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What do you want from a tournament?

H

hdskull

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- Lighting, is very important, I remember at DSC 2008 the light was switched off for like a second. Wth? Luckily I wasn't solving at the time.

- Good spectators, I HATE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY, especially on a speedsolve, a flash can mess up your times.

- Good participants, at competitions, sometimes a name needs to be called 10 times before the person in the room hears it, if you're using the restroom, that's different. Maybe a mic would help. Maybe participants who knows their ability? I'm not trying to discourage cubers on the rise, but if a OH solve is like 5-6 mins long, maybe you should try again next time when you're 1-2 mins (or at least 2-3)? Sometimes people get frustrated. For BLD if you're still memorizing at 9 mins, then I don't think you should be competing, let the judge, spend time on someone else. However, slow 2H solves don't bother me, because those people are just entering the Cube world, and it's nice seeing them compete.

- More scramblers, it's not just faster, it's also easier on that one scrambler.

- A certificate for top 3 finishers, how much can a piece of paper cost?

- Varying events, sometimes, some events are never held close by, I guess this is due to popularity of the main events, but occasionally a side event would be nice (Magic takes like a min for each competitor).
 
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sam

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Sep 26, 2007
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Like:
-Indoor. (i didn't feel comfortable in the windy atmosphere of captains cove)
-good lighting. (just like everyone else)
-good cubers.
-T-Perming ALL of Bob's cubes. As of now i expect bob to be at every competition i ever attend in my life. Bob Burton does not follow cubing, Cubing follows Bob Burton.



Dislikes:
-Children who are annoying: There are some children that are just too annoying and keep backpacks on during the whole competition and only get in your way during the serious parts. Others are fine who just compete and dont steal and/or break things.
-Wind.
-Bob giving everyone parities on their cubes (even they keychain!! XD)
-Soccer moms (Football moms in europe)
-Having a judge tell me to stop during the first 5 seconds of my solve and getting a 24 because of it.
 

JBCM627

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Apr 27, 2008
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Ohio, USA
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2006MERT01
Likes:
*Good lighting - by this, I mean no or minimal shadows. Bright stage lights can be bad.
*Good temperature - stuffy & hot = bad, especially for workers :p
*Adequate workers - scramblers, judges, etc. Woot, I got a 4.59 18 move scramble at Cincy...
*Nearby food - yummy in my tummy
*Public and spacious venue - Schools and gyms are great rooms, especially since they usually come free, but are not very public. A large open room able to be customly arranged at a public venue would be ideal, I think. Also, at Cincinnati, we had a lot of people stop by who knew nothing about cubing; I'd also recommend brochures or something with extra info for these people (they often asked for something like this).
*Sound system - no megaphone required
*Non-cube related mystery events - like the shock game at SF Winter 07. No, I didn't participate.
*Miscelaneous awards - for odd but cool things
*After party - essential to a good competition. Cubing and more food.

Dislikes:
*Theft or missing cubes - like my best 3x3 gone along with some shock oil :mad:
*Competitions that drag on - split them into 2 days if need be
*Distractions
*Bad solves


@sam, we could totally apply any chuck norris joke to Bob in some way... Edit: or Frank Morris...
 
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Hadley4000

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I've only been to two, but here it goes.

Easy to find. I got so freaking lost trying to get to the Stetson tournament.

Cubers as scramblers. At Stetson, there were scramblers who only learned the notation the day of, or night before, so it took a while.

Cubes/t-shirts to buy. I love souvenirs.

But, the most important thing of all. FUN!!! Had that at both of them :D
 
E

Ethan Rosen

Guest
likes:

Good temperature
Good lighting
Other good conditions
-In Captains cove the venue was outside. The only bad part about this was that the wind got very aggravating.

wi-fi

A nice amount of people. The only example I have of where there were too many people was Princeton. I just felt that there were way too many people for that room/time.

I love how while they are called competitions, they are closer to gatherings with a bit of competition

Pretty much everything about competitions

dislikes:

Judges: On 3x3 there are often way too few judges at first. This also happens on 2x2 and 4x4, but not as severely. A few parents/family/friends or scramble groups can make this go much faster.

