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hcfong

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WCA to ban colour neutral solving

In a surprise move, the WCA Board has announced their decision to ban neutral solving for CFOP solves. The ban will come into effect on 1 February 2013. Competitors will be required to declare their 3x3 speedsolving method and cross colour when registering for their first competition after this date. This information will become part of the competitor's WCA profile. According to the current proposal, competitors are allowed to change their cross colour once a year when registering for their first competition of the calendar year. Competitors who believe they are unable to solve with a fixed cross colour, may apply to the WCA Board for dispensation. The application should be made in writing and supported with documentary evidence, signed by a public official, such as a judge, teacher, lawyer or police officer. If dispensation is granted, 2 seconds will be added to each 3x3 solve by default. Solving on a different cross colour than declared without dispensation will lead to disqualification of the solve.

Sebastien Auroux, WCA Board member and member of the WCA Regulations Committee, who are responsible for compiling the new Regulations commented:"We felt that the gap between top colour neutral solvers and other top solvers was becoming too big. We wanted to create a level playing field and a fairer competition¨. He also added: "Originally, we wanted to require all competitors to solve the cross on white, but we felt that this would not be acceptable for the members of our community. We therefore decided to allow our members to choose a fixed cross colour". Ron van Bruchem, WCA Board member and founder of the WCA said: "We are aware that this decision will affect some of our top cubers who are colour neutral and benefit from it. However, our goal as the WCA is to have more competitions under fair circumstances and I believe that this measure will contribute to that".

Unsurprisingly, this decision has attracted criticism from some high profile speedcubers. Feliks Zemdegs of Australia, world record holder for both single and average 3x3 speedsolving blasted the decision: "The WCA has gone nuts! We've also been allowed to start our solves on any side and now we're being forced to start our solves on a fixed colour. I've worked hard to get this far and now I'm being penalised for being colour neutral". Rowe Hessler, another top colour neutral solver: "I just can't believe the WCA has taken this decision. It's just ludicrous. Instead of trying to become colour neutral themselves to close the gap, they're banning it. I can't call it anything other than laziness". Other top speedcubers have welcomed the decision as one which would bring promote fairer conditions.

It is clear that this decision will continue to a topic of heated debate for some time to come. It is unclear how it will be enforced during competitions. Certain is that judges need to be trained to correctly adjudicate solves, especially those who do not use CFOP as their speedsolving method. It remains to be seen how it will work out. Many are critical of the decision and doubt if it will survive the next revision of the WCA Regulations.
 

edd5190

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Read this thread first, all the quotations come from here: http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/s...ssional-Does-one-even-need-to-really-be-there

Strongly Worded Forum Post Spurs Search for New World Championship Announcer

Speedsolving forum user lex voices his opposition to the position of announcer at the Rubik's Cube World Championship, specifically targeting the announcer at the most recent World Championship this year in 2013.

Note: The announcer’s name is withheld from the article as this piece intends to promote discussion on the necessity of an announcer rather than the traits of the person.

The post's title begins, "Is this announcer possibly not a professional?", calling into question whether this man does in fact announce at Rubik's Cube competitions for a living. Lex introduces his case with a few quotes about announcers who weren't the announcer from Worlds 2013, from competitions that weren't Worlds 2013.

He also takes issue with the announcer's dress, from which he concludes that the announcer "doesn't look like he wants to be there." Speaking from his personal experience as one of the people present at the competition, lex states, "The audience shouldn't be burdened with such feelings that are expressed by man who doesn’t feel he wants to be there." Lex seems to prefer a more formally dressed announcer to better reflect the high-class origins of speedcubing.

He then takes offense to the announcer's attempts to keep the environment quiet, feeling attacked as one of the cubers there. He would have felt more comfortable if the announcer were someone with experience and presence in the community, saying, "When this action is done, especially by a person the cubing community no less the outer audience doesn't recognize, viewers can be offended. It's like an accusation is personally being made." Lex suggests that the audience would be more comfortable with a robot voice than with a man totally unknown to speedcubers.

