Year End Message 2023

Dear WCA Community,

With another year passing, we would like to take this opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved together as a wonderful community. This year, there were 2,138 competitions across 99 countries, double of what it was last year! Over 37,500 competitors competed for the first time in 2023. Competitions continued to fill up due to high demand, the fastest being filled in just 5 seconds! What brought even more excitement to the competitions were the records being broken with a total of 3,857 National Records, 294 Continental Records and 53 World Records just this year! We also welcomed seven new Regional Organizations from around the world which will improve the planning of competitions in those areas going forward.

We extend our appreciation for the meticulous planning by the organizers that enabled the return of the WCA World Championship in 2023 after a four-year gap along with which we also had in-person Annual Members and Staff meetings. The invaluable support of the RUBIK’S CUBE® team, through their sponsorship, played a pivotal role in making this event possible.

Regarding the WCA organization, we express our gratitude to those who volunteered and dedicated their time as Delegates, Staff Members, or both. With each call for applicants, we received numerous high-quality applications from individuals who had not previously held a position in the WCA. This influx allowed us to expand our teams, distributing the workload more evenly across Committees/Teams and enhancing the overall efficiency of the organization. In total, we welcomed 37 new Committee/Team members and six Committee/Team/Council Leaders.There were also changes in the Board of Directors, including the addition of two new members, Kerrie Jarman and Michael Chai (柴天方), and the re-election of Ethan Pride, now serving his third term. Additionally, we celebrated significant Delegate promotions, including one Senior Delegate, 52 Delegates, 141 Junior Delegates, and 164 Trainee Delegates. The contributions of all these volunteers are invaluable, and we cannot thank anyone who dedicates their time to the WCA enough for their essential role in our work!

With the additional help from new members, our Committees and Teams accomplished so much in 2023! The WCA Communication Team posted over 158 times on social media and also covered 23 competitions through our Instagram stories, allowing those on the other side of the world to follow these events. The WCA Advisory Committee monitored over 7,400 posts and 471 topics on the WCA Forum. The WCA Marketing Team fulfilled 78 gear orders and achieved 500+ sales in WCA merchandise. The WCA Software Team had 255 merged pull requests and 116 translation updates. Despite the increase in competitions, the WCA Results Team posted competition results in an average of 8.49 hours. The WCA Competition Announcement Team significantly reduced the time it took to approve competitions, dropping the average from 34.9 hours in 2022 to 12.3 hours in 2023! The WCA Regulations Committee released updated regulations in February and August while the WCA Quality Assurance Committee added new useful resource guide documents to the WCA Educational Resources section. The WCA Executive Assistants Team managed to keep track of all organizational changes and announcements internally throughout the year, which was a lot to handle! In 2023 the WCA Financial Committee, through its Equipment Funding efforts, successfully supplied competition equipment to 21 countries. This included 242 stackmat timers, 113 displays, and various other miscellaneous competition items. Additionally, through their Travel Funding program, they facilitated the travel of Delegates to 2 countries lacking a Delegate, resulting in the hosting of 3 competitions. The total expenditure for these programs in 2023 amounted to approximately $19,500. In addition to that, the WCA has also made significant investments to enhance our website and, for the first time, enlisted paid contractors. We are already experiencing substantial progress, with even more visible improvements expected early in 2024, including a revamped registration system.

Just as important is the work of the WCA Archive Team, which is dedicated to maintaining the past records of the WCA and the WCA Sports Organization Team, working towards the recognition of the WCA as an international sports organization. The WCA Disciplinary Committee and the WCA Ethics Committee who ensure that the Code of Conduct and the Code of Ethics are being followed, respectively. The WCA Board works tirelessly every day, making crucial decisions while leading the WCA organization from the front.

As we welcome the new year, we remain committed to enhancing our organization to the fullest extent possible. We value input from every member of our community and encourage everyone to share their experiences through our upcoming Community Survey, scheduled for release in May-June 2024. Keep an eye out for it! We have also announced the location for the World Championship 2025, which is Seattle, USA.
Once again, our successful year would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of our volunteers, who generously contribute their time and resources to the community every day. As we bid farewell to 2023, we wish everyone moments of celebration and joy.

Wishing you a safe and Happy New Year!

Source:: worldcubeassociation

WDC Digest 2023-Q4

Dear WCA Community,

In the last 3 months the Disciplinary Committee has worked on many cases of cheating and inappropriate behavior. We have also onboarded some new members, enabling us to spread this work with more ease among the team. At the same time, the diversity provided by a large team helps analyze all the incidents from different points of view.

During 2023 we have opened 77 new investigations, a handful of which are still ongoing. In this last digest of the year we would like to discuss two of the cases that we have recently worked on.

The first of these two cases is related to events that happened back in 2020, when a competitor was banned for stealing a cube from a fellow cuber. The ban did not have a set end date, but was conditional on returning the stolen cube and responding to the questions posed by the WDC.

