Dear WCA Community,

In the first half of 2026, those of us in the WCA Quality Assurance Committee (WQAC) have been developing initiatives to improve the overall quality of the World Cube Association. Here are the main updates from our Committee since the beginning of 2026.

Summary

We organized our Committee into three subteams to improve our workflow, gained 13.5 new members, and made substantial progress on ongoing initiatives. We are in the process of developing a new Organizer Handbook, have made progress on the Learning Management System (LMS) project, conducted investigations, and updated the Delegate Reports Template, the Delegate Handbook, and the WCA Scramble Accountability Policy (WSAP).
Subteams

The WQAC is now structured into three subteams.

EduDocs

• The EduDocs Team is responsible for creating and maintaining educational resources for the WCA Community. These include the Competitor Tutorial, Judge Tutorial, Volunteer Crash Course, Organizer Guidelines (soon to be Organizer Handbook), and Delegate Handbook.

Investigations

• The Investigations Team handles concerns related to the quality of WCA competitions, Delegate conduct, adherence to the WCA Scramble Accountability Policy (WSAP), and other issues not directly overseen by other Teams or Committees.

Projects

• The Projects Team leads initiatives to improve the training of WCA Volunteers. The current largest project is the Learning Management System (LMS) Project, which includes a series of educational courses to support training WCA Volunteers.
  Members

We welcomed thirteen new members in 2026:

• Abby Newlander (EduDocs)
• Abhinav Khot (Projects, EduDocs)
• Addy Coolidge (EduDocs)
• Amanda Schmid (Investigations)
• Diogo Miguel Alves Guerreiro (Projects)
• Fatima Gulab (Investigations)
• Hao Chang (Investigations)
• Jiashun Wu (EduDocs)
• Juan Nicolás Pinzón Martínez (EduDocs)
• Mark Bennis (Investigations)
• Matija Vidiček (EduDocs)
• Shresth Shah (EduDocs)
• Yuvraj Agarwal (EduDocs, Investigations)

Amanda Schmid was appointed the Leader of Investigations as soon as she joined in January 2026.

Addy Coolidge was appointed the Leader of EduDocs in May 2026 after Sarah Strong stepped down as the leader of this subteam.

Sarah Strong stepped down as Leader of WQAC in June 2026 to spend more time on the LMS Project and ensure we meet our current timelines.

Dan Smith, one of our long-time members, stepped down from WQAC in March 2026 to pursue a new position in the WCA. Congratulations on becoming the Executive Director of the WCA! However, he rejoined the WQAC three months later to become an interim leader while we were looking for a long-term leader.

Roxana Johnson was appointed the next Leader of WQAC in July 2026. We wish her the best in her new position!

WCA Scramble Accountability Policy (WSAP)

We have updated point 3.2 in the WSAP to include formal recommendations to reduce the risk of competitors observing official attempts by other competitors in their group.

When a Competitor Waiting Area is used:

1. Use visual barriers between the solving stations and the Competitor Waiting Area.
2. If visual barriers are not possible, place the Competitor Waiting Area at least 3 meters (10 feet) from the Solving Stations.
3. If neither of the above is possible, arrange the Competitor Waiting Area so that competitors face away from the Solving Stations, such as by turning chairs around.

When competitors remain at their Solving Stations:

1. Delegates should appoint themselves or another trusted individual to supervise competitors and ensure they do not gain information about scrambles from other competitors‘ attempts.

Delegate Report Template

We have updated the text explaining setup photos and have added a new template to the Remarks section. We encourage all Delegates to be mindful of these changes going forward, especially with the introduction of the Lead Delegate role and the revised promotion procedures.

Here is the old text that explained the setup photos:

You MUST include at least 2 images which illustrate the scrambling and competition areas (other images are also welcome). You can select multiple files at once. You can delete images only when enough other images have been uploaded (if you want to replace an image, you need to upload the new one first, and then delete the old one).

And here is the new text:

You MUST include at least 2 images which illustrate the scrambling and competition areas from this current competition, preferably during the competition (other images are also welcome). You can select multiple files at once. You can delete images only when enough other images have been uploaded (if you want to replace an image, you need to upload the new one first, and then delete the old one). If you do not have current pictures of the competition area and/or the scrambling area while in use, please explain why.

The template for the Remarks section was previously blank, and we have added the following text:

Remarks: [The Delegates at the competition should include a brief remark about their experience at the competition.]

Report primarily written by: [Indicate the main author(s) of this report. This is especially important when the author is a Junior Delegate seeking promotion to Full Delegate.]

We would like to remind Delegates that one of the purposes of the Remarks section is to provide accountability towards all listed Delegates to participate in post-competition responsibilities, even if it is a minor contribution.

Delegate Handbook

We made many improvements to the Delegate Handbook. Outdated information regarding the Age Policy, WRT Name Requirements, and WCA Regulations has been updated. The list of common incidents has been expanded. The new structure of the registration lists and the newcomer checks feature have been added and explained. The suggestions for generating scrambles and ensuring data protection during check-in have been improved.

