One-Answer WCA Competition and Regulations Question Thread

[GenTheSnail]

Kind of off topic, but oh well. When you register and pay the base registration fee, what does that include? Do you have to pay more to compete in more events?

It very much depends on the competition.

My first competition had a base fee of ~$6 which got you into the competition and 3x3, and then a $2 fee for any extra events. In my experience, there are not a lot of competitions like this.

Most competitions have a slightly higher fee, say $15 or $20 (USD), but then you can register for every single event if you want.

The competition page will tell you if there are extra fees for extra events (and usually won't note if it is just one big fee, as that's just accepted), but it almost certainly will not be the case and it will just be one payment for every event.

 

[Llewelys]

9f8) For "Average of 5" rounds, competitors are allotted 5 attempts. Of these 5 attempts, the best and worst attempts are removed, and the arithmetic mean of the remaining 3 attempts determines the competitor's ranking in the round.

Does anyone know the reason behind this ? Why aren't the 5 attempts kept to calculate the average?

 

[alexiscubing]

Because they don't want a DNF to destroy top cubers averages

 

[PetrusQuber]

Does anyone know the reason behind this ? Why aren't the 5 attempts kept to calculate the average?

Because they don't want a DNF to destroy top cubers averages

It’s not exactly fair if somebody averaging 1 minute has worked hard to get here, then messes up his H Perm at the end, and gets a DNF, which results in a DNF for the entire solve. This applies to everybody, actually.

 

[xyzzy]

Does anyone know the reason behind this ? Why aren't the 5 attempts kept to calculate the average?

Back in the day (way back, like 1990s), people used to measure their averages by timing twelve solves, dropping the highest/lowest and averaging the rest. This is pretty easy to do with a standard calculator or even by hand, since you're just dividing by ten (i.e. moving the decimal point one position). If you look at Jessica Fridrich's website, she mentions considering only fullstep solves, a quaint notion by today's standards. I guess at some point she decided that getting lucky wasn't a crime and switched to what we now call ao12; see also this post by Chris Hardwick on the history of speedcubing.

This was already the standard for determining an average at home in the late 1990s / early 2000s, so when the WCA came around (circa 2003?), I suppose they decided they wanted to adopt something similar, but actually doing 12 solves in a competition would take too long, so they went for just 5 solves (averaging the middle 3) instead of 12 solves. Just like the ao12, the ao5 is robust against one outlier: getting one especially lucky solve (e.g. LL skip) or one especially unlucky solve (e.g. corner twist DNF) will still affect the ao5, but not nearly as much as compared to using the mean. For the events with short solves (pretty much everything other than 4-7, mega, bigbld, mbld with 3+ cubes) and current popular solving methods, skips play a huge role in getting good single results, but they're not fundamentally linked to a cuber's skill and are just a matter of luck; using a trimmed average reduces the influence of luck. (I'm not counting "forced skips", e.g. using VLS to "skip" OLL, as true skips here.) The same remark applies to all the reasons people get DNFs in solves (corner twist, missing a slice move, etc.).

(It's also important to note that it's not fundamentally that important, within one competition, whether mo5 or ao5 is used. The probabilities of getting especially lucky/unlucky singles aren't that high. However, if you want to track records across competitions, trimmed averages seem to make it harder to grind for (average) records just by going to loads of comps and getting lucky on a few of them.)

It’s not exactly fair if somebody averaging 1 minute has worked hard to get here, then messes up his H Perm at the end, and gets a DNF, which results in a DNF for the entire solve. This applies to everybody, actually.

If you've messed up a solve, you've messed up the solve. If the rules had been to use the arithmetic mean (which they aren't, but just for the sake of argument), I don't think it would be unfair per se to make the whole average a DNF too. This is already the case for all the events ranked by mo3 (FMC, 666, 777); I DNFed out of an FMC podium once, but I know that was completely on me and I don't consider that unfair.

 

[Llewelys]

Thank you !

 

[MarkA64]

Hi,

Are white plastic cubes with stickers allowed in 3x3?

Thanks

 

[Tabe]

Hi,

Are white plastic cubes with stickers allowed in 3x3?

Thanks

Yes. The plastic can be any color - white, blue, pink, orange, black, whatever.

 

[PyxisPuzzles]

I really wanna do a comp but the sad thing is, I don't have any near me. Sure you could just say "oMg jusT gO tO lIke tHe nXt TowN oVeR" or something like that but the thing is I need to drive 177 miles (286km) to go to the one nearest me. ;-; So I want to make a comp by myself, maybe with a few friends. So, how do I do this?

