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Did your puzzle get banned?

What's your situation?


  • Total voters
    111

Lucas Garron

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The 2014 Regulations cleaned up a lot of things about allowed puzzles, but were supposed to leave *most* people with a puzzle they still liked to use.

From the announcement:
Thick tiles or painted/printed colors are no longer allowed instead of (thin) tiles/stickers. Stickers/tiles must be indistinguishable by feel for BLD. Permissible logos have been clarified.

I'd like to be able to tell whether people just like complaining, or if we overlooked something significant.
Based on this, a proposal to update the 2014 Regulations could have backing.

Please check with Article 3 (especially 3j and 3l) before voting.
To find out if the *change* affected you, please see the relevant diff. I don't have time, but someone would be welcome to create a detailed summary.
 
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Finez

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Some people use WitTwo's with colourful core, and black caps. Also, the new MoYu LingPo has primary color core, but outside is black. And, Fangshi 2x2, has built-in tiles. Are those banned?

EDIT : Also, my 54.6 mm Fangshi got banned.
 
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Erik

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My beloved original megaminx which I used for over 8 years and 321 official solves should now be ruined, tortured and mutilated because of this non-sense.

Also my ShengShou 4x4 which many people find extremely nice (with mefferts tiles) should also be ruined, tortured and mutilated because of this non-sense.
 

Carrot

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YAY! I'm not impacted by the 2014 reg, TIME TO SHINE FOR MEGAMINX!!! :D (from a quick count I get that around 17 of top 30 needs to relearn megaminx, so... )
 

TimMc

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3d3) Stickers/tiles must not be thicker than 1mm.

My interpretation of this regulation is that it was created to set the maximum thickness of stickers/tiles so that additional information isn't unfairly provided to competitors. I.e. A competitor must not position stickers or tiles in such a way that it's possible to identify a the colour of a face that would otherwise be hidden on a standard puzzle with 0.3mm thick stickers.

Perhaps 3d3 could be rewritten so that it focuses on preventing the unfair advantage that one might have if he/she positioned a thick sticker or tile too close to the edge of a piece.

On the other hand, it might be very difficult to enforce a more comprehensive version of 3d3. If you look at a 3x3 front-on so that you can see the F and U faces equally then how close can the puzzle be held to your eyes before you should be allowed to see the L and R faces?

If you hold a 3x3 about 5cm away then you might see the L and R faces. 1mm or 1.5mm tiles would increase this distance and give competitors an advantage (i.e. fewer rotations required to clearly identify a piece).

Tim.
 

MaeLSTRoM

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I'd actually like a clarification on the overlay sticker situation.
First of all, the majority of custom stickers come as overlay stickers, that way they can be used on all puzzles. If these are totally not allowed under any circumstances, then I have no puzzles for BLD events anymore.
On my 4x4, the overlay sticker is the same size as the sticker underneath it, and the surfaces feel the same, so would that mean I can use my 4x4?
For my 3x3s and 5x5, the overlay sticker is slightly smaller than the underneath sticker, however it is very hard to feel the boundary of the sticker, and unless I try very hard to find the edge of it while blindfolded, I can't distinguish it at all. Also since the main surface of the overlay is the same as the underneath sticker, there is no quick way to tell if it is the certain centre I was looking for.

So depending on how strict the ruling is, I either can't compete in BLD with my current puzzles, I can do 4BLD only, or I can compete in all BLD events, however I think the regulations are worded in a way that doesn't reflect the actual cases that can occur with these sticker types.
 

Dene

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Until you peel the logo off, right?

Oh no no no no, you ask much too much of us, to peel off our overlay logos to make our cubes competition legal. The enormity of the effort required to do this is just too much for us to bother continuing with life. I say we all quit in protest until we can use our cubes with overlay logos again (even though the real reason is because we're too lazy to just do it).
 

Goosly

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I say we all quit in protest until we can use our cubes with overlay logos again (even though the real reason is because we're too lazy to just do it).

That's not the reason. I posted this in another thread:

I just removed the logo of my Weilong that I've had for one month now. I can still - blindfolded - find the orientation I want, only by feeling the stickers (that are still brand new!), after tossing the cube in the air to get a random orientation. Identifying parity would even be easier. I don't understand how banning logos will prevent competitors from cheating.

(Just to clarify, I never have cheated nor intend to cheat in this way, I'm just saying it is possible and banning logos will not prevent it from being possible.)
 

Goosly

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Can you please elaborate?

I think you mean that you can tell by the wear on the stickers. If so then the stickers are not competition legal anyway.

As I stated, I've had the cube for a month now and the stickers are in perfect condition. The white center sticker is about 0.5 mm off the center of the piece. I didn't apply the stickers, the cube arrived in this state.
I think it does not violate any rule under article 3.

HPIM3740.JPG
 

stoic

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Megaminx aside, I don't see anything too surprising here. Obviously logos can assist during BLD so removing them for BLD events make sense. I don't think the regs have made any distinction for hardware between BLD and sighted solving before, and it's a sensible development.
I'm much more surprised that logos on corner pieces (2x2x2) are still allowed, I've assumed since they first came out they would be banned...
Tiles on mega is a much more nuanced argument, because of their (historical?) popularity. I guess if they just came out now they would be banned, no arguments. Maybe a statement of intent for the 2015 regs and a longer phasing-out period might have suited better to allow people to adjust?
 

Erik

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Can you please elaborate?

I think you mean that you can tell by the wear on the stickers. If so then the stickers are not competition legal anyway.

After doing 10 solves on a brand new cube, there will be some wear on the stickers. Following your logic you would have to ban 99/100 cubes people want to use for BLD. You can not get a perfectly smooth cube (except for the multicoloured stickerless cubes which are ironically banned). There are minor flaws on every cube which a solver theoretically could use to cheat (example: an edge piece that is not perfectly molded so there is a slightly bigger gap, dents from accidentally dropping the cube on the ground, bubbles in the stickersurface due to goo-residue underneath etc etc)
 
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