If the organizers do not adopt a robot announcer, lex suggests a hidden announcer or no announcer at all. Evidently shifting focus to dead cubers, lex continues, "Otherwise to do so, the WCA is taking away from the respects paid to the cubers..."

Following numerous replies and a consensus that having an announcer is necessary, much discussion has taken place about who should replace the announcer from the 2013 World Championship. With widespread agreement that the announcer should have experience competing and organizing competitions, the cuber Kian Barry has come up and garnered significant support.

"...Kian has competed in 70 competitions and probably actually is friends with many people," says Stefan Pochmann.

Stachu Korick echoes, "Yeah, Kian definitely knows what he's doing, as he always has. He keeps it professional, and is definitely known through US speedcubers."

Anthony Brooks, sister of Weston, continues, "Yeah, Kian certainly knows his stuff. In addition to being a great asset to the staff, Kian is a very competent speedcuber." To substantiate his claim, Brooks included a video of Kian Barry completing a speedsolve in just 8.53 seconds. Though Andrew Kang doubted the identity of the man in the video, the Rutgers baseball cap confirms that it is Kian Barry.

Andrew's doubt stemmed from Kian's apparently darker than usual skin tone in that video, likely a product of the poor lighting at the World Championship venue. The bad lighting is an issue that lex may take up in a later post, backed up entirely by videos of the competition he watched from his home and quotes about the lighting at different competitions. He will likely dispute that the lighting was professional and raise the question of whether the World Championship actually needs lighting.
 
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Anthony Brooks, sister of Weston, continues, "Yeah, Kian certainly knows his stuff. In addition to being a great asset to the staff, Kian is a very competent speedcuber." To substantiate his claim, Brooks included a video of Kian Barry completing a speedsolve in just 8.53 seconds. Though Andrew Kang doubted the identity of the man in the video, the Rutgers baseball cap confirms that it is Kian Barry.

Andrew's doubt stemmed from Kian's apparently darker than usual skin tone in that video, likely a product of the poor lighting at the World Championship venue. The bad lighting is an issue that lex may take up in a later post, backed up entirely by videos of the competition he watched from his home and quotes about the lighting at different competitions. He will likely dispute that the lighting was professional and raise the question of whether the World Championship actually needs lighting.

:D
 

Mikel

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Beard Competition will be an official WCA Event as of April 1, 2014

The WCA Board has unanimously approved a "Best" Beard Competition to be sanctioned as a WCA official event starting in April. Ron van Bruchem, WCA Board member and co-founder gives several reasons as to why the new event is being added:

Ron van Bruchem (WCA Board Member said:
In my many travels across the world I have encountered beards of brawn, style, compassion, and class. After coming across one beard in particular, that of WCA member Ryan Deline at the World Championships 2013, it dawned on me that the WCA was missing an official Beard Competition. It fits in perfectly as a new event. The WCA is filled with objective events measuring speed, efficiency, and accuracy. The Beard Competition will be the first subjective event to be sanctioned by the WCA and I couldn't be happier. I urge you to check out Ryan's magnificent beard in the picture below. This alone will convince you of the Board's decision.

xbPWX81l.jpg

The new Beard Competition will be held in competitions starting April 1st, 2014. This will allow time for new competitors in the event to grow their beards for competition. Instead of being ranked by time, moves, or cubes solved, the WCA delegate for the competition will rank the beard competitors based on their subjective opinions of whose beard is the best. The rankings will appear on the WCA page for that competition and will be shown on each competitor's WCA profile. There will be no world rankings for this event, since judging criteria may change between competitions across the globe. The Beard competition will be held at all upcoming world championships where competitors can achieve the almighty title of World Beard Champion.

The first part of the WCA mission states, "The World Cube Association governs competitions for all puzzles labelled as Rubik puzzles, and all other puzzles that are played by twisting the sides, so-called 'twisty puzzles'." Even though the official Beard competition does not involve solving Rubik's Cubes, the Board is willing to make an exception in this particular case. The Board does believe that all Beard competitors must be able to solve a twisty puzzle. That being said, one of the regulations for the Beard Competition will require all competitors to have successfully achieved a result in one of the other 18 official WCA events within 1 year after competing in their first Beard Competition. Failure to do so will be result in retro-actively changing their Beard results to DNG (Did Not Grow).

