New Event ideas (Poll)

[lachose]

Honestly, just by looking at the options of the pool I'd say that Skewb, Heli Cube, 6x6 BLD and 7x7 BLD are the only "decent" choices.
360 : WCA just removed magic and the concept is pretty similar (you always have to do the same thing and no scramble is needed)
Relays and OHs : Just pointless and only time consuming. Your explanation is enough for relays and regarding OH, I think it had sense for 3x3 because it is THE event and it doesn't take that much time. But for 4x4 for example, it's just something longer and brings nothing new. By the way, I'm not sure 3x3 OH would be added now if it hasn't been in the past but that's just my opinion. (I'd like to precise that I like 3x3 OH but I just don't think it should be extended to other puzzles)
2x2 BLD : Just 2x2 with counting inspection for the fastest. Pointless again IMO.

So, the remaining events are :
Skewb : seems popular and easy to solve. We already have scramblers for it IIRC. (I hate it but that's not the point and I'm trying to be objective^^)
6&7bld : it could be interesting but does it add something new since we already have 4&5bld ? By the way 4&5 bld are already long and not held often so I don't realy see why we shoud add them (and if you want to memorize lots of stuff you already have multi)
Heli Cube : No idea what this is exactly but seems to be something new. Not very popular though I think...

I still think team bld is a great candidate but everyone doesn't seem to agree.

 

[Meep]

Now that this has been around for a while, it's interesting to look at the results.
It's a pretty popular puzzle, it's a little harder than a 2x2x2, so it's not totally trivial, and I think there's a pretty good case for it. Considering past discussions with Ron, it seems logical that if we ever add another official event, it should be skewb.

Actually, it's arguably easier than 2x2. It's probably the low-tps making the solve-times slower than they should (Have gotten 2-3 second averages on Skewb sims). Possibly relevant plot below:

 

[Schmidt]

/\ I'm not good with charts, but is it saying that a Sq1 always can be solved with 7-13 moves??

 

[Meep]

/\ I'm not good with charts, but is it saying that a Sq1 always can be solved with 7-13 moves??

At most 13 slices, yeah.

 

[Mnts]

Guys what do you think about event of solving a rubiks cube into a random state. I mean into scrambled cube from solved. Inspection should be similar to BLD when you start inspecting scrambled cube your time starts to go and you have to make 2nd cube same as first one.

 

[Mike Hughey]

Actually, it's arguably easier than 2x2. It's probably the low-tps making the solve-times slower than they should (Have gotten 2-3 second averages on Skewb sims).

Now that you mention it, I guess that makes sense. But skewb will probably always be (slightly) slower than 2x2x2, simply because it's harder to hold in a manner that allows good TPS. Certainly it's very similar to 2x2x2.

I still think team bld is a great candidate but everyone doesn't seem to agree.

I think a lot of people agree with you; I think it would have been much better in the poll than something like 5x5x5 OH. Events not in the poll that we had at US Nationals:

3x3x3 3-cube relay: Lots of people did it, but then that's partially because it's easy to do, and probably partially because a lot of people wanted to see if they could beat a minute. I always feel guilty calling anything cubing-related "pointless" (isn't it all kind of pointless, actually?), but I'm really tempted to call this one pointless. The only skill it adds is inspecting multiple cubes at once.

3x3x3 match the scramble (Mnts, it looks like this is what you were suggesting, except that we allowed 15 seconds inspection time - if you're going to allow inspection time for regular speedsolving, there's no reason not to allow it here): More people tried this than I would have expected. It did seem to go over fairly well, but I still think it would be a pain to deal with in a competition, because you'd have to get the competitor to re-solve their two cubes between each solve.

3x3x3 team solve: Quite popular. It seems like a sensible possibility. The biggest problems with it are probably judging issues (can be hard to make sure competitors follow the rules - might be as tough as judging Magic) and database representation issues (which are potentially challenging, but certainly can be solved).

3x3x3 team BLD: Again quite popular. I think this is a little easier to judge, but it also has some limited judging issues. Database representation issues are the same as with 3x3x3 team solve.

 

[samchoochiu]

what has been preventing skewb from being an official event for the past couple of years?

 

[ThomasJE]

...Skewb clearly wins...

15 people isn't clearly to me...

Anyway, the only options I see is Skewb and relays. For relays, only really 2-4 and 2-5 should be considered. A 2-4 takes as long as a 5x5, and 2-5 the same as a 6x6 (for a single solve anyway, and obviously approximations). Mean of 3 should be suffice. As for Skewb, obviously average of 5.

