Story time with Uncle Tyson: WCA's scrambling orientation

[macky]

Have you ever wondered why we scramble our cubes with white on top and green in front? Back in 2004, at the first Caltech competitions, cubes were scrambling according to the cross color given by each competitor at registration. Because not everyone starts with the cross (color neutrality was then unheard of among the top cubers...maybe some opposite colors on very special scrambles), at some point the WCA decided to use the same orientation for everyone by specifying a top color and a front color. But what colors to choose?

The following was the WCA board members' line of thought. Standard BOY (American) and Japanese are the two main color schemes. Most cubers solve the white cross and end on yellow, while Japanese cubers solve the blue cross and end on white. Since yellow and blue are switched between the two schemes, after this correction they really just solve from opposite sides. What's more convenient, Japanese cubers solved the cross on bottom, while this wasn't necessarily widespread elsewhere. Put these to together and we have a natural solution: scramble with white on top! Then, when scrambling one's own cube for practice, standard color scheme users can start by solving the white cross on top and japanese cubers can solve the blue cross on bottom, in either case without any initial rotation. This proved to be a great success, and a lot of serious cubers nowadays have made it a habit to scramble with this orientation.

I made up that explanation. This regulation has a real reason, and Uncle Tyson's going to tell you all about it....

 

[waffle=ijm]

where's uncle tyson D:

 

[DavidWoner]

How do you explain green front then?

 

[Tyson]

I would be lying if I said the WCA regulations were completely written by me with no reference to anything else. The truth is, when I sat down to write the regulations for the US National Championships in 2004, I had already borrowed from many things in the past. Even though nothing was written until June of 2004, Caltech had held two tournaments by that time already, and we had already started to do things with certain procedures.

Things like the StackMat and the +2 penalty were simply borrowed from the 2003 World Championships. I started cubing in July of 2003, and so I was very disappointed to find out about the 2003 Toronto tournament in the San Francisco Chronicle, but clearly having been introduced to cubing only a few weeks before the actual event, there was no way for me to immerse myself deeply enough in the culture of speed cubing to have known about this competition. One procedure that I had borrowed when utilizing Caltech competition was which orientation to scramble the cube when preparing for a solve. I had heard in 2003 that competitors would say which color they used to solve the cross, and one would scramble with that color on top. This made sense for the a few reasons. At least for cross solvers, they would all be given the same initial state of forming their cross. It also seemed to make sense to allow people to see the cube relatively to their method, as opposed to an absolute random state.

After some conversations with some cubers, we started to debate whether or not this was a good idea. Giving the competitor of a choice was simply another thing that could be manipulated. Furthermore, it was discussed that since you really cannot predict how someone will view a cube, even though several people may use the same method, if everyone receives the same scramble without prior knowledge, no one can really complain about anything unfair. After all, the scrambling team has no idea what method a cuber uses, and cubers can simply solve different crosses, or use Petrus. I then had some conversations with people who attended WC 2003 and gained some insight as to why the Toronto championships asked for the solver's cross color. Ian Winokur informed me that the scrambles purposefully made the cross hard. The organizer didn't want people to get 'easy cross' cases. This, of course, is completely asinine. It assumes that competitors solve with crosses, which is true unless you're Lars Petrus. Mostly though, once this information got out, competitors would simply say that they solved with the lavender cross, or some other color in hopes of getting a random distribution of starting pieces, as opposed to one that is deemed not easy by the organizer. This was, of course, reinforced when I first spoke with the Toronto organizer, and he provided me with "certified" scrambles. None of this makes sense, because of the reasons I mentioned above. And really, many top cubers have expanded to utilize opposite color cross and color neutral cross methods. And we also have Lars Petrus, who is by definition, awesome.

So, it came time to decide how the WCA should scramble its cubes. White seemed like a logical choice for the top. White, after all, is not a color. And pretty much every cube has white, though some cubes substitute white for black. But almost every cube has white, and it's a very neutral color, since it's not a color. As is black, both white and black aren't really colors. So it made sense to put something neutral on top. What color, then would we put in front? Blue was out of the question, because Japanese color scheme cubes have blue opposite to white. So we were left with red, orange, or green. Of those three colors, my own personal favorite color is green. I prefer green to red or orange, and hence, I made my blindfold color scheme to utilize white on top and green in front. Conveniently, being in the position that I was, this became the official WCA color scheme. Since the color in front was pretty much arbitrary, no one really complained. Only a few people, perhaps only one other person out there, really knew the story to this, and I remember him making the comment, "Tyson's own personal color scheme." It's true... the WCA color scheme is my own personal color scheme. It's how I solve my cubes blindfolded, and it's how I displayed my cubes on my desk and on my bookshelf in college. And now, it's how the world scrambles its cubes.

 

[waffle=ijm]

<3 history of stuff

 

[CharlesOBlack]

Spoiler

I would be lying if I said the WCA regulations were completely written by me with no reference to anything else. The truth is, when I sat down to write the regulations for the US National Championships in 2004, I had already borrowed from many things in the past. Even though nothing was written until June of 2004, Caltech had held two tournaments by that time already, and we had already started to do things with certain procedures.

