Hello Everyone,
Here is the WRC Digest for the second half of 2024! There is a lot to cover, so this digest is only a snapshot of the work that was done in the past six months.
General Updates to WRC
The WRC has been working hard these past two quarters to resolve numerous incidents, including addressing “sliding” timer starts. While these are discussed later in the Digest, here are some general updates:
- A big chunk of our time went into fine-tuning and finalizing the 2025 Regulations, in order to ensure the smooth operation of competitions in the future. Now that it is 2025, these Regulations are already in effect. See the announcement here!
- We’re still working on getting more up-to-date translations of the WCA Regulations on the WCA website. As always, if you have knowledge of a language other than English and would like to assist in translating the regulations, please reach out to us.
- We would like to thank everyone who applied to WRC. We received quite a few applications that we’re looking through and we are excited to be onboarding new members soon.
Sliding and Frame-by-Frame Analysis
In June 2024, the (then) 2x2x2 Rubik’s Cube world record average of 0.78 seconds sparked the discussion of the legality of certain timer starts. Through sufficient video evidence and community outreach, it was brought to the WRC’s attention that a few notable competitors had been initiating moves before the timer had officially ’started‘. This was performed by the competitors ’sliding‘ their hands off the timer during the beginning of their solves, which called for urgent WRC action to address this as an unfair advantage.
Naturally, this sparked a lot of controversy about the critical analysis of top-level solves using a Frame-By-Frame (FBF) Analysis, and after a thorough internal discussion, the Board and WRC eventually came to a consensus about this. The WRC decided to retroactively apply this analysis to a variety of different results (including the 2×2 World Record) that were penalized to set a precedent preventing similar occurrences in future competitions, as summarized in this post.
This new policy on Frame-by-Frame analysis has been codified into the WCA Regulations for 2025 (see Regulation 11f1).
Summary of Incidents Resolved in Q3/Q4:
WRC resolved a large number of incidents the past two quarters – this is only a small handful! If you have any questions about how an incident should be resolved, please do not hesitate to reach out.
V per Varese 2024 – Tripod fell on competitor
During inspection, a competitor’s tripod fell on them. The competitor stopped the solve, thinking it was a DNF since they believed they could not touch their phone. Under newer regulations, putting the tripod back in place would not disqualify the attempt as it does not count as using an electronic device as specified in 2i+++++. The competitor was granted a provisional extra. The WRC ruled that given regulation 2t, the competitor is responsible for being familiar with the newest version of the WCA regulations before competing. Therefore, this incident is at the fault of the competitor, and the attempt was ruled a DNF.
Jukkasjärvi Midnight Sun 2024 – Misplaced Scorecard
Two competitors, competitor X and competitor Y, were both competing for a spot in the final round. Their round 1 results were very close, with competitor X beating out competitor Y, and the competitors took their scorecards aside to do their own calculations before the scores were properly entered. Somewhere along this process, the scorecards were misplaced and could not be found. The competitors agreed to redo the first round with a new set of scrambles to determine who would go to the final. And they also agreed that the new results would not stand if the original scorecards turned up. In these new attempts, competitor Y was faster and was placed in the final. Much later, after the rounds, the original scorecards were found, and since the delegates and competitors had agreed on a procedure, competitor Y’s results were removed from the final. Note that competitor X did not have any results for the final at all. The competitors were at fault for misplacing their scoresheets, and since the delegates had laid out a complete plan of actions, the WRC agreed that it was best to stick to the delegate decision.
Minnesota Warm Up 2024 – Scorecard had unclear time
The time written on a scorecard appeared as “57.?”. The delegates attempted to locate the judge and competitor for the attempt, but were unable to find them. The competitor was emailed after the competition asking what happened, but no response was received. The delegates made the assumption that the question mark on the scorecard meant that the timer was reset by either the competitor or judge before the time was written down. The WRC agreed with the decision to record this result as a DNF. One likely explanation of what occurred during this attempt is that the competitor reset the timer prematurely, which would be a DNF as per A6f1.
