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Should relays be modified for the Weekly Competition?

Should relays be modified for the Weekly Competition?

  • No, I like the relays the way they are now: 2-4, 2-5, 2-6, 2-7.

    Votes: 28 56.0%
  • Yes, I prefer they be changed to 2-4, 5-7, 2-7.

    Votes: 5 10.0%
  • Yes, I prefer they be changed to 2-4, 5-7.

    Votes: 3 6.0%
  • Yes, I prefer that 2-6 be dropped, so the relays would be 2-4, 2-5, 2-7.

    Votes: 11 22.0%
  • Yes, I prefer they be changed to 2-5, 5-7, 2-7.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Yes, I prefer some other arrangement, which I have posted on the thread.

    Votes: 2 4.0%
  • Yes, I prefer that all relays be dropped from the competition.

    Votes: 1 2.0%

  • Total voters
    50

Mike Hughey

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I have been somewhat hesitant to bring this up, but there was a lot of discussion about it in the thread for new events this year, and I felt I should at least take a survey to get a feel for what people really think.

I would like to start by saying that I am not sure I will implement anything from this discussion by 2020. It is pretty likely that, unless the opinions expressed here are overwhelming and very large, I will merely take them as advisement for possible change in 2021. I already will have a lot to do for 2020 by having to add at least one new event (and probably two), and I'm not sure I want to commit to changes to the relays as well. But it makes sense to start a discussion about it.

One reason I am hesitant to make changes to the relays is that we have already had churn on this in the past, and I prefer continuity in the weekly competitions if possible. From 2010 through 2016, 2-6 and 2-7 relays were discontinued, and by popular demand, they were brought back in 2017. I wish we had simply left them in place during those years; I certainly don't want this sort of thing to happen again if possible. I feel it's better to move slowly on such changes, especially since the weekly competition doesn't really hurt anyone by being too many events. I prefer to be somewhat slow to add new events, and extremely slow to remove them.

PLEASE NOTE that the poll here is merely to gauge opinion and interest. It is not in any way binding. Again, I will likely not make any changes to the relays for 2020. But if I see a particularly significant consensus opinion desiring a specific change here, I might consider making the change in 2021. And I won't rule out the possibility of a 2020 change if the response is truly overwhelming and the reasoning makes sense to me.

Please discuss any opinions or ideas on this topic in this thread.
 
U

Underwatercuber

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Removing all relays is my first preference, all but 2-7 is my second preference, and removing all but 2-4 and 2-7 is my third preference
 
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GAN 356 X

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This is probably not a very popular idea and I dont like it much myself but its an idea all the same

It might be cool to make a relay for 4 3x3s where its similar to multi blind in that inspection counts in the solve. So you would be given a scramble; for all 4 of these cubes, then you can inspect all of them before you start. This would help to pick out the easier and harder scrambles so you can order them in a way that you like, and may also help for smoother transitions between the cubes. This idea is not the best I've had, but thought I would put it out there
 

ProStar

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This is probably not a very popular idea and I dont like it much myself but its an idea all the same

It might be cool to make a relay for 4 3x3s where its similar to multi blind in that inspection counts in the solve. So you would be given a scramble; for all 4 of these cubes, then you can inspect all of them before you start. This would help to pick out the easier and harder scrambles so you can order them in a way that you like, and may also help for smoother transitions between the cubes. This idea is not the best I've had, but thought I would put it out there

I'd prefer just a regular 3 or 4 3x3 relay, with 15 secs of inspection like the other relays.
 

Mike Hughey

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I'd prefer just a regular 3 or 4 3x3 relay, with 15 secs of inspection like the other relays.
While this is a reasonable suggestion, I consider it to be somewhat unrelated to this thread and just another different possible event. And this event did get a number of votes this year, but not enough to make it to the poll stage.
 

One Wheel

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Despite the fact that it’s my favorite, I have to admit that 2-6 is redundant. I also very much like the idea of splitting into 2-4 and 5-7. Anything that ends up with a 5-7 relay is my top choice.
 

xyzzy

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2-4 and 2-7: keep.
2-5: remove, maybe.
2-6: remove.

Reasons:

(i) 2-5 and 2-6 together take about the same amount of time as 2-7, and I'd rather have 2-7 than both 2-5 and 2-6.

(ii) 2-4 is a lot more newbie-friendly, as it doesn't require one to have all of the big cubes to participate. (Not everyone has a full set of WCA puzzles! It might not be expensive per se to get good budget cubes these days, what with YJ releasing the Yu v2 series, but getting a full 2-7 set will still cost a decent amount of money.)

(iii) 2-5 is the biggest relay where the conventional methods used to solve the puzzles are different (CLL/EG, CFOP/Roux, Yau, redux), whereas in 2-6 and 2-7, the very-big cubes are all solved with redux anyway, so there's less variety. But I don't like 5×5×5 and that's a huge factor in the 2-5 relay times, so I wouldn't mind seeing it go regardless.
 

ProStar

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I can’t solve 5x5, or anything higher than that. I just feel like you’re getting extra points if you can, because you just do the 2-5 relay, and not only do you get the normal 5x5 points, you also get 2-5 relay points.

Not really important, just a thought.

That's like saying 3bld should be removed because your getting points for knowing how to solve it blindfolded and can solve it normally...
 

One Wheel

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I can’t solve 5x5, or anything higher than that. I just feel like you’re getting extra points if you can, because you just do the 2-5 relay, and not only do you get the normal 5x5 points, you also get 2-5 relay points.

Not really important, just a thought.
You get points for solving puzzles. More puzzles = more points. Don’t try to bring everybody else down to your level, come up to theirs.
 
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