Should 3x3x3 With Feet Remain an Official WCA Event?

[Coolster01]

Just saying, idk if the spectators are as enthusiastic as you think they are

In my NAR video, you'll hear things like "How does one reach tps at this level?" (from a solver next to me) and some compliments from Mike Hughey's children. I might have exaggerated a bit, but I seem to hear more positive than negative in that video. Might just be me xD

 

[thatboyahcubah]

I have long been in support of removing 3x3 feet as an official event. My fingers are still crossed that 6x6, 7x7, 5x5BLD, and Multi are eventually removed, but I hate the 3x3 feet event so much more than the rest of them combined.

Some notes:
- I refuse to hold it at any competition I organize because it repulses me.
- For Worlds last year, we actually ordered separate timers for the 3x3 feet event and sold them after the event was finished.
- I think solving with feet is disgusting. For Worlds last year, I refused to touch the scorecards for the 3x3 feet event because the feet cubes touched them also. We had hand sanitizer at the scrambling table for accidental contact with feet cubes.
- Look at the registration costs for 3x3 with feet at US Nationals this year. If it were up to me, they'd be even higher.
- We have even joked about having registration costs for feet starting at $100 and reducing by $1 per day until 8 spots filled. After that, the event would be closed.
- Ew.

this sounds like a irrational phobia than a legitimate logical argument, to me.
-refusing to hold an event because of personal preference even when people clearly participate in it is unprofessional.
-using separate timers is understandable, however selling them afterwards is a waste considering you could use those timers for other feet comps if you insist on using separate timers.
-definitely a phobia. coming in contact with feet cubes is not a disease. refusing to touch scorecards "feetcubers" simply TOUCHED is frankly ridiculous, and also extremely rude to cubers who participate
-making cubers pay more money to participate in something that really doesn't take much more effort than, say, multiBLD is also irrational.
-^
-you sound like a little girl complaining about feet.
/
side note, "feet cubers" should not be a term at all. we are all cubers and should not have different names for the events we participate in. do we call feliks a 34567cuber because he participates in 3x3 4x4 5x5 6x6 and 7x7? no.
I don't even feet solve and am honestly indifferent about the removal of the event; however, your irrational dislike for 3x3 feet is ridiculous and, as I said, rude to cubers who participate in 3x3 feet.

 

[AJ Blair]

All I have to say is that, due to genetic skin disease, there are times that I CANNOT use my hands to cube due to the blistering that happens. Feet has been my outlet to feel as though I can still be a part of the community when this happens. This is the only community that I have ever been a part of due to my condition. I couldn't do sports and I can't travel easily due to it and speedcubing has single-handedly made me the person I am today. 3x3 with Feet has made me feel connected to people in a way that I never possible.

I know it doesn't mean much and I know that one person's feelings are no reason to keep something in play, but I feel very passionately about cubing and about this community and felt the need to say something.

Proof of "Yucky blistery hands" (and this is my hands looking "normal", not all that bad)


All I ask is that "Ew, that's gross" not be a driving reason for the removal of feet. Because, with my hands often in this kind of condition, the same argument could be used to prevent me from cubing, due to my touching of the cubes with "gross blisters" all over.

 

[SolveThatCube]

seriously? we're arguing over the cleanliness of feet when your feet touch literally nothing besides the inside of your sock? and people hand touch toilet seats, other ppls cubes, door handles, bus seats, and literally everything else?

And phones.

While it is an unpopular event, and I do not care for it myself, I do not believe it should be removed. I guarantee removing it will **** a lot of people off who have worked hard at it. If we were to remove skewb because it's different and it were considered "unpopular" you and I would both be rather pissed. The same goes for those who work hard for feet. I usually scramble a LOT at competitions, by the end of the day, my hands are sweaty anyway. Let's be real here. Hands touch all sorts of disgusting objects. Feet are simply in our shoes, never really touching much of anything. Overall I feel that it isn't broken, don't try to fix it. People enjoy the event, so just leave it. It isn't hurting anyone.

Exactly.

Some of you guys are disgusted by it, but then, just don't compete in it. Like when I hear 4x4 or 5x5 BLD I want to fall asleep, but I'm not gonna ask if the WCA can remove it, I just won't compete in it.
At Thailand Championship 2014 when we started feet, lots of spectators started gathering around, pulling out there phones and filming it, not just Thai people, but farangs too. (foreigners) People are amazed by it and like Kennan said: People have worked hard at it. (Not me really.)