 

[AbsoRuud]

I really wanna do a comp but the sad thing is, I don't have any near me. Sure you could just say "oMg jusT gO tO lIke tHe nXt TowN oVeR" or something like that but the thing is I need to drive 177 miles (286km) to go to the one nearest me. ;-; So I want to make a comp by myself, maybe with a few friends. So, how do I do this?

The best thing to do is contact a delegate and see what they can help you with. You could contact the delegates that run the comp in the next town over.

 

[PyxisPuzzles]

The best thing to do is contact a delegate and see what they can help you with. You could contact the delegates that run the comp in the next town over.

Thank you, wish me luck!!

 

[PetrusQuber]

If you arrive at a competition, do you have to register immediately? As in I could go ‘the registration line looks too long, I’ll register after I’ve done my 3x3 first round’
Also, what is registration for?

 

[Tabe]

If you arrive at a competition, do you have to register immediately? As in I could go ‘the registration line looks too long, I’ll register after I’ve done my 3x3 first round’
Also, what is registration for?

Yes, you need to register right away.

Registration gets you your group assignments and judging/running assignments for the day.

You would not be able to compete in an event and then register after.

This is never an issue though - I don't think I've ever had to wait more than about 30 seconds to register.

 

[PetrusQuber]

Yes, you need to register right away.

Registration gets you your group assignments and judging/running assignments for the day.

You would not be able to compete in an event and then register after.

This is never an issue though - I don't think I've ever had to wait more than about 30 seconds to register.

Because my competition is an hour away, my first event is at 10, and I preferably don’t want to wake up and go earlier than I need to, I’m thinking, won’t I have to wait like for ages, because there are 150+ people also arriving for 3x3 and registering? How much time do you think I should have before starting my first event?
Also is judging/running/scrambling mandatory?
Thanks!

 

[Tabe]

Check your competition schedule. It'll tell you when registration starts. There will always be people showing up well before registration starts. There could be 15-60 minutes before your first event. Hard to say.

Yes, judging/running are almost always mandatory.

 

[GenTheSnail]

If you arrive at a competition, do you have to register immediately? As in I could go ‘the registration line looks too long, I’ll register after I’ve done my 3x3 first round’
Also, what is registration for?

For comps that I've been to, registration usually entails picking up your name tag, nothing more. Sometimes the name tag has your schedule printed on it, sometimes there isn't even a name tag at all. As Tabe said, it usually takes no more than 30 seconds.

There's usually a bunch of heat sheets printed on the walls and we don't assign judges or runners from the start. We do start calling people up to judge if no one is volunteering. Scrambling is usually reserved for staff/experienced competitors.

This process is the one that I've experienced in the Midwest, so I'm sure it differs from your region, but not significantly.

 

[PetrusQuber]

More questions...
What is the intro to competing about? I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to make it, especially at 9:15.

Are you free to like go outside the competition venue when you don’t have anything scheduled e.g. an event you’re judging/competing in. Seems kind of obvious, but asking sure

And lastly, what sort of ID do I need? Birth certificate, passport,etc?

 

[PugCuber]

More questions...
What is the intro to competing about? I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to make it, especially at 9:15.

Are you free to like go outside the competition venue when you don’t have anything scheduled e.g. an event you’re judging/competing in. Seems kind of obvious, but asking sure

And lastly, what sort of ID do I need? Birth certificate, passport,etc?

1. It’s a new competitor tutorial. If you end up missing it, CyoTheKing has one on his channel.
2. Yes.
3. Ask the delegate when you get there.

 

[Tabe]

More questions...
What is the intro to competing about? I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to make it, especially at 9:15.

It's a tutorial that teaches people how to judge, how to use timers (lots of people, myself included, have never used one before their first comp), and penalties and so forth.

Are you free to like go outside the competition venue when you don’t have anything scheduled e.g. an event you’re judging/competing in. Seems kind of obvious, but asking sure

Absolutely.

And lastly, what sort of ID do I need? Birth certificate, passport,etc?

Kinda depends. School ID would probably work. You'd never be asked for a birth certificate. Personally, I've never been asked for ID.

 

[PetrusQuber]

It's a tutorial that teaches people how to judge, how to use timers (lots of people, myself included, have never used one before their first comp), and penalties and so forth.


Absolutely.


Kinda depends. School ID would probably work. You'd never be asked for a birth certificate. Personally, I've never been asked for ID.

1. It’s a new competitor tutorial. If you end up missing it, CyoTheKing has one on his channel.
2. Yes.
3. Ask the delegate when you get there.

Thanks! I feel asking the delegate when I get there would be just a little too late to bring ID...