Judges: Judges who leave the scorecard on the solve table or completely disregard something else that's important= chaos!

People who are a bit too competitive. I've never seen this, but I've heard stories.

Competitive parents. Once again, I've only heard stories, but I always dislike things like this.

Spectators: I don't mind most spectators, but some of them are annoying. There isn't much we can do about this, but the spectators who are like "zomg rubik's cubes I saw a guy solve with his feet and my friend solved one blindfolded in 15 seconds but he forgot how" get very aggravating.

The amount of times that some people go around asking if people are selling magics.
 

pcharles93

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dislikes:

People who are a bit too competitive. I've never seen this, but I've heard stories.

Competitive parents. Once again, I've only heard stories, but I always dislike things like this.

Spectators: I don't mind most spectators, but some of them are annoying. There isn't much we can do about this, but the spectators who are like "zomg rubik's cubes I saw a guy solve with his feet and my friend solved one blindfolded in 15 seconds but he forgot how" get very aggravating.

Can you pm me a few stories of overcompetitiveness?<-btw Is that a word? I have a simple solution to keep annoying spectators away. Before you let them into the venue, you show them a sub-20 solve and if they pee themselves, there is no way they're setting foot near a competition.
 

cmhardw

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likes:
1) Meeting new people / meeting old friends
2) Good lighting
3) Lots of judges to keep the timer's full
4) Any competition that has big cube BLD as an event ;-)
5) Mystery events (ball in cup, speed shoe-solving (lace tying), etc.)
6) Memorabilia to take home (certificates, medals, backpacks, t-shirts, etc.)
7) near cheap hotels (yes I'm cheap like that)
8) a big spectator area where people can watch and cubers can get together and hang out when not solving/competing.
9) Competitions with a well secluded competitor's area, away from the spectators. As much as I like meeting people, especially at competitions, when I'm solving I probably want to concentrate about my solving and not talk to people about how they used to peel the stickers.

dis-likes:

1) Big cube BLD judges who don't know the regulations / or don't know how to correctly operate the stackmat vs. stopwatch timing issue for big cubes.
- at World's '07 for the 4x4x4 BLD event, after my first solve (the round was best of 2) I was told by my judge that I may leave.
- Judges who want to stop the stopwatch when the stackmat shuts off if the rules require you should time with both (you're likely to get sub-10 minutes, but might not). I've seen this happen to other big cube BLD competitors numerous times while I was not solving. I hate describing the timing rules to the judge while the competitor is solving, it must be distracting.
- I hate describing the timing rules to the judge while *I* am solving, this happened to me at G-WIZ 2006. This is *very* distracting.

2) Judges who do not know the procedures well
- I find it frustrating when the judge of a speedsolve round does not know that you can stop the inspection period early. I ignore them, when (while I am solving) they tell me to stop (at 15 seconds). After the solve I explain about this rule.

3) Judges who think a BLD solve is a speed solve and tell you to stop after 15 seconds inspection.

For the above reasons I always try to help out with judging when I go to a competition. At risk of being that annoying nagging guy I also try to correct other judges if I see them do something they shouldn't be doing.

For me the dis-likes are very minor compared to the likes. I plan on going to many more competitions in the future, because of all the things in the "likes" list.

Chris
 

Mike Hughey

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I hate describing the timing rules to the judge while the competitor is solving, it must be distracting.

This actually happened at the VA Open, Chris. You were describing the timing rules to the judge who was judging me. I think I was blindfolded at the time in the solving phase. And yes, it was a bit distracting. But I must say, Chris, that I am very thankful you did it! Although I was a little distracted, I was very relaxed and able to concentrate after you were done explaining, because I knew the judge actually understood the rules at that point. So thank you Chris for doing that for me!

3) Judges who think a BLD solve is a speed solve and tell you to stop after 15 seconds inspection.
That's funny! But only because it's never happened to me; I can see where that would be rather upsetting.
 

Mike Hughey

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3) Judges who think a BLD solve is a speed solve and tell you to stop after 15 seconds inspection.
That's funny! But only because it's never happened to me; I can see where that would be rather upsetting.
Hopefully that won't bother me for much longer :p
I was thinking that; at the Virginia Open I saw Rowe finish memorizing one attempt fast enough that he would have simply complied with the judge's request. It's a pity the cube exploded in a mega-pop a few seconds later.