Sunday Silence Singapore 2024 – Time incorrectly written for MBLD
The result for a competitor’s MBLD attempt was written as 59:59 on the scoresheet with signature, and was also entered as such into WCA Live. Later during the competition, the competitor approached a delegate reporting that the time was wrong. The competitor showed a video recording of the attempt, and according to the video, the attempt took 57 minutes and 11 seconds. The WRC decided to accept the time of 57:11, prioritizing having a correct result over a clearly incorrect time. This decision was also based on the circumstances that MBLD results are rounded to the next second, meaning that video evidence is precise enough to accurately deduce the time in this case. Note that this is different from results under 10 minutes, where frame counted videos would not be accurate in determining the result .
Córdoba Cubea 2024 – Swapped Megaminx Pieces
An experienced competitor experienced OLL and PLL “parity” in the end of their Megaminx solve by having an edge flipped in an impossible way, as well as two corners swapped. It is hypothesized that at some point, an entire 1x1x3 block was twisted. The scrambler claimed that no strange pops or lockups had occurred, and though they did not check all 12 faces to see if the scramble was fully correct, they were fairly confident that the scramble was right. The competitor first stated that they felt that it was impossible that the Megaminx had had piece movement during the solve without them noticing. Upon viewing the video footage, not all faces were shown during inspection, but from what was available, it seemed to have matched the scramble. After reconstructing the solve, the first appearance of a piece not matching the scramble comes up in the middle of S2L. The competitor said that it might have been possible that the flip happened during their solve, and later said that it was “quite certain” that it happened during the solve. The video evidence does not show clear proof of the flip occurring. The competitor was given a provisional extra which was entered. The WRC discussed and ultimately agreed that given the evidence presented, it was still very unclear as to how the situation would have occurred. Because of this, the decision was left to delegate discretion, as they are the ones best equipped to determine whether the scrambler or competitor made this error based on their testimonies. The delegates decided that the original result (DNF) should be kept.
Benoni Cubing Comeback 2024 – Misscrambles in 3x3x3 Blindfolded
An inexperienced scrambler scrambled in an incorrect orientation (Red front-white top) for the first round of 3x3x3 Blindfolded. The scrambler claimed that they checked the scrambles by mentally swapping the colours. The Delegates gave extra attempts to replace the attempts scrambled by the scrambler. The WRC decided to use these extra attempts rather than the original attempts, in line with previous precedent on misscrambles. Please note that under the 2025 Regulations, these extra attempts would not be required unless they fit the criteria outlined in 11i1.
Christmas City Cubing PA 2024 – Leaked Scramble Claim
A competitor got a +2 penalty, but after the solve the competitor reached out to the delegates and claimed that they heard talking about the scramble and hence knew what would happen. As this was informed after the solve and not before it,the delegates ruled against an extra, although a provisional extra was given. The WRC allowed the delegate to rule according to the situation between a DNF or using the extra. The delegates decided to DNF the attempt via Regulation 2k2.
New Zealand Cubing Decathlon 2024 – Accidental Scramble Leak
A picture was taken from the scrambling table and was posted on a local cubing Discord server. This photo included scrambles 2-5, as they were visible on the laptop screen used for scrambling. From the metadata of the photo and the competition’s livestream, it was determined that 4 out of the 12 competitors had finished all of their solves. The delegates used a spare set of scrambles for all the 12 competitors again, but decided to use the original results for the 4 competitors who had completed all their solves. The WRC advised the delegates to use the original results for the 4 competitors and the provisional set for the other 8 competitors.
Mississauga Blindfolded 2024 – Timer shut off while writing the time
A timer shut off due to low battery while the judge was writing down the time. The judge recorded “3:37.” before the timer was shut off. Based on an earlier precedent, the delegates offered an extra attempt which the competitor refused and accepted DNS as a result. The delegates then reached out to the WRC about using 3:37.99 as a possible result. The WRC decided that using 3:37.99 would be the best course of action, as there isn’t any indication that the timer was unreliable or stopped prematurely, and recording the worst possible result is reasonable.
2024 has been a very successful year for WRC, and we hope to continue this success into 2025! If you have any questions about the Regulations, feel free to reach out to WRC at regulations@worldcubeassociation.org.
Source:: worldcubeassociation