I have been thinking about this recently. Currently. euros stands to be the biggest comp ever. It has 4 rounds of 3x3, 2x2, pyra, skewb, 3 rounds of everything else but 6, 7, feet and clock, and just one round of bigBLD and FMC. (I think that there is only one comp with over 1 round of bigBLD, YJ fest.)
It could have 1200 competitors and will run for over 4 days.
But can comps get any bigger?
There are a few limiting factors:
1. Venues. Larger comps, which inevitably have to take place in major cities to attract large amounts of people, both local and international, would require massive venues, which often simply dont exist in places such as NYC, London or Tokyo, and if the WCA were to indeed find one, the costs would be monumental.
2. Attracting people over many days: A 5 or even 6 day comp with many rounds would require lots of people to stay for 5 days, say Thurs-Sun. While this may not be that bad for people coming over from down the road, people from accross the planet would undoubtedly have to dedicate a week to this comp thanks to travel.
3. Infrastructure. I mentioned it in part earlier, but such a comp would require neighbouring hotels, the city to have great transport infrastructure and an airport, and things to do. In fact, the euros team has planned an extra fun day in the city!
So, why did I write this?
As cubing grows, the size of competitions increases. There were under 35 people at the first UK championship with every event, where all of the NR's were set. Now, those numbers are only "achieved" at FMC europe each year. Most competitions this year in the UK have over 120 competitors (I think). (Im using the UK as a basis since it is not so large as, say the US or China. However, I think that a good comparison would the the Northeast or west coast).
The size of the biggest comp almost doubled last year.
The limit will be somewhere?
But where?
Thanks for reading.
It could have 1200 competitors and will run for over 4 days.
But can comps get any bigger?
There are a few limiting factors:
1. Venues. Larger comps, which inevitably have to take place in major cities to attract large amounts of people, both local and international, would require massive venues, which often simply dont exist in places such as NYC, London or Tokyo, and if the WCA were to indeed find one, the costs would be monumental.
2. Attracting people over many days: A 5 or even 6 day comp with many rounds would require lots of people to stay for 5 days, say Thurs-Sun. While this may not be that bad for people coming over from down the road, people from accross the planet would undoubtedly have to dedicate a week to this comp thanks to travel.
3. Infrastructure. I mentioned it in part earlier, but such a comp would require neighbouring hotels, the city to have great transport infrastructure and an airport, and things to do. In fact, the euros team has planned an extra fun day in the city!
So, why did I write this?
As cubing grows, the size of competitions increases. There were under 35 people at the first UK championship with every event, where all of the NR's were set. Now, those numbers are only "achieved" at FMC europe each year. Most competitions this year in the UK have over 120 competitors (I think). (Im using the UK as a basis since it is not so large as, say the US or China. However, I think that a good comparison would the the Northeast or west coast).
The size of the biggest comp almost doubled last year.
The limit will be somewhere?
But where?
Thanks for reading.