We are in the process of moving all information on organizing competitions from the Delegate Handbook to the new Organizer Handbook, so each document focuses on its intended audience.

One major addition to the Delegate Handbook is the introduction of the Lead Delegate role. With support from the Delegate Probation Policy Working Group, this role has now been defined and explained in the handbook.

Other Teams and Committees have also made contributions to the Delegate Handbook.

• The WCA Regulations Committee (WRC) has provided updates regarding new Regulations.
• The WCA Results Team (WRT) has provided updates on administering registration data, double-checking registration data, and requesting changes to personal data.
• The WCA Competition Announcement Team (WCAT) has provided updates on making changes to existing competitions.

Organizer Guidelines

Before we started the Organizer Handbook, we added additional details and made corrections to the Organizer Guidelines. These include improved suggestions for finding venues, creating competition schedules, drafting competition budgets, volunteer rewards and incentives, running first-time competitor tutorials and judging tutorials, catching missing signatures, and holding awards ceremonies. All these changes will be reflected in the new Organizer Handbook.

**NEW** Organizer Handbook

The Organizer Handbook will be replacing the Organizer Guidelines. It will be a single PDF file that covers all the content that used to be distributed across the fourteen files and text on a webpage. This will allow organizers to find what they are looking for more easily by using CTRL-F and equivalent features. The Organizer Handbook will be structured in chronological order, similar to the Delegate Handbook, and applies to all types of competitions and to different regions with varying local practices. It is currently a work in progress.

Learning Management System (LMS) Project

We ran pilot testing for our first LMS course, the Trainee to Junior Delegate Training Course, from October 2025 to January 2026. There were 81 pilot testers who completed the course during this period, exceeding our goal of 52 testers. They provided over 200 pieces of feedback, all of which we are considering as we are preparing to launch the official version later this year. Most of the feedback pertained to wording or formatting issues, broken or incorrect links, outdated or incorrect information, incorrect answers to questions, and requests to add or remove content. At the time of this digest, we have addressed around 180 pieces of feedback and are working on the remaining, more complex ones.

Delegate Management Policy (WDMP)

The WDMP is the accompanying WCA policy that goes alongside the first official LMS course. We have received feedback from Senior Delegates and Team/Committee Leaders and have held meetings to discuss how to improve our first draft before sending a proposal to the Board. The policy will be published before we launch the first official LMS course.

Thank you for taking the time to read this digest! We will continue to work hard to improve the quality of the WCA.

Sincerely,
The WCA Quality Assurance Committee

Source:: worldcubeassociation

Hi WCA Community,

Below you can find a summary of some of the notable cases the WCA Integrity Committee has worked on, as well as some general WIC updates from the past three months.

In the last quarter, the WCA Integrity Committee opened 10 cases and closed 12. This resulted in 2 bans and 4 warnings, while 6 cases ended with no action. Below, you can find summaries of some notable cases:

• An investigation was opened after repeated reports of a competitor being disruptive in competition settings, which Volunteers shared with the WIC made them uncomfortable with hosting events the competitor specialized in. The WIC reached out to the competitor and discussed means of mediating their behavioural issues but found their responses unsatisfactory. The competitor received a short ban.
• An investigation was opened after suspicions that a competitor’s behaviour in blindfolded events was consistent with the possibility that they were looking under the blindfold. Based on video evidence and delegate testimony, the WIC concluded that peeking did indeed occur in these official attempts. The WIC also believes the competitor’s account of the situation was not entirely truthful. The solves in suspicion were disqualified and the competitor was issued a formal warning.
• The WIC received a report detailing competitors making jokes involving inappropriate symbols with hurtful connotations. It was detailed that these competitors had pretended to conduct official attempts with puzzles showing patterns of these symbols rather than official scrambles. The competitor responsible apologized and was issued a formal warning.

General WIC updates:

After a recent application period, 8 new members have joined the WCA Integrity Committee:

• Blake Thompson (2010THOM03)
• Carmen Teo Bin Jie (2012JIET01)
• Joran Busser (2022BUSS04)
• Jordan Halford (2022HALF02)
• Kajtek Kwiatkowski (2023KWIA01)
• Lars Johan Folde (2018FOLD01)
• Rocío Fernández Usero (2014USER01)
• Tyler Williams (2017WILL05)

Cade Beck (2018BECK05) was recently appointed as Leader of the Conduct sub-team. We congratulate him and wish him the best of luck in his new role.

Amanda Schmid (2017SCHM12) was recently appointed as Senior Member of the WCA Integrity Committee. We congratulate her and wish her the best of luck in her new role.

Carter Kucala (2015KUCA01), Glib Vedmid (2016VEDM01), Yash Budhiraja (2018BUDH01), and Yuji Yoshida (2015YOSH01) recently stepped down from their positions as WIC members. Thank you so much for your work Carter, Glib and Yash, and Yuji!

