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World Championship 2015 - São Paulo, Brazil - July 17-19, 2015

Nestor

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There is far more to cubing than just the competitive side of it. I would not mind seeing less top-tier cubers in any competition if that means having new, enthusiastic and friendly cubers regardless of their speed: people that otherwise could not afford to experience such an event and that greatly surpass in spirit what they lack in technique. I'm sure Brazil and South America are full of such great people and I'm looking forward to go and meet them.

The selection greatly reflects the goal and spirit of the WCA (need reminding?) and I applaud such a decision. Bravo!

Starting to save for Brazil 2015.
 

TMOY

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having it in a casino?
Already done last year :p

I wouldn't do a thorough check, since I'm have no idea what to check, but the frequency of competition in Thailand increase significantly before worlds, only to dive back to what it usually is before worlds, it is even less currently compared to when it started, and number of competitors are currently significantly less compared to back then, but I believe this is caused by some other factor (community aging).

In Germany, the frequency of competitions increased greatly after Worlds 2009 and has stayed high since then. Same for the number of competitors, and their overall level has greatly increased too. It's probably the best example for the moment of a country where holding Worlds truly helped the local speedcubing community

To tell the truth I'd find interesting a poll with this question. Obviously we cannot say this is right or wrong, because it's just an opinion, but we can't say that this makes no sense.

To tell the truth I absolutely don't care about that.
 

kinch2002

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Hello guys,
This is my first post here, so let me introduce myself. I’m a simple, normal and average Brazilian cuber, so I believe my opinion here has a much lower weight than a top cuber opinion, but I would just like to mention that right now the whole Brazilian cubing community is following this thread. When I first heard that Brazil would host next Worlds, I thought: “Wow, what an incredible opportunity to see famous cubers like Felix Zemdegs, Mats Valk and Kevin Hays. What a chance to participate in a competition with all those cubing legends. But then we started to follow this thread and many Brazilians got disappointed with comments. It is really frustrating to see top cubers just saying “no, it is far”, “it is not worth the effort”, giving so little credit to such a big competition. Stop being selfish and look at the chance to share knowledge and spread the art of cubing to the world. Cubing is not just about winning competitions. It is also about sharing knowledge with others (like Brazilians, for example) and making cubing reach places so called “underdeveloped” and “with favelas”, like Brazil.
For those who decide to come, Brazil is a nice place. I’m pretty sure everybody will be very well treated and will make a lot of new friends. We are like a big family. Everyone is kind and respectful with each other. There are lots of nice places to go in São Paulo, and Brazilian cubing community will be very glad to help. Just let me know if you need any help on travel arrangements, hotel advices, places to visit or any other information about our country. And remember, please moderate your words - There are hundreds of Brazilians right now looking at this thread.
I hope Brazilians have now realised that there is overwhelming support for this competition! The first few pages were not nice, but since then the tide has turned and so many people are excited for this competition. The 'Underdeveloped' and 'with favelas' post by a certain person was possibly the worst post I've ever seen in terms of incorrect 'facts', terrible arguments, and general disrespect. Everyone knows that (except him).
The few people still trying to make their negativity heard in this thread should stop because it's really not helping anything. Then we can reach the point in which people posting positively about it won't feel the need to 'defend' the location and the posts can return to normal :)
In the last 24 hours I have seen that 90% of the posters are totally for this, so please let Brasil know that they are very much supported!
 
D

Deleted member 19792

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Does anyone who thinks that Worlds should stay in the US just because fast cubers are there understand the fact that this is the WORLD championships? It can be held where the board wants it, and people who want to compete in the WORLD championship will pay as much as they can to go there. If you want to go to a National competition, go ahead. It is completely fine. Don't complain about the location because it is not close to you.

If you are considering the venue for Nationals at this point, my backyard is still a possibility.
 
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To tell the truth I'd find interesting a poll with this question. Obviously we cannot say this is right or wrong, because it's just an opinion, but we can't say that this makes no sense.

IMO a world title should be more impressive as it stays with you for at least two years, whereas WR's can last just a few hours in some cases.
 

BillyRain

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That's the name of the school we'll use. (for free, I might add...and they'll even pay for some costs)

About the London flights, it looks like Kayak is indeed not reporting the correct price. If you go to the Lufthansa website, total cost seems to be 740 euro, which is 989 dollars.

You are talking one way right? I've gone direct to the website and cheapest round trip is around £900/$1500...
 

BillyRain

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I'm pretty disappointed with the direction of this thread right now. I think a hella lot of people are forgetting the fact that just because it's inconvenient for you, it is not inconvenient for everyone. Therefore you have no right to start whining.

Yes, my first post may have come accross a little negative, but this was just a display of personal disappointment.

Ahhh FS. Way too far. Anticlimax.

Frustration. Reason. Personal disappointment.

Then instead of complaining and starting pointless arguments, I began to think positively and have been looking at my options. If I can manage to save up and go, great. If not, boo hoo. I hope everyone has a totally awesome time and I'll enjoy following it from home.

I think the trend is pretty obvious that most people making a fuss are the people who are furthest away.

Let's turn this around and start being positive.

I am saddened by the fact that the Brazilian community are having to see this.
 

Tim Major

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I think the trend is pretty obvious that most people making a fuss are the people who are furthest away.

Actually no, most of the people making a fuss are less 10 hours away. So far four people living in Australia have said they're going and that's 20 hours! I think a better rule would be;

most people making a fuss would not have gone to a worlds in Europe if they lived in the US and vice versa. A lot of which are probably 15 year olds who were relying on their parent's money.
 

