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

Dear WCA Community,

Following recent changes to the WCA’s Board of Directors, the Board has refreshed appointments to the WCA’s Officer roles. Officer positions are specific legal roles related to running the WCA non-profit organization.

Dan Smith has been appointed as WCA Executive Director. Dan had previously been acting as the WCA’s Chief Operating Officer. This appointment better reflects Dan’s leadership across all WCA Volunteers and aligns his role with the structures in the WCA’s governance documents. There is no change to Dan’s day-to-day duties and responsibilities.

Abdullah Gulab has been appointed as WCA Chair. Abdullah was previously WCA Treasurer and WCA Vice-Chair.

Oliver Hexter has been appointed as WCA Secretary.

Sachin Arvind has been appointed as WCA Treasurer.

Glib Vedmid and Rubén López de Juan have been appointed as WCA Vice-Chairs.

With their Board terms coming to an end soon, Nick Silvestri has vacated the position of WCA Chair and Blake Thompson has vacated the position of WCA Secretary. The Board wishes to thank Nick and Blake for their service to the WCA through their Director and Officer roles.

Source:: worldcubeassociation

Dear WCA Community,

With the term of Board Members Blake Thompson and Nick Silvestri coming to an end, an anonymous election took place on May 1st, 2026. The election was conducted according to the WCA Motion: Election of Directors.

The Board received the applications of:

• Callum James Goodyear-Jørgensen
• Glib Vedmid
• Oliver Hexter
• Rubén López de Juan
• Sachin Arvind

We are happy to announce that Glib, Oliver, Rubén, and Sachin have been elected members of the WCA Board of Directors.

These changes have become effective immediately.

The applications can be viewed here.

Source:: worldcubeassociation