Starting last year, the WCA Forum was designed for community members to give their insight on actions within the WCA. We have had over 10,000 members and more than 4,000 unique posts since which covered discussions on new WCA proposals and existing WCA policies. In this bi-monthly digest, we have summarized some interesting topics on the Forum in the last couple of months. Feel free to view the threads below at your leisure.

Ruihang Xu’s 5.48 3×3 Average
Ruihang Xu swept the world by breaking an incredible amount of records this year and finally grabbing the 3×3 average world record from Feliks Zemdegs. This is a monumental achievement for the Chinese community and speedcubing as a whole, being the first average under 5.50 seconds.

Impact of the year 2020 on the cubing community
The years 2020 and 2021 saw a big slump in the number of WCA competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This thread saw discussions on how regular WCA competitors are coping when there are no competitions to attend.

WCA Championship 2023 Hosts Announcement
The city of Seoul in the Republic of Korea was selected by a selection committee to host WCA World Championship 2023. After 12 years, Worlds will finally return to Asia. In a month’s time, the registration for World Championship 2021 will open up which will take place in Almere, Netherlands. Keep an eye out for that news as well!

Changes in 2021 Regulations
The yearly WCA regulations update was done by the WCA Regulations Committee. Feedback and suggestions are taken from this WCA Forum thread for consideration by the committee. More details of the changes can be viewed on the WCA Github here.

Return of Cubing Competitions in the US
The biggest country for cubing is finally resuming WCA competitions. After the COVID-19 pandemic caused a break for over a year, the US is starting to organize competitions again.

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please send an email to advisory@worldcubeassociation.org or participate in the discussions on the threads yourself!

Thanks to everyone for being a part of the Forum by sharing important feedback and adding value to the discussions.

Source:: worldcubeassociation

The WCA is making efforts to preserve the history of how our organization began and the important milestones we have reached along the way to where we are today. As a part of this mission, we would like to introduce the WCA Archive Team (WAT) which will be the team of people focused on this work! Currently, the team is seeking new members to help work on their projects. They hope to have members that can represent each region to make their work more efficient. The application is open to everyone; it’s not a requirement to hold a current position in the WCA to be considered.

Curious about the experiences of cubers back then? Interested in uncovering past cubing stories and retelling them in a new light? Want to discover more of the WCA’s past and future? If you said yes, then you may be a great fit for the WAT!

What does the WAT do?

• Gather and archive information and media relevant to the WCA past and future e.g., records/milestones, major championships/events, regional organizations, etc.
• Create textual and visual content using the archive to be implemented on the WCA website, other platforms, and major cubing events to better engage all audiences on the topic of the WCA and cubing.
• Update the archive and work with organizers and other teams in community projects to preserve the WCA’s legacy.

The WAT is currently an Advisory Committee created under Section 5.3 of the WCA Bylaws. There won’t be any further documentation created regarding this team in the Motions or on the Committees/Teams page.

*Members are expected to have: *

• Great attention to detail and responsiveness
• Interpersonal skills and desire to learn
• Decent level of proficiency in English
• Familiarity with WCA activities

Other qualities which are useful to have but are not required include:

• Proficiency in another language(s)
• Experience in narrative/creative writing or any form of journalism

The expected workload is around 4-6 hours per week.

The application period is open for applicants to submit their application document from now until August 1st 2021 23:59 UTC to William Gan (wgan@worldcubeassociation.org).

The application document must be in PDF format, and should include:

• A brief personal introduction
• A summary of your involvement with the WCA/cubing community
• Your motivation to join the WAT
• (Optional) Any additional experience relevant to WAT work

Applicants can expect a reply to confirm the receipt of their application. During and up until two weeks after the application period, shortlisted applicants may be invited for an interview. If you have any questions about the WAT or the application process, please contact William Gan (wgan@worldcubeassociation.org).

Thank you in advance for your applications and support!

Source:: worldcubeassociation

There has just been a new bugfix release for TNoodle. With competitions slowly returning, several Delegates reported issues with TNoodle 1.1.0 crashing directly after launch on macOS versions „Big Sur“ and later.
We fixed this bug in TNoodle 1.1.1, along with a minor inconsistency in FMC cutout sheets. There is also a brand new Esperanto translation; please refer to GitHub for the full release notes.

In order to enable the affected Delegates to generate scrambles for their competitions, TNoodle 1.1.1 has been promoted immediately. However, please note that the scrambling routines have not changed, which means that scrambles which have already been generated with TNoodle 1.1.0 remain valid.

There will be a phase-out of roughly two weeks. You may continue to use TNoodle 1.1.0 up to and including Sunday, July 25. All scrambles for competitions ending after that date must be generated with TNoodle 1.1.1.

Please remember that the latest version of the scramble program is always available at https://worldcubeassociation.org/regulations/scrambles/.

Stay safe,
– Gregor on behalf of the WST

Source:: worldcubeassociation

We are happy to announce that we have a new Senior Delegate for Asia East: Ming Zheng.

Ming Zheng was selected by the WCA Board by voting among them, following Section 4 of our Motion about Senior Delegates.

We wish Ming Zheng the best of luck in fulfilling his new duties. His term as Senior Delegate began on June 22, 2021.

The application document of Ming Zheng can be found here if you are interested in viewing it.

Source:: worldcubeassociation

With the terms of Board Member Ethan Pride coming to an end, an anonymous election took place on June 30, 2021 to elect new members. The election was done according to Motion 5.2021.1: Election of Directors.

The Board received applications from:

Ethan Pride

We are happy to announce that the election was successful and that Ethan was re-elected as a member of the WCA Board of Directors! We wish him the best of luck with his duties!

Ethan’s application can be viewed here.

Source:: worldcubeassociation