The addition of the Beard Competition has faced some opposition from many female cubers who feel that the Beard Competition is not fair due to its bias towards men. Sydney Weaver, Cubing Women's Rights activist who supported the addition of Female WCA World Records, has this to say about the new addition:

Sydney Weaver (Female cuber said:
The Beard Competition is a blatant discrimination towards female cubers everywhere. Our inability to grow a beard excludes us from competing in this new event. How am I supposed to improve my sum of ranks!?

Ilkyoo Choi, WCA Board member, said this as his argument against Sydney's case:

Ilkyoo Choi (WCA Board Member said:
The WCA feels that the Beard competition is in no way discriminating women. Would you say that we should remove 3x3 with feet because it is discriminating against people who have no feet? No. What about people who have no hands? How many of them are we discriminating against with 17 of our other official events? None. If women cannot grow a beard, then that is an unfortunate dilema for them, and we are truly sorry.

With all this being said, it will be interesting to see how the future of this event plays out. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled on the WCA Website come April when the Beard competition becomes official. The WCA requires pictures of all Beards entered and will be available for viewing.
 
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Natanrig

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Solving with Feet Eliminated

In a move that could be smelled coming miles away, the WCA Board announced yesterday that one of its most controversial events, solving the Rubik’s cube with feet, will not be held officially from January 1, 2015 onwards.

The decision was reached by a split 3-2 Board vote. The Board member pushing harder for this decision was Natán Riggenbach, known to be very outspoken against this event. When asked about what drove him to dislike feet solving so much he recounted his first encounter with it at WC 2013 – On the second day of the competition, I went nosing around the side stage and what I saw reeked of unprofessionalism, and other things.

On the other side of the table, Board member Ilkyoo Choi deplored the loss: The atmosphere at competitions will never be the same again – he commented almost tearfully. Mr Choi is known to favor flip-flops and to encourage people to wear them or even go barefooted. Mr. Riggenbach was relentless – I won’t use the word fetish; I’ll just say something smells funny about Mr. Choi’s support for feet solving.

Needless to say, Mr. Riggenbach has become little loved by media members in general, as the elimination of feet solving will deprive serious journalism from all those juice photographs depicting feet and Rubik’s cubes. As was predictable, most media members are trying to make the most of this announcement and the controversy generated by it to boost circulation, as this seems to be the last opportunity they will have to profit from the killing of the goose that laid the golden eggs. Hence the recent proliferation of full-page close-up shots of the interaction of feet and puzzles.

It is no surprise that most media producers have started hate campaigns involving personal attacks mostly leveled at the nose size of Mr. Riggenbach. Not helping this is his proposal to replace feet solving with nose solving. Strange as it may sound, the number of supporters of the ideas presented in Mr. Riggenbach's article Runny Noses and Puzzle Lubrication grows by the hour, and media or not, this proposal is very likely to prosper. Change is in the air.
 
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TheNextFeliks

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World Championships 2015 to be Held in Smerbia

The WCA board has decided to host the 2015 World Championship to be held in Smerbia. Andrew Nelson, according to the board, will be the head organizer of the competition. The board felt Smerbia would be a good neutral location for the competition with a good, experienced organization crew.

After the uproar following Kian Berry acting as announcer in the 2013 World Championship, he will not only be allowed to announce but also from the competition as a whole. Instead Andrew Ricci (or is it Noah Arthurs?), will be the announcer. Many people look forward to Ricci (Arthurs?) being announcer due to his attractive voice and hair.

More details will be released later when they are available and finalized.
 

edd5190

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This Man Explains Why MGLS Is The Underrated Method of the Decade


To date, MGLS is the only divinely inspired method for solving the Rubik's Cube. It began in 2007 with Lucas Garron on a spiritual journey with a burning plant, à la Moses.