 

[Michael Womack]

3x3x2,3x3x4,3x3x5,3x3x6,3x3x7,3x3x9 I would like those cuboids.

 

[drewsopchak]

15 people isn't clearly to me...

Is 180?

 

[mrpotatoman14]

It's a fun puzzle, that many people can solve, and enjoy solving. It is also one of the oldest combination puzzles, and is arguably the precursor the the Rubik's cube, and twisty puzzles in general.

Now that I think I think about it, 15 puzzle seems like a really good idea. It's cheap , qqtimer has a fast and effective scrambling method, and IMO it would be hard to get a really easy scramble. However I'm a nub and can't prove the last part with numbers. Also it could attract some non-cubers/younger cubers as it's fairly simple.

 

[Michael Womack]

Now that I think I think about it, 15 puzzle seems like a really good idea. It's cheap , qqtimer has a fast and effective scrambling method, and IMO it would be hard to get a really easy scramble. However I'm a nub and can't prove the last part with numbers. Also it could attract some non-cubers/younger cubers as it's fairly simple.

Now would that include the ones with pictures instead of numbers also Cheap can mean crappy I cave some really cheap ones that are crappy and some that are not.

 

[cubegenius]

Explain why you think skewb is a bad choice

It is way to easy.

 

[mrpotatoman14]

Now would that include the ones with pictures instead of numbers also Cheap can mean crappy I cave some really cheap ones that are crappy and some that are not.

I'm talking about the ones with numbers. I own one that cost 4 dollars iirc and it's awesome.

 

[Hunter]

http://www.amazon.com/Schylling-Fif...&qid=1345864956&sr=8-2&keywords=the+15+puzzle

 

[cubernya]

It is way to easy.

It is slightly "easier" than 2x2, and slightly "harder" than pyraminx, where easier and harder is simply turns away from solved. IMO since it's a deep cut puzzle, it makes optimal solutions much harder to spot

 

[Noahaha]

I think that when people say Skewb is easy, they're talking about how it's easy to learn. That is true, but like theZcuber said, it is very hard to solve efficiently. Kinda like clock. Anyone can do it. Few can do it fast.

 

[Hunter]

Think about magics, it's not even 'solving' and look how it was a WCA event.

 

[Ranzha]

Now that you mention it, I guess that makes sense. But skewb will probably always be (slightly) slower than 2x2x2, simply because it's harder to hold in a manner that allows good TPS. Certainly it's very similar to 2x2x2.

3x3x3 team BLD: Again quite popular. I think this is a little easier to judge, but it also has some limited judging issues. Database representation issues are the same as with 3x3x3 team solve.

Regarding Skewb, the current TPSes that fast Skewbers get is considerably lower than current 2x2 TPSes. After watching Odder's crazy fast finger tricks for Skewb, it's still profoundly slower than 2x2, and I assume the times will get just under 5 for average, but no lower. Skewb single is lol.
As far as my personal times go, I'm averaging between 7 and 7.5 seconds with 22ish-move solutions, almost entirely using wrist turns.

Regarding, Team BLD database representation:
WCA Records:
Team BLD Single:
Rank | Caller Name | Caller Cit. | Solver Name | Solver Cit. | Result | Competition
1 | Derp | Smerbia | Herp | Smerbia | 0.00 | Smerbian Open 2013
2 | Herp | Smerbia | Derp | Smerbia | 0.01 | Smerbian Unlimited 2013

Team BLD Average:
Rank | Caller Name | Caller Cit. | Solver Name | Solver Cit. | Result | Competition Name | Result Details
1 | Derp | Smerbia | Herp | Smerbia | 0.00 | Smerbian Open 2013 | 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
2 | Herp | Smerbia | Derp | Smerbia | 0.01 | Smerbian Unlimited 2013 | 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01

Individual Competitor's Page:
Competitor: Herp
Team BLD
Competition | Role | Partner | Round | Place | Best | Average | Result Details
Smerbian Open 2013 | Solver | Derp | Final | 1 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Smerbian Unlimited 2013 | Caller | Derp | Final | 1 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01

Seems legit.

EDIT: If this was implemented, there would have to be a regulation prohibiting the roles of the caller and solver to switch at a competition.

 

[ZhanChi5]

I want to watch on 4x4 Multi BLD or 4x4 team BLD( both blinders are blindfold) it can be interesting. Or 2x2-5x5 relay