Should Energy Drinks/Caffeine Be Banned From Competitions?

[elimescube]

I dislike energy drinks but love coffee/tea, and I don't usually go a day without one or the other. I wouldn't consider caffeine significantly performance enhancing, and since it is a big part of a lot of peoples days it would be unfair to ban it.

One thing I have (rarely) noticed is some individuals tendencies to drink many caffeinated beverages and occasionally become disruptive to others at the competition. This behaviour isn't really fair, but has much more to do with the individual than the substance.

I'm just echoing everyone else here, but whatever.

 

[zmikecuber]

its the cuber, not the caffeine.

no, it shouldnt be banned. what are they going to do? like test to see if people have caffeine in them?

unfair advantages? lol. anything could be an "unfair advantage"... glasses, bright cubesmith stickers etc. etc

 

[Tim Major]

Hoe is it an unfair advantage? If other people wanted energy drinks they can go buy them. I don't think most people see it as an advantage.

And as others have said, how would it be tested.

 

[zmikecuber]

oh my I forgot and drank coffee this morning in the hotel. guess I cant compete in the nationals... *hides face*

I wonder if anybody will come out and say that caffeine should be banned.... really, that would be interesting.

 

[fastcubesolver]

I think that nothing should be banned, except for music.

 

[Muesli]

I think that nothing should be banned, except for music.

Lol, why?

 

[Thompson]

Yes if it was possible

 

[fastcubesolver]

There can be certain music that makes you remember certain things. But energy drinks can't. I think it would be a bit rediculous to ban Mountain Dew and Monster because they could "enhance one's performance".

 

[SoupFlies]

I dont even think music should be banned, it just reminds me of how ludicrous my highschool was.

Caffeine will not give enough of an edge to make it unfair in any way shape or form. It has effects on the brain that are positive stimulations, but they will not have a greater benefit than their drawbacks through the jitters, and crashes.

I basically live my life off of caffeine, I need it to get through my day because of how little time I have to spend on sleep, if I went to a comp and was not allowed to compete because of my lifestyle, I would make sure to have a hearty talk with Tyson.

I think banning things from competitions should be put into categories something like this:

Anything that is overly disruptive to other competitors I.E. No pants

Anything that gives you a measurable and noticeable edge over other competitors I.E. Stickerless cubes.

Anything that is considered taking advantage of a system or cheating by having scrambles before hand.


Simple things like this that are the groundwork. Banning individual things because 1 person does not like them or another blah blah is more frustrating than understandable.

I dont know why music is banned. I dont like that rule, I am very musically oriented.
I know why stickerless cubes are banned, and it totally makes sense, even though it is a slight bit silly.

/Rant

 

[SoupFlies]

There can be certain music that makes you remember certain things. But energy drinks can't. I think it would be a bit rediculous to ban Mountain Dew and Monster because they could "enhance one's performance".

Taking aderall will help with memory and focus, to a greater degree than any music there is.
But it is a prescription drug and is allowed.
That argument is such bunk.

 

[SoupFlies]

There can be certain music that makes you remember certain things. But energy drinks can't. I think it would be a bit rediculous to ban Mountain Dew and Monster because they could "enhance one's performance".

Taking aderall will help with memory and focus, to a greater degree than any music there is.
But it is a prescription drug and is allowed.
That argument is such bunk.

 

[RNewms27]

As long as it is legal it should not be banned.

 

[fastcubesolver]

Hmm, good point. Music can be distraction to other competitiors, is there a rule against that?

 

[PhillipEspinoza]

I guess instead of unfair advantage I mean would you consider it "cheating" because its not natural? Regardless of whether or not you would necessarily or commonly gain an advantage on speed, kinda like how you cannot take the cube apart during PLL and put it back together even though it would probably be slower and would probably not give you an advantage speed wise. It is obviously considered cheating but I wanna question what not so obvious forms of "cheating" might look like.

The same argument is used against headphones/music. People ask, "What kind of advantage would playing algs over and over again have?" Maybe nothing in terms of speed but maybe something in terms of just solving the cube. At this point I agree with Rowan that looking at this just reveals the inconsistency and arbitrariness of rules such as no headphones.

As far as glasses its already been talked about in similar discussions and it has been decided that glasses PREVENT a disadvantage rather than PROVIDE an unfair one.

 

[Enter]

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[SoupFlies]

If the music is played through headphones, I doubt that through the noise of the competition it will get any farther than your judge.
I wish music was allowed at competitions because I am always distracted by someone talking to me or something like that.
Music has always helped me personally focus.
When I learned about that rule I was extremely bummed out because I knew that I would never be doing as well as I can be doing in a competition, while it may not be a huge difference, 2 times it could have been the difference of me making 2nd round or not.

 

[Cheese11]

Even if it was banned, people could just drink it before going in.

 

[Cubetastic]

I don't think it should be banned but if every single person starts drinking coffe and/or red bull before a competition I might be against it.

 

[Sa967St]

if every single person starts drinking coffe and/or red bull before a competition I might be against it.

Why?

 

[Cubetastic]

Why?

Because then the people who cant are at an unfair advantage and are being singled out.