Dear WCA Community,

We are happy to announce that Roxana Johnson has been appointed as the new Leader of the WCA Quality Assurance Committee (WQAC). Roxana was already working as a Senior Member of the WQAC.

Roxana was selected by the WCA Board and approved in a vote, as described in Section 5 of our Motion about WCA Committees and Teams. This appointment is effective as of July 13, 2026.

We would like to thank Dan Smith, who had taken on an interim leadership role for the team while a new Leader was being appointed, and wish Roxana the best of luck in her new role. Dan will remain as a Senior Member of the WQAC for a short while.

Roxana was the only applicant for the role, and her successful candidacy document can be found here.

Source:: worldcubeassociation

Dear WCA Community,

The Board is providing notice, as required by Bylaw 2.12, of the 2026 annual meeting of the members which will be held on September 27 at 17:00 UTC. Members will be able to tune into this meeting via a livestream hosted on the WCA’s Twitch. In this folder, you will find the information packet related to the annual meeting which contains all relevant documentation which will be discussed at the meeting.

We look forward to your participation in the upcoming annual meeting.

Kind Regards,
Oliver Hexter, on behalf of the Board of Directors

Source:: worldcubeassociation

Dear WCA Community,

From January 2, 2027, all official WCA attempts performed with a speedsolving timer will be required to use a Speed Stacks G5 StackMat™ Pro Timer in 4-pad mode. The adoption of 4-pad mode will provide greater certainty that official times are achieved in accordance with the WCA Regulations and will strengthen the integrity of the results recognized by the WCA.

Since our formation, the WCA has recorded times based on a speedsolving timer with two sensor pads. Although these timers are capable of precise measurement, the accuracy of this measurement in timing a speedsolving attempt requires the timer to be started and stopped in accordance with the WCA Regulations.

It has become clear that the use of speedsolving timers with two sensor pads causes difficulties in enforcing these Regulations, especially since Regulation infractions may not be visible to a judge when viewed live. Frame-by-frame video offers one route around this, but performing this analysis is time consuming and reliant on high quality video being available. No viable changes to the current Regulations wording or other suitable means have been identified that would provide a satisfactory resolution using existing timer requirements.

The WCA has therefore decided that switching to 4-pad represents the best solution to these challenges. This new requirement will replace the existing requirements in the WCA Approved Timer List, which currently requires 2-pad mode, and also allows for use of the G4 StackMat™ Pro Timer and G3 StackMat™ Pro Timer.

4-pad mode will require changes to the Regulations for starting and stopping the speedsolving timer. Draft Regulations changes will be published for community feedback in September, as part of the annual Regulations cycle.

Time differences between 2-pad results and 4-pad results are negligible for the vast majority of competitors and events. As such, existing records will stand until broken under 4-pad mode and 4-pad results will be ranked alongside 2-pad results. Although no record reset is considered necessary, the WCA Rankings page will be updated to support filtering between all results and 4-pad results for 2×2, Clock, Pyraminx, and Skewb.

All regions which are currently using timers without 4-pad capability will have Speed Stacks G5 timers provided in time for the effective date of this change. Costs will be covered and logistics will be handled by the WCA.

For more information on the factors behind this change and the process followed by the WCA to arrive at this decision, please refer to the 4-Pad Decision Process Explainer Document.

Source:: worldcubeassociation

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