If you're going to remove 3x3 with feet you might as well remove OH.

 

[anders]

What's the thing I heard about with the guy that could only solve it with his feet then? Do you know of this?

I suppose you mean Will Arnold (2005ARNO01). He is part of the history

 

[thatboyahcubah]

Debating the cleanliness of feet is ridiculous.
If you don't like people doing feet, don't watch.
If you don't like doing feet, don't do feet.

But removing the event at all is like a slap in the face to people who like feet, considering the work they've put into it. Hays will be outraged if 6x6 or 7x7 is ever removed, just like a lot of people who cube with feet will be outraged.

 

[AlexMaass]

What's the thing I heard about with the guy that could only solve it with his feet then? Do you know of this?

I think it was some guy Will Arnold, http://madeinatlantis.com/life/speed_cubing.htm, he had a birth defect so he couldn't really use his arms.

 

[bpwhiteout]

Honestly, If sanitation is a concern, make it a regulation that competitors must wash their feet before their solves. You could even have a bucket of water near the feet area, which is most certainly cheaper than buying stackmat timers.
Also, I believe that WCA competition is certainly more important to the people IN competitions than people OUTSIDE of competitions. I've never heard anything bad about feet solving myself, but whether there is or isn't, I think the media side is irrelevant.

I haven't practised feet, but if there were a competition with the feet solving event, i'd practice it and join it. It seems like it'd be a lot of fun.
There's also the feet are cleaner than hands argument, but many others have already said that, so I'll leave that one to the others.

Overall, I don't see much of a reason to remove it. 3 of those 5 Pros are pretty similar, so there aren't really that many pros to be honest. Not to mention the fact that the +2 penalty could be changed if that is an issue.

Keep feet.

 

[Kit Clement]

Most of my opinions on keeping feet have been stated already, but I'd like to add these points:

- This is a very US-centric forum, and of any major cubing country, the US is the most against feet, seeing how infrequently this event is held here. Thus, I believe poll results that come from this should be taken with a grain of salt.
- Removing Feet sets an interesting precedent for removing events that could lead to the eventual removal of other events which may upset more of the community. Magic/Master Magic was removed due to inconsistent results caused by judging inaccuracies, so it's easy to understand why these events were removed. There's no reason near as strong at this for any other current event, so it would open the door to removing more events besides feet. If we're concerned with community opinion, then while the opinion might be more in favor of removing feet, they may not support this if other events will be removed.

 

[jpthesolver]

Feet solving

I feel overall it would be efficient to remove feet solving. The amount of people who perform in this event is very small compared to all other events. It has gone to increase prices to compete in feet solving and has created usually only a single round. For example, US Nationals 2014, most event cost $4 and have 2-4 rounds, feet solving on the other hand (or should I say on the other foot :3) feet solving has one round and costs $13. Feet solving is a pretty rare event due to the lack of competitors. There are events such as clock which has a small crowd, but large compared to how many people feet solve. Also, the amount of people who do clock increase, while feet if anything decreases. I just think that almost no delegate or organizer wants to have feet solving, it's just not a common, efficient or used event.

 

[maps600]

I know that some fast solvers would be very disappointed if feet solving was removed. However, if it is replaced by a more successful event, I will definitely agree to remove it.

 

[uberCuber]

The amount of people who perform in this event is very small compared to all other events.

There are less people in each of 4BLD/5BLD/MBLD, and without actually looking I would hazard a guess that each of those events gets less competitions around the world than feet does.

EDIT: I suppose there are actually more people attempting MultiBLD than feet, there are just a lot of people who don't have an official success

 

[AJ Blair]

The amount of people who perform in this event is very small compared to all other events.

It's hard to have people compete if the event isn't offered to compete in...just saying.

 

[Tim Major]

- This is a very US-centric forum, and of any major cubing country, the US is the most against feet, seeing how infrequently this event is held here. Thus, I believe poll results that come from this should be taken with a grain of salt.

Nope, Australia is more against feet, we've never hosted it. There are other countries that also dislike feet more than the US

 

[Kit Clement]

Nope, Australia is more against feet, we've never hosted it. There are other countries that also dislike feet more than the US

Okay, maybe not the most, but the US definitely doesn't like feet. Regardless, it seems to be very popular in many European and South American countries that do not voice their opinions here.

