For those of us who like BLD, we would say that we only have 3 events if we want variety beyond regular 3x3x3BLD.
Let me try to phrase it the other way around:
"We have 13 speedsolving events (see the above spoiler). Do we really need 13 events of essentially the same format? Surely one of them can go?"
You are an all-rounder, and are really famous for that. You have 13 different speedsolve events to pick from (plus BLD ones that you like, if any, and FMC). I am a BLD solver, I have 4 events that I really like from which to choose (plus FMC and 3x3 speedsolve). Removal of a speedcubing event is removing about 7% of the events you really enjoy competing in (1/13). Removing a BLD event is removing 25% of the events I really like to compete in (1/4). Obviously I will interpret your "let's remove a BLD" event differently than you will.
I don't speak for the community as a whole, but when you ask me specifically that quesiton, then this is how I respond.
You know I really admire you for your BLD skills and your contribution to the community for this, so I hope you don't take it as a personal attack of any kind
The fact that you specialize in the niece-event BLD is your own preference. There were people who specialized in magics as well and there are some that specialize in megaminx or FMC for example. I don't think the WCA should take into account every single cuber with its own preference, but think about the whole picture. It's logical you are against this, but I think it's a fair thing to do. I will come back to this later at the end of my post.
Your graph doesn't load for me (Invalid Attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator). I understand the idea that by categorizing the events a certain way that you view 7x7x7 as less necessary than 3x3x3, just as 5x5x5BLD is less necessary than 3x3x3BLD. Still, getting rid of 7x7x7 is removing 1/13 of the speedsolve events, while removing 5x5x5BLD is removing 1/4 of the blindfold events. The relative weight of each change is not the same.
Will try to upload again in the original post soon.
I've not heard of the "all day" rule. In the US and at Worlds you have a maximum of 3 hours to do all of your attempts in either 4x4x4BLD or 5x5x5 BLD. If some competitions allow an "all day" time limit, or even a 2 day time limit, then I would certainly be in favor of at a minimum reducing that to 3 hours.
Then this should definitely be fixed in the regs, no matter what what the outcome of this thread is.
We have this same issue in 3x3x3BLD by the way (a world record solve video could be placed on the internet before others have done that solve). I treat that as a separate issue inherent to BLD events in general, and not just the bigger cubes BLD.
You know the chances of this happening are much much lower, compared to my scenario. Not impossible (sadly), but you'd have to be quite fast in uploading.
Erik, does it not strike you as odd that you and I are again having this same debate about big cube BLD on speedsolving.com? I think the first time was in either 2007 or early 2008. Is there a better venue for us to have our opinions voiced than on speedsolving.com?
Incidentally, this same idea goes for those who start the "remove 3x3x3 with feet" threads, which have popped up nearly every year for a few years now.
Not sure where you want to go with this? We discuss it on speedsolving.com because our sport is speedcubing of which BLD is a small part as well...
The feet discussion has been going on for a while now, though the reasoning in removing feet is kinda poor.
I can see from your personal point of view how you divide all events in BLD and non-BLD or rather speedsolving and non-speedsolving (which also includes FMC). From your post I think your point of view is that Blindsolving is equal in the hierarchy to Speedsolving. On this I strongly disagree. The core of our sport is speedcubing, solving cubes fast. Wasn't it 1982 where we speedsolved the 3x3? Our first truely official website used to be speedcubing.com. Blindfolded solving has always been a nieche-area, just like FMC. My problem is only that we have 4 of those events which make blindfolded solving an overly represented sub-event of speedcubing. It's like doing 3x3 FMC, Sq-1 FMC, 4x4 FMC and FMC-head-to-head as well, which would all make no sense to me whatsoever (though FMC head2head is kinda fun), just like 3x3 OH-BLD or solving with 1 foot.
@ Goodatthis:
1. all events are tough to be good at. The fact that people lose records come with the removal of all events, like Multi-old style and magics.
2. I think you are exaggerating when calling it "
some sort of feared mythical creature". I think for something like 5BLD, most people just lack the patience to learn it. Still impressive, but 25 moves FMC is also impressive, just like sub-10 averages on 3x3.
3. Feet nor clock, have the downsides of these 3 big-BLD events. The comparison can't be made this way. Also: 4BLD is not comparable to clock, but more like clock-FMC (a side event of a side event)
2g3) Competitors in the Competitors Area must not communicate with each other about the scrambled states of the puzzles of the round in progress. Penalty: disqualification of the competitor from the event, at the discretion of the WCA Delegate.
OK, it's technically not the competitors area, but it falls IMHO into the same category. If someone puts up a video of himself on Internet before the end of the event, even if the event lasts two days, that can be viewed as communication with other competitors (since anybody can go on the net and watch the vid at any time) and should be punished accordingly (again, at the discretion of the delegate).
It's a bit naive to think this is not a problem. Would you really trust everyone to be honest and not look at the WR video if they had the chance? It's like scrambling your own cube.
@ Bob: would be interesting to see. Sadly I don't have access to the database :/
@ the "why not decide the organizer what to organize" argument: yes lets then also make every possible other event official, the organizer can choose anyway. Rainbow cube, golden cube, head2headFMC, 4x4 OH, 3x3 OH-BLD and of course relays as well... I think the WCA should only offer a limited amount of events which all provide a different challenge and be significantly different from each other. You need to set good boundaries so organizers are likely to organize a large quantity of the events, so everyone will have the chance to compete in all events as well.
Currently, the amount of events is just too big to fit in a 2 day competition without setting crazy time-limits, the need of side stages or competition days of 12 hours. And yes, 7x7 is a big time consumer too. Arguably too big, just like 6x6.