Joey, are you ever going to try doing a BLD solve for a regular 3x3x3 round (maybe on the fifth solve of a preliminary round)? You could pull the blindfold on before starting the timer...
 

genwin

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as side events maybe?? a face-off/challenge between finalist instead of the normal individual timed solves.. or a marathon where 5 cubes will be solved consecutively again as a face-off...
 

Sin-H

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What I like is:

- Good competition circumstances. Good lighting, good airconditioning, not too warm, not too cold. WC'05 was a bit too hot for me. Sometimes the circumstances are a bit distracting.
- What I find VERY anoying is that on some competitions, competitors don't have a place to sit. I would prefer having tables at a normal height to sit at, as an option besides standing behind a big cube or other high table (sitting on a stool behind those big cubes is not ideal).
- A good location. A big city is usually ok, but if it's not in a city: It's important that there are nice restaurants and good hotels and other places to go. I think in Poland, the location was exelent.
- Good judges. They don't have to be female & underaged per se, but that is a plus (;)), but good judges who know the rules in most common cases would be nice. I hate it when there is a timer mall function, and they have to call the main judge because they don't know what to do, or if even the main judge barely knows what to do in that situation.
- Optional: A good t-shirt or other souvenir is always good. Like the t-shirts we had in Madrid Open and Polish Open, or the bags you get at WC's. Of course, I understand that every competition has a limited budget, so understandably, this can't always be the case.
- Tight schedule: I hate it when there are large groups. I like it when there is little time between each attempt. Preferably no BLD on sunday first thing in the morning. I also like it when there is some extra time in the evenings to visit some places in the city. In Madrid for example, I liked the fact that the competition ended pretty early in the afternoon, and there was still time to go downtown Madrid.
- I like it when Erik, Rama, Lars, Dennis and Arnoud are there. :)
- I dislike it when Kai is not there :(.
- I appreciate the absence of certain other cubers, whose names I will not mention.
- I like afterparty's with free wine.
- I like afterparty's with free beer.


EXACTLY!!! + I also like it when Doudou is there
(I haven't met Erik, Dennis and Kai yet, but I hope that I will :))

Basically, it's just all about cubing, cubing and meeting other cubers ;)
Ah and the results in the official world rankings.
(These three basic circumstances are provided in any WCA competition anyway)
 

fanwuq

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I've tried 2x2 BLD before in comp, so why not :p
(I need to get better memo, I'm working on that!)

I should seriously do that! I've actually gotten a sub-15 memo like on my 30th try at this. It won't be long before I average at 15s memo.
I suck at 2x2 anyway (9seconds average) I don't care.
 

Dene

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dis-likes:
- I hate describing the timing rules to the judge while the competitor is solving, it must be distracting.
- I hate describing the timing rules to the judge while *I* am solving, this happened to me at G-WIZ 2006. This is *very* distracting.

2) Judges who do not know the procedures well
- I find it frustrating when the judge of a speedsolve round does not know that you can stop the inspection period early. I ignore them, when (while I am solving) they tell me to stop (at 15 seconds). After the solve I explain about this rule.

3) Judges who think a BLD solve is a speed solve and tell you to stop after 15 seconds inspection.

I know I shouldn't laugh, but man, that's funny >.<
 

Alexander

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- A certificate for top 3 finishers, how much can a piece of paper cost?

To be quite honest, that's the reason I can't care less about certificates or diploma's. It's just a piece of paper... Personally, I would not mind if there are no certificates, especially for side events.


certificates or diploma's or even trophy has to be there for 1st to 3rd place also for side events. You put a lot of time in some of the side events and in the end ok you dont good thats the one and thank you for comming. So to giv something is nice
 
H

hdskull

Guest
- A certificate for top 3 finishers, how much can a piece of paper cost?

To be quite honest, that's the reason I can't care less about certificates or diploma's. It's just a piece of paper... Personally, I would not mind if there are no certificates, especially for side events.


Do you not want anything for winning ?
 
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