There, he encountered the deity of algorithms, the Case God.


“Case God, what do I do about all the haters?"

"Make ‘em jealous.”

“Make MGLS?”

“No. Make—'em—jealous.”

“Make—M—GLS. Thank You Case God."


And off he went.

Since then, like a bridge that can somehow fit a Snorlax but not a crossing pedestrian, the method has been slept on for years.



Credit to Lucas for the title/idea
 
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D

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BEN1996123 ELECTED TO BE SUPER MODERATOR OF SPEEDSOLVING

Yes everyone, it is true. It finally happened! The forum staff is finally glad to announce that Ben1996123 is our new speedsolving super-moderator! Now you might ask about the changes to the forum, but you can disregard that!

The benefits have already rolled in! Stachu has been banished for the supposed controversy in early 2014, pictures of ponies have cluttered the forum, Kirjava was finally able to help Aki make his formal debut, and strakerak has posted over 500 unboxings of the unreleased MoYu Cubes!
 

goodatthis

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RIGID RESTRICTIONS PUT IN PLACE ON VENUE ATMOSPHERE DURING BLINDFOLDED EVENTS

A recent change has been made in WCA regulations pertaining to blindfolded solving. As you may all know, noise is a very detrimental thing to a blindfolded or multiple blindfolded attempt. Organizers and delagates have tried time and time again to quiet the onlookers to blindfolded events, yet some still forget that noise is a major problem. "One time I was doing a 5BLD attempt and I had to memorize a goat eating a child, but instead I memorized an 11 year old celebrating his recent accomplishments in NoseBLD," said an angry blindsolver, "and that led to a DNF." As we were interviewing this man, another noisemaker went up to us and said, "Or you could just wear earplugs." We ignored him.

To combat these dilemmas, the WCA has imposed new rigid regulations on the environment of competitions during blindfolded events. They are as follows:

Equipment
In addition to the usual equipment such as timers, stopwatches, scoring equipment, etc, the delegate must also bring muzzles with him/her, preferably for humans, but ones designed for dogs will do. If the delegate does not have any muzzles on the day of the competition, an organizer must locate a local pet store to purchase such items. Money from registration fees can be used to purchase these.

Regulations for Use of Equipment
During blindfolded events, people who wish to make noise have two options. a) They overcome their urges keep quiet b) They leave the premises (If the venue has multiple rooms, they may go into one of the rooms)

The WCA has implemented a 3-step process for people who are found making noise. We define making noise as anything that can be heard by competitors that is loud/annoying enough to lose focus on the event. The first step is to give the person a warning. The delegate can choose to tap the person on the shoulder and give him a color coded card, assuming he/she was informed beforehand on the use of such cards, or they can quietly ask them to quiet down.

The second step is to ask the person to leave. If the person does not leave, the delegate can, at his/her discretion, disqualify the person's solves.

The third step, if the person does not leave or continues to make noise, is to apply the aforementioned muzzle to the person's mouth and nose. If the delegate wishes, he/she may have a "time-out chair" and/or "dunce cap" for the person.

Afterwards, the muzzle will be taken off of the person and they will be able to return to whatever they were doing.


Yours truly,
The WCA board.

Obviously, this was satirical, but please people, silence is gold during blindfolded events. :) Also, that 11 year old NoseBLD was partially true, when I was sitting watching the 3BLD final at a comp, a kid next to me did a mostly blindfolded CFOP solve with like 15 seconds of inspection. At least he wasn't being loud lol.
 
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PJKCuber

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WCA BANS 3 STYLE FOR BLD!!!!

This could have been seen from a light year away. It just isn't fair to allow crem de la creme BLD solvers to use 3 style. "From what I have seen, all BLD solvers that are sub 40 use 3 style" says a WCA official. Why should they get the advantage of the faster method when most cubers is OP or M2? It isn't fair. Kaijun Lin recently hulk smashed the 3BLD World Records with a single of 18.76 and an average of 23.57. These records are untouchable to common M2 users. In fact, in a recent interview with Scandoland NR Holder, he said that his PB with the M2 method is 59.76, 41 seconds slower than Kaijun. "This is totally unfair" he says. Also, he complains that good BLD solvers use the so called "letter pair memo system". This system is ******** according to him. Tapping and color are much better, they are easier and are more efficient. In fact, Andrew Ricci, the NAR holder for 3BLD mean, shot out at this rule by saying that he and other elite BLDers had worked hard to rote learn the 800+ 3 cycles. "I wrote each cycle 5000 times a day" he laments.
Kaijun Lin's record was stripped and the fastest solve using M2, Bongo Komodir's 54.87 was made the New WR.

Signing off,
THE WCA

LOL, writing this was super fun.
 

IRNjuggle28

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BEN1996123 ELECTED TO BE SUPER MODERATOR OF SPEEDSOLVING

Yes everyone, it is true. It finally happened! The forum staff is finally glad to announce that Ben1996123 is our new speedsolving super-moderator! Now you might ask about the changes to the forum, but you can disregard that!

The benefits have already rolled in! Stachu has been banished for the supposed controversy in early 2014, pictures of ponies have cluttered the forum, Kirjava was finally able to help Aki make his formal debut, and strakerak has posted over 500 unboxings of the unreleased MoYu Cubes!
Oh my gosh this needs to actually happen.

Seriously, the forum should unban him and make him an admin for 24 hours, next April Fool's day.
 

Randomno

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"3x3 using a non-MoYu cube" new event, as well as 4x4 and 5x5.
MoYu cubes are still at the top of the market.

Earlier today, the World Cubing Association released this statement:

Due to the recent dominance of MoYu cubes, the WCA board will be adding 3 new events: 3x3 using a non-MoYu cube, 4x4 using a non-MoYu cube, and 5x5 using a non-MoYu cube. The events will become official on January 1, 2015.

As stated, the new events are due to an extreme dominance of MoYu puzzles. This is not limited to just 3x3, as other include: WeiLong (3x3), AoLong (3x3), WeiSu (4x4), AoSu (4x4), AoChuang (5x5), and AoFu (7x7). MoYu will also release a 6x6 cube in the near future, expected to replace all other brands within due course.

Feliks Zemdegs, whose participation in these events is highly anticipated, surprised many by saying, "Contrary to popular belief, I did not blow up by C4Us when I got a GuHong, and I did not burn by Dayan cubes when I got a WeiLong. And, believe it or not, the Gans III I own is not just used for example states in my YouTube videos; I actually speedsolve it occasionally. I hope for a WR at the first comp I go to."

Mats Valk said, "If I don't get WR, I won't be saying 'Boom!' in a Dutch accent", and then stopped. Alexander Lau, third in the world for single (though you probably have no idea who he is), commented "What's MoYu? Is it a Dayan knockoff?". Nipat Charoenpholphant, who you might have heard of but never written down, said "What's MoYu? Is it a Cube4You knockoff?" Minh Thai (he held a 3x3 world record), said "What's MoYu? Is it a Seven Towns knockoff?".

Sebastian Weyer said "I've modded my Shengshou using Konsta, Florian, Klonstian, and Flora. I've got this."

The new events will co-incide with the new rule of stickerless puzzles becoming competition-legal. An online speedcuber had this to comment: "Ha, if you get a stickerless MoYu you're an idiot. My worn-out Zhanchi might see a debut appearance at a comp." Michael Idiom said, "Has anyone ever seen Feliks with a sticklerless cube?"

MoYu currently sells a 2x2, the "LingPo", which is, unusually, not a competition-smashing cube. A cube store owner said, "The LingPo is a much worse seller than many more expensive MoYu puzzles. We have heard they are considering the release of an "AoMing", using an AoLong-type mechanism." Richard Potato, a man well-involved in the design of MoYu cubes, commented, "LingPo, when badly translated, actually means 'another break'. Unfortunately, this was not picked up by the manufacturers, who strangely speak little Mandarin. We plan to create a better mechanism in the near future."

I think I rambled on too long with this one. Oh well.
 
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