• 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!

[WR] Stanley Chapel - 1:10.68 4BLD Single

Mike Hughey

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 7, 2007
Messages
11,303
Location
Indianapolis
WCA
2007HUGH01
SS Competition Results
YouTube
Visit Channel
I love the way Stanley doesn't even seem impressed by the result - just another ordinary sub-1:15 4BLD solve. (Even if it is his first ever in competition.)

Stanley (or anyone else who knows), where did you get the blindfold? I want to learn to do the nod-don thing. :)

Edit: One more comment - this video shows that, with the nod-don, we need judges who are very knowledgeable about BLD solving now, and they need to be paying VERY close attention during the memorization phase. Stanley clearly did not make any moves here prior to the blindfold being in place - the video shows that clearly - but he started making moves just milliseconds after the blindfold went on. Judges will need to be watching for the nod-don and verifying that no moves are applied until the blindfold is in place.
 

mark49152

Premium Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2012
Messages
4,719
Location
UK
WCA
2015RIVE05
YouTube
Visit Channel
Edit: One more comment - this video shows that, with the nod-don, we need judges who are very knowledgeable about BLD solving now, and they need to be paying VERY close attention during the memorization phase. Stanley clearly did not make any moves here prior to the blindfold being in place - the video shows that clearly - but he started making moves just milliseconds after the blindfold went on. Judges will need to be watching for the nod-don and verifying that no moves are applied until the blindfold is in place.
IMHO, nod-don should be disallowed for exactly this reason. It's too difficult to judge, and we already have enough problems with inexperienced or inattentive judges.
 

PapaSmurf

Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2018
Messages
1,103
WCA
2016TUDO02
YouTube
Visit Channel
Unless nod-don is questionable (as in there are moves done before turning) it should be fine. Who says how you have to put the blindfold on? If something is different, that doesn't make it bad, unless it's explicitly against the regs.
 

cubeshepherd

Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2018
Messages
2,258
WCA
2016STEE01
First off, Congratulations Stanley on re-getting the 4x4 BLD WR single and with such a great time. Well done and keep the hard work up. I look forward to seeing a sub 1 4x4 BLD single soon;)

IMHO, nod-don should be disallowed for exactly this reason. It's too difficult to judge, and we already have enough problems with inexperienced or inattentive judges.
Edit: One more comment - this video shows that, with the nod-don, we need judges who are very knowledgeable about BLD solving now, and they need to be paying VERY close attention during the memorization phase. Stanley clearly did not make any moves here prior to the blindfold being in place - the video shows that clearly - but he started making moves just milliseconds after the blindfold went on. Judges will need to be watching for the nod-don and verifying that no moves are applied until the blindfold is in place.
I would have to agree with you both in that the nod-don should be illegal, especially since there is a (well will be a higher change if this goes on) that the blindfold is not fully on once the first moves are applied. I am not saying that this is at all what Stanley was/is doing, but I am referring to if other people start to to do it, and try the nod don, then some (and I hope that none do it, but there is a chance) that people will try the nod don and do a few moves before the judge puts an object in front of the competitor.

And as it has already been stated, doing the nod don would require the judge(s) to be very fast at placing something in front of the competitor, but if the judge is caught off guard for even a second, moves can be applied with the blindfold not fully down.

The WCA regulations have it very clear that something should be between the cube and competitor during the solve, and that even if (hypothetically) something is not between the cube and competitor then the blindfold should be down all the way that the competitor can not see the cube at all (B4c1). And just so all can see, here is the words from the regulations page;
B4) Blindfolded phase:
  • B4a) The competitor dons the blindfold to start the blindfolded phase.
  • B4b) The competitor must not apply moves to the puzzle before they have fully donned the blindfold. Penalty: disqualification of the attempt (DNF).
  • B4c) The judge must ensure that there is an opaque object between the competitor's face and the puzzle while the competitor is solving.
    • B4c1) In all cases, the competitor must wear the blindfold such that their view of the puzzle would still clearly be blocked if the opaque object were not in the way.
    • B4c2) By default, the judge should place the object (e.g. a sheet of paper or cardboard) between the competitor and the puzzle while the competitor is wearing the blindfold.
Edit: I just watched Jack's 3x3 BLD single and realized that the same nod don applied to his solve as well. I (again) do not think that the experienced solvers like Stanley and Jack are doing the nod don to get any sort of advantage, but I am saying what I say because lesser experenced solvers might try to immitate Jack, Stanley etc. and try to get a slight advantage in doing the nod don.
 
Last edited:

Mike Hughey

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 7, 2007
Messages
11,303
Location
Indianapolis
WCA
2007HUGH01
SS Competition Results
YouTube
Visit Channel
I think it's pretty clear that the nod-don examples we've been talking about here do not violate any current rules. The concern is obviously the potential that some future important solve might be a problem. The current regulations are kind of okay, but they do require very careful behavior on the part of the judge - the judge needs to be watching carefully for the blindfold to be in place before moves are made on the cube, and needs to DNF the solve if not. That's a lot more responsibility than I've seen from judges in a lot of the competitions I've been to (including some where Stanley has been solving).
 

schapel

Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2012
Messages
87
Location
Ann Arbor, MI
WCA
2016CHAP04
YouTube
Visit Channel
I love the way Stanley doesn't even seem impressed by the result - just another ordinary sub-1:15 4BLD solve. (Even if it is his first ever in competition.)

Stanley (or anyone else who knows), where did you get the blindfold? I want to learn to do the nod-don thing. :)

Edit: One more comment - this video shows that, with the nod-don, we need judges who are very knowledgeable about BLD solving now, and they need to be paying VERY close attention during the memorization phase. Stanley clearly did not make any moves here prior to the blindfold being in place - the video shows that clearly - but he started making moves just milliseconds after the blindfold went on. Judges will need to be watching for the nod-don and verifying that no moves are applied until the blindfold is in place.
https://www.amazon.com/Alaska-Natural-Sleep-Blindfold-Smooth/dp/B00GSO1D9O?th=1


@ everyone saying that noddon creates an advantage:
the exact same advantage can be gained due to the lack of a sight blocker for the first few turns of execution, which is caused by judge reaction time
eliminating this would be impossible, so there's no reason noddon should be banned for that
 

CarterK

Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2017
Messages
517
WCA
2015KUCA01
YouTube
Visit Channel
https://www.amazon.com/Alaska-Natural-Sleep-Blindfold-Smooth/dp/B00GSO1D9O?th=1


@ everyone saying that noddon creates an advantage:
the exact same advantage can be gained due to the lack of a sight blocker for the first few turns of execution, which is caused by judge reaction time
eliminating this would be impossible, so there's no reason noddon should be banned for that
Also you could gain the same advantage by doing the first few turns OH so banning noddon doesn't even get rid of the issue, and yeah the sight blocker isn't there anyway.
 
Top