"Six degrees of separation" Game

[OtaMota]

Got 6 (actually 5, can't count, actually 4, found a shorter path), though there could be a chance that an even shorter path is found.

2010FUYA01 - 2009XIAN01 - Mats Valk - LML - 2012HAML01 - 2009RATH01 - 2009NARA01 (5 4)

What is interesting is the countries. Singapore - Singapore - Netherlands - Argentina - Argentina - India - UAE

Edit: Already found that Mats Valk and 2012HAML01 share a comp, as 2012HAML01 goes to many Dutch Comps, so you can skip LML and have a 5 connection. Still pretty good though.

Edit: can't count apparently, so it was originally 5 connections actually, and when you skip LML, it drops to 4. This is actually hard.

 

[An Animating Cuber]

Yeah, if you've gone to a comp with a relatively prolific cuber then your pretty much guaranteed a relatively short path to a lot of other people and if you haven't you've likely gone to a comp with someone that has.

 

[artless1der]

I dont really understand this ...

haha
I don't really understand WHY??????????

 

[Tabe]

I've been to comps with Max Siauw, Max Park, Kevin Hays, and Edward Hollingdale so I'm probably 2 connections (at most) from almost everyone. Heck, I'm one connection from Tyson Mao & Lars Petrus (via Cailyn Hoover, among others) so that gets me everyone at the 1982 & 2003 World Championships.

 

[cubenerd74]

I want to make a thread dedicated to seeing how many connections away two cubers are in terms of competitions. You may have heard of something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation and I wanted to think about it in terms of cubing.

We can play a game to see how closely related we are to each other or to famous cubers, using links of people. We can also assign numbers. If two people went to the same comp, those people have a number of 0. If person A and person B did not go to the same comp, but both have met person C at different comps, A and B's connection is 1.

I can start, though I have not been to a comp, I am schedualed for https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/competitions/ChooChooCubingB2024, so we can assume I already went there for the sake of the game. Luke Garrett will be there, so me and Luke Garrett will be a 0. Luke also went to Worlds 2023, and was with Yiheng, so me and Yiheng are 1. Me - Luke - Yiheng

Or for people on the forum, I can connect to @JDAW6 for example. Me - Luke Garrett - Niko Ronkainen - Mihir Narayan - JDAW6, a 3 connection.

What connections can you find?

EDIT: Found a smaller connection with JDAW6. Me - Luke Garrett - France Bautista - JDAW6, a 2 connection

If so, then I have a 2-degree connection with you. Me-Seung Hyuk Nahm-Luke Garret-You
I'm also currently trying to find a connection to Minh Thai.
Edit: found a good one.
Me-Seung Hyuk Nahm-Ron van Bruchem-Jessica Fridrich-Minh Thai (3 degrees)

 

[xyzzy]

If two people went to the same comp, those people have a number of 0.

Normally this is treated as 1 rather than 0; with that convention, the degree of separation is equivalent to the graph distance.
Degree 0: yourself
Degree 1: everyone who shares a comp with you
Degree 2: everyone who shares a comp with someone who's degree-1, and is not themself degree-1
Degree 3: everyone who shares a comp with someone who's degree-2, and is not themself degree-1 or degree-2
etc.

Anyhow, while I don't have a direct connection to most non-Asian high-profile cubers, I'm 2-3 connections away from the majority of cubers simply because I share comps with a handful of people who compete all over the world (including people who attend Worlds).

Yeah, you don't decrease the number if you met a person at multiple comps.

Spoiler: deranged rambling

There's actually a principled way to do something like this: imagine placing a 1 ohm resistor (in parallel) between every two competitors every time they compete together; then define their "distance" to be the equivalent resistance between them. Every time two people compete together, they get an additional resistor between them, which reduces the overall resistance between them (because it's connected in parallel). If it was 2 ohms before, it's now 0.67 ohm. If it was 1 ohm before, it's now 0.5 ohm. Etc.

Of course, as anyone who's done high school physics will know, this is tremendously annoying to calculate…

Not to mention, competitions almost always have more than 2 competitors (there'll be multiple paths between you and anyone else at that comp), so you'd probably want to normalise the each comp's resistance by its size. Instead of always placing a 1 ohm resistor between competitors, you place an n/2 ohm resistor, where n is the number of competitors at that competition.

Any new competition you go to will quickly reduce the equivalent resistance between you and the people you regularly share comps with; it'll also reduce the equivalent resistance between you and anyone else, although not as quickly.

 

[Megaminx lover]

In terms of forum members, ive been to comps with xyzzy, nigel, kayden, the triangle guy, and many more, so thats degree 0

Choosing the first wca account I see here which isn't in asia, which is tabe, the closest i can after a 5 minute search is tabe (us nationals) nahm (sgcc) me

Trying ben

ben (cubetcha) armando dian (sabah 2019) Kai Yang (sgcc2023) me

Endfing off with fes

fes (new england 2023) yuyang liu (worlds 2023) tcy (sgcc2023) me

 

[Isaiah Scott]

I’ve gone a comp with @Isaiah Scott

Bro I forgot to hang out with you. Are you going to either rocky top or volunteer state in 2024?

 

[Isaiah Scott]

Luke garrett has been at 5/9 of my comps, and Its cool to talk to him

 

[Jorian Meeuse]

The thing is, every competitionis required to have a delegate, and delegates go to many comps. This results in a significant decrease in degree of separation overall.

 

[An Animating Cuber]

Bro I forgot to hang out with you. Are you going to either rocky top or volunteer state in 2024?

Nah, I missed registration for rocky top and volunteer state is too close to another comp I have planned to go to (Cobb cubes and clock)

 

[UncleFrank]

WCA used to have a page for this, what happened to it?
I even looked at it just a few months ago, but now it's gone.

https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/relations

here's what it looked like

Relations | World Cube Association

The World Cube Association governs competitions for mechanical puzzles that are operated by twisting groups of pieces, commonly known as 'twisty puzzles'. The most famous of these puzzles is the Rubik's Cube, invented by professor Rubik from Hungary. A selection of these puzzles are chosen as...

web.archive.org

and it would show the degrees of separation between any 2 WCA members.

 

[ProStar]

I don’t think I’ve been to a comp with any active forumers, but my connections with Tommy Cherry and Cale Schoon gets me close to a ton of people, since they cover most of the US and I believe worlds as well. I also have a connection with Chris Hardwick, which covers 2003 worlds and many comps from the early 2000s, so I’m likely 1-2 degrees of separation from any old cuber (including 1982 cubers, through Chris-Jessica Fridrich)

 

[CFOP INC]

Yeah I'm also a little confused but I've been to comp(s) with @Garf , @Tabe , @CFOP INC (though I don't think he's very active on the forums anymore), @Cuberstache , and Max Siauw.

No I am not active anymore