 

[Ranzha]

Some numbers:

Country             #compsWF  |#2014comps |%comps WF|#compsWF / 2014compsWF
United Kingdom      4          4           100.00%                    6.67%
Finland             2          2           100.00%                    3.33%
Belarus             1          1           100.00%                    1.67%
Singapore           1          1           100.00%                    1.67%
Thailand            1          1           100.00%                    1.67%
Brazil              8          9            88.89%                   13.33%
Spain               8         10            80.00%                   13.33%
Poland             10         15            66.67%                   16.67%
Ukraine             4          6            66.67%                    6.67%
Denmark             2          3            66.67%                    3.33%
Russia              2          4            50.00%                    3.33%
Norway              1          2            50.00%                    1.67%
Slovenia            1          2            50.00%                    1.67%
Belgium             1          3            33.33%                    1.67%
Indonesia           1          4            25.00%                    1.67%
Sweden              1          4            25.00%                    1.67%
Germany             2          9            22.22%                    3.33%
France              1          6            16.67%                    1.67%
Philippines         1          6            16.67%                    1.67%
Japan               1          7            14.29%                    1.67%
Italy               1          8            12.50%                    1.67%
China               2         19            10.53%                    3.33%
India               2         24             8.33%                    3.33%
USA                 2         31             6.45%                    3.33%
Canada              0          7             0.00%                    
Australia           0          6             0.00%
Colombia            0          5             0.00%
Taiwan              0          5             0.00%                    
Venezuela           0          5             0.00%                    
Peru                0          4             0.00%                    
Romania             0          3             0.00%                    
Vietnam             0          3             0.00%                    
Chile               0          2             0.00%                    
Dominican Republic  0          2             0.00%                    
Mexico              0          2             0.00%                    
Turkey              0          2             0.00%                    
Argentina           0          1             0.00%                    
Austria             0          1             0.00%                    
Guatemala           0          1             0.00%                    
Iceland             0          1             0.00%                    
Iran                0          1             0.00%                    
Israel              0          1             0.00%                    
Korea               0          1             0.00%                    
Netherlands         0          1             0.00%                    
New Zealand         0          1             0.00%                    
Portugal            0          1             0.00%                    
South Africa        0          1             0.00%                    
Switzerland         0          1             0.00%                    
                                                  
Total
48 countries        60       239            25.10%

If this is tough to understand, here's a column-by-column guide:
UK has held feet at 4 competitions in 2014.
UK has hosted 4 competitions in 2014.
100% of the 2014 UK competitions have held feet.
6.67% of the 2014 competitions that have held feet have been hosted in the UK.

 

[IRNjuggle28]

There are less people in each of 4BLD/5BLD/MBLD, and without actually looking I would hazard a guess that each of those events gets less competitions around the world than feet does.

People who don't attempt BLD events do that because of lack of ability. People who don't attempt feet do so because of lack of interest. It's an important difference.

 

[GrandSlam]

Honestly, I think anybody who doesn't feet solve should have no say in this.
It's like a non-cuber saying that all competitions should end just because rubik's cubes are too hard.
that's just my opinion, I am a non-foot solver so maybe I am wrong.

 

[rybaby]

Honestly, I think anybody who doesn't feet solve should have no say in this.
It's like a non-cuber saying that all competitions should end just because rubik's cubes are too hard.
that's just my opinion, I am a non-foot solver so maybe I am wrong.

Analogy time:
If you are familiar with some basketball history, you know the 24-second shot clock was introduced to speed up the pace of the game. Why speed up the pace? Make the spectators happy. Should the spectators have no say in what they want to see? Similarly, I think the whole community can have a say. Plus we can get less biased views that way. Is a top foot-cuber going to say they don't like the event and it should be removed? I highly doubt it.

 

[GrandSlam]

Analogy time:
If you are familiar with some basketball history, you know the 24-second shot clock was introduced to speed up the pace of the game. Why speed up the pace? Make the spectators happy. Should the spectators have no say in what they want to see? Similarly, I think the whole community can have a say. Plus we can get less biased views that way. Is a top foot-cuber going to say they don't like the event and it should be removed? I highly doubt it.

First of all, what I really meant was that people with no real experience with foot solving, people who don't understand it at all, should not be involved. Or, if you would prefer another analogy, kids don't vote for president due to basic lack of understanding in the area of politics. Those basketball fans knew the game well enough to understand that it could be improved upon.

Maybe some sort of compromise can be made. Maybe foot-solvers shoild wear... feet gloves.

Don't judge me for overusing my imagination. After all, I am a kid. My imagination is my strong point!