BillyRain

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Actually no, most of the people making a fuss are less 10 hours away. So far four people living in Australia have said they're going and that's 20 hours! I think a better rule would be;

most people making a fuss would not have gone to a worlds in Europe if they lived in the US and vice versa. A lot of which are probably 15 year olds who were relying on their parent's money.

A fair correction. Thanks.
 

Dene

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Hello guys,
This is my first post here, so let me introduce myself. I’m a simple, normal and average Brazilian cuber, so I believe my opinion here has a much lower weight than a top cuber opinion, but I would just like to mention that right now the whole Brazilian cubing community is following this thread. When I first heard that Brazil would host next Worlds, I thought: “Wow, what an incredible opportunity to see famous cubers like Felix Zemdegs, Mats Valk and Kevin Hays. What a chance to participate in a competition with all those cubing legends. But then we started to follow this thread and many Brazilians got disappointed with comments. It is really frustrating to see top cubers just saying “no, it is far”, “it is not worth the effort”, giving so little credit to such a big competition. Stop being selfish and look at the chance to share knowledge and spread the art of cubing to the world. Cubing is not just about winning competitions. It is also about sharing knowledge with others (like Brazilians, for example) and making cubing reach places so called “underdeveloped” and “with favelas”, like Brazil.
For those who decide to come, Brazil is a nice place. I’m pretty sure everybody will be very well treated and will make a lot of new friends. We are like a big family. Everyone is kind and respectful with each other. There are lots of nice places to go in São Paulo, and Brazilian cubing community will be very glad to help. Just let me know if you need any help on travel arrangements, hotel advices, places to visit or any other information about our country. And remember, please moderate your words - There are hundreds of Brazilians right now looking at this thread.

I am a nobody cuber from New Zealand who absolutely loves football and cubing and cannot wait to visit South America, especially Brazil! Who cares about Las Vegas? Sao Paulo is going to be the best WCs ever! See you there!!!! (bring a football :D ).
 

kinch2002

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Average cost to Sao Paulo: 958
Average cost to Beijing: 453

Let's do it in Beijing, and the estimated 500 non-Brazil competitors give half of their saved money to pay flight costs for 168 Brazilians :p

:)

Here's another suggestion: We could see who registers for the WC, and then don't allow them to go. Just put all their planned expenses into a pot, then work from the top of the 3x3 world rankings paying for all the most important people to go until we run out of money! That way it's a true World Championship :)

Ok getting silly now. I'm way too excited for this given that it's still a year away
 

qqwref

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The "is the WC title better than the WR?" comes to my mind. Unlike in more popular sports, in cubing a WR is by many people considered better than the WC title; shouldn't we try to change this?
This is an interesting point, but I think cubing is just not the right sport to have a single competition be the most important thing. Cubing has a lot of randomness in it; someone like Feliks can get a 8.65 average one competition and a 6.54 average the next. Imagine Usain Bolt doing an 11.6 100-meter dash one competition and the next time doing a 9.5. Even if the best cubers are all there and performing at top game, times will be all over the place, and just as it is now, winning will be a competition of being fast and doing well by your own standards. And there are always lockups, pops, nervousness, and so on. You can look at the finals of the recent US Nationals competition to see how easy it is to be off your game at the big moment :p

It's also just impractical, but maybe that's more a factor of the current popularity of the sport. What I mean is, even if you CAN get all top people in one place (which is hard enough - a lot of top cubers are teenagers or poor young adults who do this is as a hobby, and don't have any kind of sponsorship, never mind the kind of income from cubing that would let you avoid other work), you can't guarantee they can really concentrate on going fast. Maybe someone is worried about that big test in two weeks, or their hotel room/roommates make it hard to sleep, or they want to go out drinking with a good friend they haven't seen in person in years. You could say this is a problem of organization, or you could say it's a problem of individual cubers just not having the money to make cubing their priority.

I'm starting to think (again) that a WC every two years is not nearly enough. Now that we add a 4th continent to the rotation, even in the best case, someone is going to have to wait at least 8 years between comps in their continent. Cubing evolves incredibly fast and 8 years is an extreme amount of time - even in 2 years, so much can happen. I have seen people start cubing and in less than 2 years become good enough at an event (or even at 3x3x3) to have a serious chance against the top people. 4 years might work for the Olympics, but that's a multi-BILLION dollar event with tens of thousands of competitors and millions of spectators, lasting weeks - and almost all those sports have other championships. This is an event with several hundred cubers and very few spectators, lasting maybe 3 days. We could do it yearly, and maybe follow a tennis model (a schedule of world championships in different places, all prestigious enough for a title to mean something) or a distributed model (hold Worlds every year, at several venues at once, and people can attend whichever they want). Of course the organization will be harder :p

EDIT:
I'm pretty disappointed with the direction of this thread right now. I think a hella lot of people are forgetting the fact that just because it's inconvenient for you, it is not inconvenient for everyone.
Actually, it is inconvenient for almost everyone :p That's the whole point I was making with the top 100 3x3x3 results. For top100 cubers, a Brazil competition is inconvenient (=not in the home continent) for 99% of them whereas an Asia competition is inconvenient for ~70% of them. That seems like a big difference for me. Imagine going out for dinner with all your friends, and choosing a restaurant 99% of your friends hate when you could be picking one that at least a third of them are happy with. I do care about Asian cubers who may have a lot of skill but no money to travel to South America. Especially Chinese cubers (remember, 1 Asian WC). I'm getting a $2000 range right now on Kayak for Beijing to Sao Paolo round trips; nominal per capita GDP in China being about 1/8 of that of the US (see here), that is a LOT more money for a Chinese cuber than for an American or indeed a lot of the people posting here.
 
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Pedro

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