Do you have questions for the WCA Integrity Committee? Feel free to send us an email. Our inboxes are always open!

Source:: worldcubeassociation

Dear WCA Community,

After careful consideration, the WCA Board has decided to add Face Turning Octahedron (FTO) to the WCA’s list of official events and remove Clock. FTO will be available for inclusion in WCA competitions from January 2, 2027. Clock will no longer be available following the WCA World Championship 2027, which will be the last competition to hold the event. The WCA will continue to explore options for how other events are managed, particularly at championship competitions.

We are excited to add FTO to our lineup. This is the first new WCA event since Skewb was added in 2014. FTO has seen a high level of sustained interest from our Community for several years and a majority of respondents to recent surveys supported its addition. FTO is both sufficiently well-aligned with the nature of other events recognized by the WCA to smoothly integrate and different enough from existing events to bring something fresh to our competitions.

FTO will be held using the same “Average of 5” format used by the majority of current events. Regulations for FTO will be developed by the WCA Regulations Committee and will be available for feedback as part of the January 2027 Regulations cycle. Other WCA Volunteers will be hard at work to make the necessary changes to our software and systems which support FTO going live in January 2027. FTO will be available from January 2, 2027, providing opportunities for competitors around the world to experience a thrilling first weekend with this new event.

At the same time, we prepare to say goodbye to Clock. Although Clock has seen significant interest in recent years, it continues to be a relatively problematic event, as frequently highlighted by WCA Volunteers and Community members. Despite multiple changes to the WCA Regulations, Clock remains highly prone to incidents. Running Clock at competitions can be challenging, as it is difficult to scramble correctly and requires the use of different procedures or equipment from other speedsolving events. Determining whether a Clock is solved and seeing a competitor progress through a solve are not easily visible at a distance and substantially reduce the spectator appeal of the event, particularly to non-specialist audiences.

These issues stem from the fundamental differences between Clock and the puzzles used for other events. Clock is highly dissimilar from these puzzles and Clock’s existing recognition by the WCA arises from historical factors. Removing Clock strengthens the WCA’s identity as being an organization for three dimensional geometrical twisty puzzles and not other mechanical puzzles.

Clock will continue to be generally available at WCA competitions until July 18, 2027. The WCA World Championship will then be the last competition to officially hold this event. This provides a substantial notice period for the pending change and gives a final send off to Clock on the WCA’s largest stage.

Recent Volunteer and Community surveys concerning the WCA’s list of recognized events formed an input into the decisions taken, although were only one of several factors considered. You can see a summary of these survey results here. We know that the changes in this announcement will be disappointing for some, but consider these to be important strategic changes that strengthen the WCA’s core identity and best set us up for future success.

No formal changes to other events are being made at this time, although the WCA will continue to explore options for how events are managed, especially considering the impact on championship competitions. High degrees of similarity between 6x6x6 Cube and 7x7x7 Cube and between 4x4x4 Blindfolded and 5x5x5 Blindfolded point to these events as potentially subject to future changes. However, existing policies already allow impacts from these events to be managed through measures such as more stringent qualification requirements and recent changes to the WCA Competition Requirements Policy allow “quiet” events, including 4x4x4 Blindfolded and 5x5x5 Blindfolded to be held at separate championship competitions.

Source:: worldcubeassociation

Dear WCA Community,

The Regulations Committee have started working on a new regulations cycle to take effect on January 1st 2027, and we are now requesting proposals from the community, in line with Section 1.1 of the Amendments of Regulations Motion. In order to submit a proposal, please make a forum post under the WCA Regulations category on the WCA Forum. Please include „[January 2027 Regulations]“ in the title of the forum post.

The WRC will consider all proposals that are submitted on or before July 25th, 2026, at which point we will start discussing and drafting proposals internally. We will publish our drafts for the next regulations cycle later in the year, for feedback from the Community and Volunteers. We will not be discussing any proposals submitted for previous regulation cycles, so Community members are welcome to submit proposals that have been discussed previously.

If you have any questions regarding the process, you may ask in the announcement forum post.

Source:: worldcubeassociation

Dear WCA Community,

The WCA Competition Announcement Team (WCAT) has updated the WCA Competition Requirements Policy to Version 5.5. You can view the full details of the updates on the Github PR. A list of all major updates are available below:

The addition of a “Quiet Championship”

Countries can now have a separate championship featuring Blindfolded events and Fewest Moves. For further information, please view this explainer document.

Qualification times can have a start date.

For competitions which require qualification times, the organisers can now set a start date of which the qualification results must have been achieved. This change is made to ensure that competitors may not qualify for a competition solely from an old result which does not represent their current skill.

Example: A qualification for 3x3x3 Blindfolded can be a single time better than 3 minutes that is set between January 1st 2020 and November 1st 2026.

For further information on smaller changes, please refer to the forums announcement.

If you have any questions regarding the changes to the WCA Competition Requirements Policy, please contact your local delegates or use the WCA Contact Form.

Source:: worldcubeassociation