Sydney cubing competitions.

[JTM007]

What's the deal with there being no comps on in sydney? I want to go to one so bad. I understand there's covid but the pubs and clubs are open so you'd think we could have cubing comps allowed

 

[BenChristman1]

All that you can do is wait.

 

[RoundUpCubing]

if local regulations allow it, you could try organizing your own

 

[MJS Cubing]

if local regulations allow it, you could try organizing your own

There are a bunch of complications with that though, first, you would have to have a small comp, have a large area (to maintain distancing), make sure people keep on their masks, and clean Stackmat timers and stopwatches between competitors. Not to mention all the things from the wca like getting a delegate, finding staff, get a contract for a venue, etc.

 

[RoundUpCubing]

There are a bunch of complications with that though, first, you would have to have a small comp, have a large area (to maintain distancing), make sure people keep on their masks, and clean Stackmat timers and stopwatches between competitors. Not to mention all the things from the wca like getting a delegate, finding staff, get a contract for a venue, etc.

very good point. theres a lot of thing everyone touches, so cleaning stuff is something i would have never thought about. getting a big venue should not be very hard, may seem pricey but everyone wants to go to a comp, so having entrance fees higher would easily make up for the venue and limited amount of people.

 

[Kit Clement]

Some of you might need to get your US-centric thinking checked. Australia's COVID situation is basically beyond mask wearing at this point, and looks nothing like the US. Australia has actually taken continuous action to reduce spread and locks down cities/states when cases are known to prevent further spread. This is already an issue for the upcoming Brisbane competition this weekend, where all the delegates are from Melbourne and cannot travel due to state lockdown as the new UK strain of COVID was confirmed in Brisbane, and alternate arrangements have needed to be made last minute with regards to equipment and appointing an emergency delegate. This isn't something that delegates want to deal with on a regular basis, which is likely why competitions are just slowly resuming there.

 

[RoundUpCubing]

Some of you might need to get your US-centric thinking checked. Australia's COVID situation is basically beyond mask wearing at this point, and looks nothing like the US. Australia has actually taken continuous action to reduce spread and locks down cities/states when cases are known to prevent further spread. This is already an issue for the upcoming Brisbane competition this weekend, where all the delegates are from Melbourne and cannot travel due to state lockdown as the new UK strain of COVID was confirmed in Brisbane, and alternate arrangements have needed to be made last minute with regards to equipment and appointing an emergency delegate. This isn't something that delegates want to deal with on a regular basis, which is likely why competitions are just slowly resuming there.

very good point. every country's covid situation is different, and i dont stay up to date with australia as its halfway around the world. so your best bet would end up being just waiting a couple months, or go to some online unofficial tournaments.

 

[CodingCuber]

Due to the recent outbreaks in Sydney, there are still some restrictions in place and delegates probably just don't want to take the risk in the current situation (similar thing happened in Melbourne where I live). Another concern delegates may have is although the Sydney COVID numbers are low, they are widespread and many can't be traced back so when people come from all different communities to a competition, there's a higher chance of someone being infected. I noticed a similar question on the WCA Forum and Ethan Pride (an Australian delegate) replied,

"The current state restrictions in Sydney do not support bringing back competitions just yet as they would be too small. A competition of 20 competitors in a community which normally supports competitions of up to 200 competitors is unreasonably small and would likely sell out within the first 10-20 seconds of registration opening. Competitions will return to Sydney when it is practical to do so."
(https://forum.worldcubeassociation.org/t/competitons-in-sydney-australia/10198)

This post was in October but many of the points are still valid. The least you can do for now is just wait a month or so and you'll start to see some.