In 2022, the thief tried to evade the ban by signing up with a new WCA account. The delegates of the competition realized this only at the time of submitting the results, as the WCA website informed them of a possible clash of identities between the two accounts. The competitor did not reply to our questions about this incident.

Finally, in the fall of 2023 the competitor communicated to us that they had come to an agreement with the victim of the theft about the stolen cube. The WDC was able to confirm this, but we decided that the attempt of evading the ban deserved some punishment. Therefore, we set the end date of the ban to 6 months after the time the competitor came forward to us.

The second case is about a record-holding competitor being caught cheating by making moves in inspection in multiple events. We have been able to prove that this behavior has been going on for at least one year.

The competitor has been generally uncooperative, denying any wrongdoing until we provided them with complete video evidence. As such, we decided it was not possible to trust the competitor when they claimed the illicit behavior started, and we opted for disqualifying all of their results. However, we offered them the option of reinstating some of the results if sufficient video evidence is provided. We plan to share a public report of the incident in the near future.

In relation to the last incident discussed above, we unfortunately have to remark that there has been some public discussion on this case that may have had a negative effect on our investigation. For example, if a competitor is alerted that some of their YouTube videos contain proof of their cheating, they may be able to remove them from their channel before the Disciplinary Committee can watch them or download them. We would like to ask all community members not to interfere with any disciplinary investigation that they are aware of, and to limit themselves to reporting any incident to the WDC rather than bringing it to public attention.

To conclude this digest, I would like to give a final message as the leader of the Disciplinary Committee. In fact, my second mandate will be ending in February and I am not going to continue in this role after that time – the selection process for a new leader has already started.

My time as a WDC leader started during the COVID times, which was definitely an unusual period for our activities. But even ignoring this, the WCA has gone through constant change during this time – the size of the cubing community alone has increased considerably. This means that we – the WCA in general, and the WDC in particular – had and will have to keep adapting to these changes. I am confident we will be successful in this.

One thing that has not changed throughout the years is the desire of community members to step up and help the WCA with their energy and skills – something I had the pleasure to witness in the two calls for applicants that opened during my leadership. This is not something to be taken for granted, and I am delighted to be part of a volunteer-based organization as successful as the WCA. Thank you all for your help!

Best regards,
Sebastiano Tronto
On behalf of the WCA Disciplinary Committee

Source:: worldcubeassociation

WCAT Leader Announcement (December 2023)

We are happy to announce that we have a new Team Leader. Zeke Mackay will become the new Leader of the WCA Competition Announcement Team (WCAT). Zeke was already working as a member in the team.

Zeke was selected by the WCA Board and approved in a vote among the current Committee Leaders and Senior Delegates, following Section 4 of our Motion about WCA Committees and Teams.

We thank Wilson Alvis for the work he has done for the WCAT and extend our support and best wishes to Zeke as he takes on his new responsibilities.

Zeke was the only applicant for the role and his successful candidacy document can be seen here.

Source:: worldcubeassociation

WCT Leader Announcement (December 2023)

We are happy to announce that we have a new Team Leader. Zain Ali will become the new Leader of the WCA Communication Leader (WCT). Zain was already working as a member in the team.

Zain was selected by the WCA Board and approved in a vote among the current Committee Leaders and Senior Delegates, following Section 4 of our Motion about WCA Committees and Teams.

We thank Rui Reis for the work he has done for the WCT and extend our support and best wishes to Zain as he takes on his new responsibilities.

There were two applications for the role and Zain’s successful candidacy document can be seen here.

Source:: worldcubeassociation

Call for Applicants – WDC Leader (December 2023)

There will be an appointment of a new WCA Disciplinary Committee Leader, as Sebastiano Tronto’s term is ending as the Leader of the WCA Disciplinary Committee Team. The WCA would like to take this opportunity to thank Sebastiano for leading the WDC for the last 3 years.

Candidates are expected to fulfill their terms (24 months) and to spend at least 7 hours per week on average to work for the committee. The qualities expected of candidates are:

  • Strong leadership skills
  • Experience in conducting independent investigations.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
  • Commitment to confidentiality and ethical conduct
  • Good judgment and decision-making skills
  • Familiarity with WCA activities
  • Excellent communication skills

The application period for candidates to submit their candidacy documents is from now until January 7th, 2024, 23:59 UTC. Interested candidates can send the application privately to the Executive Assistant Team (assistants@worldcubeassociation.org), CC’ing the WCA Board (board@worldcubeassociation.org).

The candidacy documents must be in PDF format, and must include:

  • Brief personal introduction.
  • Summary of activities done for the WCA.
  • Ambitions as the WDC Leader of the WCA.

Candidates are additionally asked to send a copy of their applications which can be made public at the end of the application period.

The rights and duties of the WDC can be found in WCA Motion 10.2022.3.

After the application period, the WCA Board will make a selection by voting and will announce the new Leader, after confirmation among Senior Delegates and sitting Committee/Team Leaders by voting, as described in Section 4 of WCA Motion 10.2022.0.

Thanks for your candidacies and support.

Source:: worldcubeassociation