As chess is a not-so-uncommon secondary hobby of cubers, I am sure that this idea has been thought up before, but a brief search on the site shows no evidence of that so I believe that this topic is worthy of a thread.
This idea came to me because I am a chess player first and foremost. In chess, once you reach a certain threshold of skill, certain titles such as Grandmaster and International Master are awarded to commemorate your effort and are generally held for the remainder of your life.
I will not go into the detail about how these titles are obtained in chess, but the basic idea is once you reach a certain rating* and, in the cases of the more prestigious titles, norms*, you are awarded them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_rating_system *
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_%28chess%29 *
(note: some of the information is inaccurate such as number of norms required but the idea is there.)
These titles are great because they provide a strong incentive for players to improve and gives them a permanent (and cool-sounding!) commemoration of their achievement when they do. With this in mind, it has to be wondered: how could this possibly be a bad thing in cubing?
Besides the obvious ones like World Champion or World Record holder in whatever, cubing has nothing like this at all besides perhaps "being sub-x". Why not attach some sort of title to this to recognise the elite cubers and give those who aren't in the elite something to work towards?
As the rating system and norms seems somewhat uncomfortable to work with for cubing, something else should be devised. Perhaps for the lesser titles, it could be required of a cuber to achieve a certain level of excellence in just one field, for instance x amount of official sub-y averages in 3x3. For the higher titles, they might be required to branch out and excel in other events of their choice, such as OH or Pyraminx.
I am very curious to see how you all react to this and improve on it. I believe that, with some work, it could be a great thing to implement.
Thanks!
This idea came to me because I am a chess player first and foremost. In chess, once you reach a certain threshold of skill, certain titles such as Grandmaster and International Master are awarded to commemorate your effort and are generally held for the remainder of your life.
I will not go into the detail about how these titles are obtained in chess, but the basic idea is once you reach a certain rating* and, in the cases of the more prestigious titles, norms*, you are awarded them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_rating_system *
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_%28chess%29 *
(note: some of the information is inaccurate such as number of norms required but the idea is there.)
These titles are great because they provide a strong incentive for players to improve and gives them a permanent (and cool-sounding!) commemoration of their achievement when they do. With this in mind, it has to be wondered: how could this possibly be a bad thing in cubing?
Besides the obvious ones like World Champion or World Record holder in whatever, cubing has nothing like this at all besides perhaps "being sub-x". Why not attach some sort of title to this to recognise the elite cubers and give those who aren't in the elite something to work towards?
As the rating system and norms seems somewhat uncomfortable to work with for cubing, something else should be devised. Perhaps for the lesser titles, it could be required of a cuber to achieve a certain level of excellence in just one field, for instance x amount of official sub-y averages in 3x3. For the higher titles, they might be required to branch out and excel in other events of their choice, such as OH or Pyraminx.
I am very curious to see how you all react to this and improve on it. I believe that, with some work, it could be a great thing to implement.
Thanks!
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