• Welcome to the Speedsolving.com, home of the web's largest puzzle community!
    You are currently viewing our forum as a guest which gives you limited access to join discussions and access our other features.

    Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community of 40,000+ people from around the world today!

    If you are already a member, simply login to hide this message and begin participating in the community!

Should we have more Cubing Conventions in the future?

abunickabhi

Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2014
Messages
6,687
Location
Yo
WCA
2013GHOD01
YouTube
Visit Channel
There is a growing lack of fun activities for attendees to do besides compete. This is understandable, as it is hard by itself to organize a 1000 person competition, let alone add fun extra activities to them.

This brought up the idea of Cubing conventions. Essentially, this would be a competition where competing is only part of the experience. We’d have a small competition with a handful of events, but have other activities throughout the event. Some examples of other activities can be:

  • seminars and talks from fast speedsolvers/celebrity figures in cubing
  • official talks from WCA organizations about what they’ve been up to.
  • Unofficial relays/ team blds
  • Mosaics
  • podcasts
I’d be interested to see what others think of this. Would you go to an event like this? Would you pay as much as a normal nationals registration fee? Would you travel for this?

Original discussion here: https://forum.worldcubeassociation.org/t/cubing-conventions/6792
 

zhongtiao1

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2021
Messages
4
I've been lurking here for a while, but decided to register so I could comment on this.

Personally, I think that Cubing as a whole would benefit from having conventions. Besides the fact that they are more low-key than competitions, but they make for great networking between people and are easier to approach than a competition. It's a lot less intimidating to go to a convention than a competition.

Plus, conventions give the ability for small classes on how to get better at certain aspects, learn bigger cubes, etc. They can also be a way for companies to market themselves, have booths with their wares and such.

Beyond that, I think it may be worth it to have something akin to the World Games, but with Cubing. The World Games are essentially the Olympics, but for sports that almost, but not quite, qualify for them.

With this Alternate Cube competition, it would be recognized by the WCA, but it would only contain competitions that are not in the World Championship. It could also be held in alternating years.

Example competitions could be:
  • 8x8x8-12x12x12
  • Kilominx
  • Small Cube Medley Relay (2x2, 3x3, 4x4 in seqeuence)
  • Large Cube Medley Relay (5x5, 6x6, 7x7 in sequence)
  • 2x2 blind
Due to it being many different (and some odd) competitions, I think it would make sense to pair it with a convention. Beyond introducing people to unusual cubes, it would also drive traffic and bring more people in if there was more than just a competition.
 
Top