"John Smith, you have 5 seconds to report to the table, or you will receive a DNF for your solve. 1, 2, 3, 4..."

This is exceedingly harsh. Especially at German Nationals (assuming I'm thinking of the right competition), the competition waiting area was very busy and pretty much standing-room-only, and it was also in the middle of a very busy festival. So if you were ready but perhaps at the other end of the crowd you might take longer than 5 seconds to get through to the table. Also, personally I also had to help out at the V-cube booth, so I'm sorry if I was late to some things, but it really was impossible for me to stand there all day.

I think a better solution would be to just ask every competitor who is in the middle of a round to sit in a waiting area behind the stage. This ensures that they will be in the area when called and makes it easy to see if someone is missing. Of course this requires a bit of extra space (although in any kind of auditorium this space would already be available), but if at all possible it is better to have a separate non-busy competitor's area near the tables.

Well of course you give them more than 5 seconds. The countdown is a last resort.

There is something in the rules that says competitors have to be in a competitors area
There is something in the rules tha says competitors have to start within 1 minute once they are standing at their timer
But there is nothing concrete in the rules about having to move from the competitors area to the timer, let alone a time limit for that.

Sometimes names are pronounced so badly that it is impossible for a competitor to understand that a judge is calling you. Sometimes names are so illegible or hard to pronounce that is is impossible for a judge to call the correct competitor.

And if a competitor doesn't show up eventually, it shouldn't be a DNF but a DNS