WDC Report on a Case of Cheating

[UncleFrank]

Announced by Shain Papalotl Longbehn on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 at 9:00 AM EDT
Dear WCA Community,

The Disciplinary Committee has concluded an investigation on a case of cheating by a well-known competitor in multiple events spanning several competitions in 2022 and 2023. As a result, they have been banned for 2-years and 6-months from competing, ending on June 24th, 2026.

The WDC allowed the competitor to submit footage for review. Any result that the WDC could not determine as valid has been disqualified. As specified in Regulation 9t, if there was any change where the competitor would not have advanced to the next round, all results of the competitor for those subsequent rounds were removed.

Since this competitor is well-known in the community and is still a record holder, the WDC decided to make the report for this investigation public. The intention is to explain the reasons behind our decision and provide insight on how the Committee works.

The WDC has elected to fully anonymize this report and the video evidence due to the age of the accused competitor. The WDC strongly discourages the community from publicizing the name of the accused competitor for this reason. The full report can be found here.

Best regards,
Shain Longbehn (WDC Leader)
On behalf of the WCA Disciplinary Committee

WDC Report on a Case of Cheating | World Cube Association

The World Cube Association governs competitions for mechanical puzzles that are operated by twisting groups of pieces, commonly known as 'twisty puzzles'. The most famous of these puzzles is the Rubik's Cube, invented by professor Rubik from Hungary. A selection of these puzzles are chosen as...

www.worldcubeassociation.org

World Cube Association

The World Cube Association governs competitions for mechanical puzzles that are operated by twisting groups of pieces, commonly known as 'twisty puzzles'. The most famous of these puzzles is the Rubik's Cube, invented by professor Rubik from Hungary. A selection of these puzzles are chosen as...

forum.worldcubeassociation.org

As clarified in that WCA forum post, the person is a former record holder, not current, and the ban took effect in Dec 2023, WDC is just now getting the full report out.

 

[Spencer131]

It's bizarre to see most of the results DNFed but a few are still allowed to stand. I think they should all be invalidated at this point

 

[SkewbIsTheBestEvent]

It's bizarre to see most of the results DNFed but a few are still allowed to stand. I think they should all be invalidated at this point

I agree, but I'd assume the few that weren't DNF'd are the ones with clear video...

 

[An Animating Cuber]

It's bizarre to see most of the results DNFed but a few are still allowed to stand. I think they should all be invalidated at this point

The competitor sent video to the investigation committee to show no moves were made in inspection for these solves.

 

[UncleFrank]

I think they should all be invalidated at this point

I think it warrants a permanent, lifetime ban, too.

 

[artless1der]

As clarified in that WCA forum post, the person is a former record holder, not current...

The statement by Shain says "still a record holder" ...
still all makes me go w. t. h.
(and also s.m.h.)'!

 

[UncleFrank]

The statement by Shain says "still a record holder" ...
still all makes me go w. t. h.
(and also s.m.h.)'!

Another comment further down in the forum thread, he said, "is still a former record holder". He was trying to say, the guy's former record was not DNF'd as part of this ban/punishment. It's just "former" because someone else beat it. They DNF'd almost every one of his solves in every event, except for his former record and a small handful of others. His profile is now just a wall of DNFs.

 

[JDAW6]

who s the cheater?

 

[ichcubegerne]

who s the cheater?

It literally says in the case post that this is not supposed to be made public and thats the first question you ask in a public forum?

 

[JDAW6]

It literally says in the case post that this is not supposed to be made public and thats the first question you ask in a public forum?

Oh! I didn’t see that

 

[Running for cube]

I feel that "Skewb expert" doesn't really fit the whole tone of the document

Edit: Reading through it now I realize that he was the one to check in on the skewb solves, so it does make sense, but it's still kinda funny given that it seems like a badge you get for wr holder

 

[qwr]

Google docs is blocked here, can someone upload the report as a word or PDF file

 

[UncleFrank]

Google docs is blocked here, can someone upload the report as a word or PDF file

It's a pdf, but it's set to view only mode, so I can't copy, print, or download it.

 

[qwr]

making it anonymous just makes me want to find out who it is more

 

[JDAW6]

making it anonymous just makes me want to find out who it is more

YEah liken seriously , human brains are weird. We do things that we shouldn’t then regret it later. God should put out a new update to fix some bugs.

 

[LBr]

making it anonymous just makes me want to find out who it is more

Yesterday I happened to randomly stumble across the cheaters profile. I knew it was him because he was good at skewb and he had most of his results dnfed. Although i think you’re not supposed to say, I don’t understand because his wca was from 2017 so he can’t be that young. Also when Matyas kuti allegedly cheated he was 14 and his identity was revealed, I guess because there was no point hiding it. I think I would guess this competitor to be 17 at youngest so honestly I don’t see the point of keeping him anonymous people are going to find out anyway.

 

[1973486]

Yesterday I happened to randomly stumble across the cheaters profile. I knew it was him because he was good at skewb and he had most of his results dnfed. Although i think you’re not supposed to say, I don’t understand because his wca was from 2017 so he can’t be that young. Also when Matyas kuti allegedly cheated he was 14 and his identity was revealed, I guess because there was no point hiding it. I think I would guess this competitor to be 17 at youngest so honestly I don’t see the point of keeping him anonymous people are going to find out anyway.

World Cube Association • View topic - Important announcement about blindfolded solving

WCA will not use the competitor’s name in communication because the competitor is still under 18 years of age. For the same reason WCA distributed a detailed report on this matter only to a small number of involved parties. We kindly request our community to support the privacy of the competitor.