[WCA Regulations 2014] Qualification Rounds will be removed.

[Lucas Garron]

Issue #49 on GitHub.

Only two competitions have used qualification rounds since 2010, so they're slated for removal. From GitHub:

# Proposal (December 07, 2013)

**Remove qualification rounds.**
View exact proposed changes: https://github.com/cubing/wca-documents/compare/qualification-rounds

## Pros

Removing qualifications rounds would:

- Simplify the Regulations a bit (we can remove all of [9r](https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/regulations/#9r), and I'm always a fan of removing unneeded Regulations).
- Make all events to be consistent: every competitor an event proceeds through rounds in the same way.
- Not really change how competitions are run: Qualification rounds have only been used at two competitions since 2010.
- [AsianChampionship2012](https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/c.php?i=AsianChampionship2012): qualification rounds could have been replaced with combined finals .
- [RabbitAndTurtle2013](https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/c.php?i=RabbitAndTurtle2013): the qualification round for 3x3x3 was basically a first round that some fast competitors skipped.


## Cons

As far as I understand, the main reasons for a qualification round are:

- A qualification rounds round allows more competitors to participate in an event.
- A qualification round allows new competitors a chance to participate in large championship (that may require pre-qualification otherwise). See [9r+](https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/regulations/guidelines.html#9r+)

But these competitors can just be added to the first round. If there isn't enough time to give slow competitors all their attempts, the first round can be turned into a combined round. Thus, *qualification rounds, in their current format, don't really save time versus other options* (and therefore, don't really allow more competitors). The 2013 World Championships ran fine with 580 competitors and no qualification rounds, and [very few competitions have had even 1/3 as many competitors](https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/statistics.php#most_persons).

Another possible argument:

- A qualification rounds allows (once-)fast competitors guaranteed entry into the first round, and extra solves for newcomers.

However, I don't think anyone would argue that there is a significant need for this.

I don't think this will be controversial, but if anyone has significant concerns, feel free to discuss them here.
In particular, it would be useful to think of a mechanism that handles extra competitors better than what we currently have. Qualification rounds were never a sufficient solution, but some day we'll need a way to manage who may participate in certain large competitions like Worlds.