Things like the StackMat and the +2 penalty were simply borrowed from the 2003 World Championships. I started cubing in July of 2003, and so I was very disappointed to find out about the 2003 Toronto tournament in the San Francisco Chronicle, but clearly having been introduced to cubing only a few weeks before the actual event, there was no way for me to immerse myself deeply enough in the culture of speed cubing to have known about this competition. One procedure that I had borrowed when utilizing Caltech competition was which orientation to scramble the cube when preparing for a solve. I had heard in 2003 that competitors would say which color they used to solve the cross, and one would scramble with that color on top. This made sense for the a few reasons. At least for cross solvers, they would all be given the same initial state of forming their cross. It also seemed to make sense to allow people to see the cube relatively to their method, as opposed to an absolute random state.

After some conversations with some cubers, we started to debate whether or not this was a good idea. Giving the competitor of a choice was simply another thing that could be manipulated. Furthermore, it was discussed that since you really cannot predict how someone will view a cube, even though several people may use the same method, if everyone receives the same scramble without prior knowledge, no one can really complain about anything unfair. After all, the scrambling team has no idea what method a cuber uses, and cubers can simply solve different crosses, or use Petrus. I then had some conversations with people who attended WC 2003 and gained some insight as to why the Toronto championships asked for the solver's cross color. Ian Winokur informed me that the scrambles purposefully made the cross hard. The organizer didn't want people to get 'easy cross' cases. This, of course, is completely asinine. It assumes that competitors solve with crosses, which is true unless you're Lars Petrus. Mostly though, once this information got out, competitors would simply say that they solved with the lavender cross, or some other color in hopes of getting a random distribution of starting pieces, as opposed to one that is deemed not easy by the organizer. This was, of course, reinforced when I first spoke with the Toronto organizer, and he provided me with "certified" scrambles. None of this makes sense, because of the reasons I mentioned above. And really, many top cubers have expanded to utilize opposite color cross and color neutral cross methods. And we also have Lars Petrus, who is by definition, awesome.

So, it came time to decide how the WCA should scramble its cubes. White seemed like a logical choice for the top. White, after all, is not a color. And pretty much every cube has white, though some cubes substitute white for black. But almost every cube has white, and it's a very neutral color, since it's not a color. As is black, both white and black aren't really colors. So it made sense to put something neutral on top. What color, then would we put in front? Blue was out of the question, because Japanese color scheme cubes have blue opposite to white. So we were left with red, orange, or green. Of those three colors, my own personal favorite color is green. I prefer green to red or orange, and hence, I made my blindfold color scheme to utilize white on top and green in front. Conveniently, being in the position that I was, this became the official WCA color scheme. Since the color in front was pretty much arbitrary, no one really complained. Only a few people, perhaps only one other person out there, really knew the story to this, and I remember him making the comment, "Tyson's own personal color scheme." It's true... the WCA color scheme is my own personal color scheme. It's how I solve my cubes blindfolded, and it's how I displayed my cubes on my desk and on my bookshelf in college. And now, it's how the world scrambles its cubes.

if this is real.....

WIN.

also,

Lars Petrus, who is by definition, awesome.

DOUBLE WIN.

 

[Kirjava]

Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed the insight, I've been told his information before though. Somewhere. Who told me?

 

[jiggy]

I did not enjoy getting to the end of the first post, just to be told it wasn't true, and then to scroll down and see I had an even longer post to read!

I kid, I kid. It's always interesting to find out where these things came from. Cool story.

 

[XXGeneration]

Lol. The randomness of cubing is beautiful.

 

[jazzthief81]

I had heard in 2003 that competitors would say which color they used to solve the cross, and one would scramble with that color on top.

Yes, I remember this and I found this so ridiculous that I always said "orange", when I actually start on white.

 

[Tyson]

The question now is, does anyone remember the guy who said that a cube that's 1 move off should be given 1 second penalty, and the cube N moves off should be given N seconds penalty? Does anyone remember when we were given extra solves for a POP?

 

[Kirjava]

Does anyone remember pogs?

 

[Kian]

The question now is, does anyone remember the guy who said that a cube that's 1 move off should be given 1 second penalty, and the cube N moves off should be given N seconds penalty? Does anyone remember when we were given extra solves for a POP?

Nobody could be sup 20!

 

[waffle=ijm]

wasn't that petrus as well?

 

[Rpotts]

wasn't that petrus as well?

........wait...was he in some other pants?

 

[qqwref]

Cool story, interesting to know An added advantage of green front is that the L and R sides stay the same too on both schemes.

 

[waffle=ijm]

........wait...was he in some other pants?

well the same thing happened to me with some other pants.
I just thought it would apply.

 

[bluedasher]

White, after all, is not a color.

White is too a color. Your confusing white with black. Black is the absence of all color. White contains all colors. If white contains all colors it should be considered a color more than any other Color there is.

 

[Toad]

Does anyone remember pogs?

YES.

I even have a POGS related T-shirt, will wear it next comp...

 

[Stefan]

White is too a color. Your confusing white with black. Black is the absence of all color.

"Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum"