WCA Competition Experience

Competition report: Mumbai cube open 2025

Venue
Previous Competitions in the same venue?
1st time

Type:
Event hall

Space/Size:
A little crammed during popular events and super-hot.

Light:
Too bright throughout the day as there was a lot of natural light

Temperature:
Too hot and humid, the ceiling fans were not sufficient to make the conditions bearable

Accessibility:
A little hard to find even after giving proper google maps location. Thane West is also hard to reach to, as there are no nearby long route buses, and thane railway station is a bit far away.

Setup:
6 stations, spectator area and competitor area were not segregated. Scrambling and data entry in the far back and was crammed and chaotic. Waiting area was created but could not be followed as it was poorly defined. The poster on the stage was incorrectly printed as it showed clock where we did not have clock event in this comp.

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Schedule:
The blindfold round was changed to a single round and running system (highly inadvisable which gave a boost to the schedule). The lunch was cut short by 15 minutes. Since the finals were kept with conservative time period, we finished before time.

Judging system:
Running system was used throughout the day even during finals, since the number of solving stations were less. This led to chaos day-long which tired the competitors and the judges and runners. The judges were inexperienced which led to a lot of time being wasted clearing out trivial queries.

Overall feedback:
This competition failed on many fronts and lacked planning and execution. The only good thing was that the 6 judges were available throughout the day, so the organizers did not have to scout for volunteers. Scrambling was slow throughout the day and there was no coordination between runners and scramblers. The waiting area was non-existent and illegal as well, as competitors were able to view the solving stations, and go back to their parents between solves. Since the space was crammed, I could not have thought of a better way of creating waiting area without a big compromise. Lanyards and the outside area could have been used for waiting.

First timers were confused and disappointed with the experience, as there were no appreciation goodies or words handed out. Even the basic participation certificate was not organized. The no-show percentage was 25% which is a lot. I guess the organizers could have done a better survey of which time and set of events suits the community better.

I hope this venue does not get enabled for another competition, unless the volunteer group gets more professional and coolers / ACs get installed. I think around 30 competitor limit is fine for this venue, with parents seated upstairs (yes we have to book 2 halls). With 30 competitors, side events only or PBQ comps can be organized.

The highlight of this competition was the good results from Dhruv and Vedant who got good singles with 3BLD 3-style. It is sad that Maharashtra has had no BLD events in the past comps, or just a single round. It does not cater to the growing BLD community at all. I think this is going to change with more upcoming BLD events in the future in this region, 🤞.

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Disclaimers:
This report is made from the view of a participant. I wanted to log my experience and share with relevant groups so that higher quality competitions are enabled and first-time organizers get constructive feedback to work on. This text should NOT be taken as a reference or a validation source for any purposes. It has been written in a linear way with a little thought put into it. I do not want to influence the community in any way with the sentences written in this report :)
 
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Competition personal report: Pune Cube Carnival 2025


Venue:

Previous Competitions in the same venue?
2nd time


Type:
Banquet hall


Space/Size:

Enough space for competing and for seating of parents. Good to see the organizers repeating this venue and hold a more challenging set of events. There was enough parking space for cubers driving to the venue from nearby cities.


Light:

A lot of natural light which was variable due to the rainy season and the frequent power cuts


Temperature:

Moderate. A cooler was used and there was ample ventilation. It became cooler on the second day because of the seasonal monsoon.


Accessibility:

Outside the main city. The singhad road to reach the venue is badly maintained by the city municipality. Far away from bus stops and train / flight. Uber and auto rickshaw are available modes of transport. No decent accommodation nearby
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Setup:

12 stations with flexibility to add more stations on need basis. On the second day two displays were used to show the times to the spectating area. The view to the display was blocked for the most of time because of the overlapping waiting area and cube collection area.


Spectator area and competitor area were separated by lanyards. The scrambling area was crammed and had a lot of unnecessary things thrown and put around. The cube collection area was neglected as many cubers disposed waste there and there was no volunteer to keep control of schedule and cube collection.


As a feedback, one more scrambling station could have been used. The cube collection could be been less chaotic. Fixed seating could have been used for square-1, clock, blind with different groupings.


The waiting area could have been made seating only and at a corner of the banquet hall. The waiting area could have been facing the other side of the solving area, with the runners properly going up to the waiting area and calling the cubers to empty stations. Stopwatches could have been arranged and some placards could have been printed to aid the runners.



Schedule:

The competition started late on day 1 and was on a constant 30 minute delay. The second day schedule was conservatively set and it was easier to speed up due to the series of finals. Another round of multi blind could have been added. The blind round on the first day could have been a bit later as it made cubers commuting from other cities get anxious.


Judging system:

Running system was used throughout the two days except the finals. The Pune community showed good enthusiasm in volunteering and Jay managed the flow of the competition well.

Fixed system could have worked as the waiting area got chaotic for many sprint events.


Overall feedback:

The competition was a good filler to the frequent Pune comps. The organizers did a good job with good communication and management. The energy levels and commitment of main organizers were on par which led to no major hiccups.


Speedcubing Pune can learn from Speedcubing Bengaluru to rotate events well and periodically. The community can know when to expect the event by a good rotation policy. It is important to remove biases to hold specific events just to cater to one part of the cubing world. There were no incentives for first timers to enjoy the competition as there was nothing attractive arranged for them on day 2, no goodies arranged and know-hows exchanged. A lot of parents approached to be potential organizers and it was good to see enthusiasm and for them to understand the workings and limitations of WCA officiated competitions.


3blind finals had loud noise levels which made it unfair and it was unavoidable. I guess this event is not suitable for blind events and FMC in the future. Mutli blind organizing was well anticipated by asking participants to fill out forms to decide the number of cubes beforehand. There were no duplicates and the no hiccups. Due to the natural disturbances, everyone performed poor. Scheduling another attempt would have been a good solution.


Looking forward to Pune unscrambled happening a few km away from this venue.

Disclaimers:

This report is made from the view of a participant. I wanted to log my experience and share with relevant groups so that higher quality competitions are enabled and newer organizers get constructive feedback to work on. This text should not be taken as a reference or a validation source by anyone for any purposes. It has been written in a linear way with a little thought put into it. I do not want to influence the community in any way with the sentences written in this report
 
MCC 2025 was epic!


The best venue for a cubing competition. This was my 104th comp and I have attended comps in 5 countries.


I have seen 70+ venues personally and hundreds of more via delegate reports and this one is the best for mid sized competition 50-125 or even small sized competitions like PBQ. I bet we matched or surpassed the best banquet venues that have ever hosted a WCA competition across the world.


The schedule and volunteering was good, and the community building post Covid is on track. A lot of young cubers stayed till the end which shows their enthusiasm for the WCA format and wanting to get PRs.


The prizes were well designed and had a similar theme to Oculus and Korum comps in the past. Loved the designing. The lighting at the competition was good and the sound levels were too low because of the good building design and room design. There was some issue with the network as we were in a heavily concretized and custom made billionaire's house.


Team Cubenama was perfect and professional at all times. It was good to see good communication between first timers, seasoned cubers, delegates and the volunteers.


The cafe inside the sports lounge was an excellent idea and it enhanced the user experience when cubers were not competing. Round tables for practising was good and it reminded me of Worlds 2013 and Worlds 2017 when round tables space led to nice community interaction. The 30+ floor building in which the competition was held reminded me of Asians 2018 where the venue was in a skyscraper in a posh locality and a prime location.


I am grateful to Sharan for working towards making this venue possible and take the speedcubing experience to the next level.
I am looking forward to the competition coming up at this venue in a couple of months.


I want to write out a more detailed description of the competition so that organizers from other cities and countries can take cues and learn from the quality and user experience this competition provided.


On a wishful note, I would love it if Gautam Singhania (the guy who founded the Raymond group) takes interest in cubing and gives the monetary boost to make it an entertaining experience for Indian audiences and worldwide audiences 🤞🏾.


For example, Chess changed a lot when Rex Sinquefield decided to sponsor a lot of top players, give huge prize money and hold elite tournaments.

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Satya bavesh gala was there my worst enemy 💀
 
Stevenage April 2025

The comp was in the forum next to the Stevenage shopping centre and was held on Easter weekend. 189 people competed and I did not do that great overall. Though I did get a decent 2.85 2x2 average.
 
Competition personal report: Pune Unscrambled 2025

https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/competitions/PuneUnscrambled2025

Venue:
Previous Competitions in the same venue?
3rd time

Type:
Banquet hall

Space/Size:
Enough space for competing and for seating of parents. The space was managed in a similar way to the previous 2 editions.

Light:
The banquet hall had good lighting overall. There was a bit of yellow hue, but it did not affect color recognition while solving. On the second day, the electricity went out couple of times during active rounds which caused some extras to be handed out.

Temperature:
Cool due to multiple split ACs. There were ACs only on one side which led to the room not uniformly cooled. There were a few solving stations that felt a bit cooler due to being in close proximity to the ACs.

Accessibility:
The venue is situated outside the main city. It is far away from bus, train / flight stations. App based taxi and auto rickshaw are available modes of transport. Accommodation was available in the same building. I am grateful to Sanvi for arranging the stay for important volunteers and the delegates.

Setup:
The spectator area and solving area had a few feet gap which allowed better solving experience. A total of 10 timers were used and two QiYi displays. There was enough space for movement. There was just enough sitting space for people waiting during the round which minimized the chaos.

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Schedule:
The competition on time on both days. The second day schedule was a breeze due to the series of finals and the competition ended by 3 pm. A few more events could have been added to make it a fuller 2-day competition, but I understand keeping things simple and giving freedom to participants to explore the city and leave early to rest and travel back.

An extra round of 3x3 one handed was added on day 2 which was a good action from Pranav. He assessed the situation well and understood that an extra round would be a win-win and apt considering few other events had 3 rounds.

Judging system:
Running system was used throughout the two days except the finals. The Pune community showed good enthusiasm in volunteering and Jay, Samarth managed the flow of the competition well.

Overall feedback:
The organizers did a good job with good communication and management. The energy levels and commitment of main organizers were on par which led to no major hiccups. Good to see the organizers repeating this venue and holding an interesting mix of events. It is sad that QiYi could not sponsor the competition this time. I enjoyed the previous 2 editions of Pune Unscrambled more. The registrations were not completely filled and only 79 cubers showed up to the venue. The competition could have been marketed better. Sandwiches and tea were arranged for the volunteers which was nice. Water provision and washroom facility was satisfactory. The restaurant below had good food options, so it was convenient for everyone. There was no need to order in or extend the lunch time. The data entry had a lot of mistakes around 6 mistakes in total, so it should be done more carefully next time. A few of parents approached to be potential organizers, and it was good to see enthusiasm and for them to understand the workings of WCA officiated competitions. It is good that Speedcubing Pune is making sure that there are healthy number of competitions and a decent roadmap. The main winning point is that many organizers want to do more comps and build up their venues for better competitive experience and scale.

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It was nice experience for me to wear a suit during the second day of the competition. I could not update my 4blind times and get NR, but there is always a next time. I got to do 78 solves throughout the two days which is a good volume of solves. It was nice to meet the WR holder in OH, Dhruva Sai Meruva. I hope he attends more upcoming competitions and get PRs/WRs.

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Looking forward to Fastest fingers first Pune happening in a month's time and also Pune Unscrambled 4.0 next year with the same quality and user experience.

Disclaimers:
This report is made from the view of a participant. I wanted to log my experience and share with relevant groups so that higher quality competitions are enabled and newer organizers get constructive feedback to work on. This text should not be taken as a reference or a validation source by anyone for any purposes. It has been written in a linear way with a little thought put into it. I do not want to influence the community in any way with the sentences written in this report.
 

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Newcastle Summer 2025 !

- On the morning of Day 1, I watched someone run through the halls to the venue holding a pizza, and i am 99% sure that person was Daniel Evans.

- I performed EXTREMELY well in R1 of every event byt 2x2, most events i got a overall PB.

- In skewb i had that weird is it plus 2 or not and had an army of delegates stare at my cube.

- I used a Big 3x3 right before 3x3 R1 so my 3x3 felt very small and im suprised i got sub 20 ao5

- I was ordering Bugger King when I found out I went to 3x3 R2, btw this bugger king was 35 min walk away and i had 15 mins to get there, so idk how the hell i RAN there in time.

- Because of this Bugger king incident, I WAS EATONF A CHICKEN BUGGER IN THE MIDDLE OF 2X2 FINALS AND I THINK IT GAVE ME SUOERHUMAN 2X2 ABILITIES BECAUSE I ALMSOT GOT A OVERALL PB AVERAGE IF IT WERENT FOR THW FACT I PLUS 2ED A 3 AND SOMEHOW I GOT 2 3s (3 3s if i didnt +2 one)

- I omly talked to like 2 people (where i had an actual convo)

- I was chatting to one of these people whilst we were judging across from each other (when we both didnt have a competitor to judge) in clock finals, and I judged one persons entire average, and on Solve 3 i forgot to send the cube back and they gave me a judging look (the competitor) so i said to the judge across that i hope they dnf average and then i judged their next 2 solves and well... my dream came true guys.
 
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