A competitor was found repeatedly altering the scorecards to achieve better results across multiple events and competitions. Many of the competitor’s scorecards contained suspicious markings on them, such as numbers written over the initial results or times that were scratched out and rewritten. The competitor was confronted by the delegate at a competition and denied accusations initially, but later confessed to doing it for the first time at said competition. The WDC reached out and, when asked when this behavior first occurred, the competitor again claimed it only occurred once. The WDC shared all of the evidence from five separate competitions, and the competitor confessed. The WDC issued a ban and all times with suspicious markings, or where scorecards were no longer available to verify the legitimacy of results, were disqualified.
The WDC was contacted by the delegates of a competition after a competitor achieved an unexpectedly fast result. The competitor provided footage of the solve which showed that the competitor was given an incorrect and extremely easy scramble that was not reasonably similar to the generated scramble. The competitor was extremely cooperative with the delegates and the WDC. The WDC contacted the scrambler, who, despite being given multiple opportunities, did not respond, and they were given a short ban for the infraction. The WDC did not have reason to believe that the competitor was involved.
An organizer withheld funds from a competition and was uncooperative with the delegates or the WDC. The organizer was given a conditional, permanent ban. The organizer will need to cooperate with the delegates to determine the amount of funds owed and return all funds before reconsideration.
The WDC investigated four cases of blindfolded peeking. These resulted in three warnings and one short ban, due to the varying circumstances of each case. The WDC continues to emphasize the importance of correctly holding the sight blocker during blindfolded events.
During the last round of applications from October 2023, the WDC had shortlisted three potential candidates in case we felt more members were required. We would like to use this opportunity to welcome our three newest members: Ignacio Naval (Argentina), Glenn Koster (Kentucky, USA), and Mihnea Andrei Panţu (Romania) to the team!
The WDC also promoted five members to Senior Member: Carter Kucala, Josete Sánchez, Maria Beausang, Matteo Dummar, and Nicholas McKee. All five members were onboarded in December of 2022, and their promotions are well deserved. Congratulations again to each of them!
We extend our support and best wishes to Maverick and Sachin in fulfilling their new responsibilities. Their terms as Senior Delegate started 23 June, 2024.
Maverick was among two applicants we had for the Senior Delegate (Africa) role and both candidacy documents can be found here.
Other than Maverick, the following applicant for Africa was:
Samuel Baird
Sachin was among two applicants we had for the Senior Delegate (Asia South and Asia West) role and both candidacy documents can be found here if you are interested in viewing them.
Other than Sachin, the following applicant for Asia South and Asia West was:
As previously announced, the WCA Disciplinary Committee investigated concerns regarding Kalindu Sachintha Wijesundara’s (2022WIJE02) FMC results at Sri Lankan Nationals FMC 2024, where means of 20.33 and 19.67 were achieved in the first and second rounds respectively.
The full investigation has now concluded. The WDC has discovered evidence of the competitor utilizing online tools and abusing his delegate status to obtain better results. The WDC also believes the competitor knowingly misled the WDC about these facts when presented with this evidence.
Given the unprecedented nature of this case and the extreme breach of trust involved, the WDC spent significant time analyzing the case and deliberating on a punishment. Some of the factors the WDC considered include, but are not limited to:
His status as a WCA Delegate and breaking the trust that comes with that role
Jeopardizing the results of competitions by analyzing scrambles prior to the competitions, including the use of a third party software
Refusal to confess, even when given clear evidence
The potential damage to the reputation of the WCA
The full punishment for Kalindu is as follows:
A ban of 8 years from competing in all official WCA competitions
The immediate removal of his role as Delegate by the WCA Board
Disqualification (DNF) of all results achieved by Kalindu at competitions where he was listed as a delegate
Exception: Kalindu did not handle scrambles for Sri Lankan Nationals 2024, so those results may remain
The WDC has no reason to doubt the validity of the results obtained by any other competitor at the affected competitions. Therefore, no other result will be affected by our decision.
WCA Delegates hold an incredible amount of responsibility and trust in ensuring fairness at WCA competitions. Any breach of this trust significantly impacts the community locally and globally. The WDC, the WCA Board, and the entire WCA Staff and community are committed to addressing any violations. Any actions that compromise these values will not be tolerated and will continue to be addressed appropriately.
We also emphasize the importance of transparency and accountability in all WCA operations. We affirm our commitment to these principles with the publication of this report to the general public. The entire report, alongside this conclusion, can be found here.
Best regards, Shain Longbehn (WDC Leader)
On behalf of the WCA Disciplinary Committee
Communication and/or policy-writing skills are not required but are strongly encouraged.
Be at least 16 years of age.
Candidacy documents must be in PDF format, and must include:
A brief personal introduction.
Summary of activities done for the WCA.
A concrete overview on how expected qualities are to be fulfilled.
(Optional) Qualities and qualifications you find relevant that are not listed above.
The application period is open for applicants to submit their application document from now until July 8th, 2024 23:59 UTC to Zeke Mackay ([email protected]).
The application deadline is June 30th 2024 23:59 UTC. Following that date, the applications will be reviewed and discussed among the current WRT members, with possible interviews happening, and final decisions being made shortly thereafter.
We are happy to announce that the election was successful and that Blake was re-elected and Nick was newly elected member of the WCA Board of Directors.
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.
Firstly, 10 new members joined the WRC (committee page) and their contributions have been extremely helpful to the team. We’re looking forward to seeing what the future holds for the WRC and how this shapes our decisions and responses to the community.
For added clarity, we have released two different visual guides, one for 5b5f and one for 3j. We aim to issue more guidance to the WCA community for other regulations as we see fit.
With more cubers than ever, the WCA has been able to organize a huge number of competitions! Naturally, the increase in competitions comes with an increase in incidents. Here are some of the more notable resolved incidents:
A solving station with a QiYi timer was set up near the competing area, in order for competitors to familiarize themselves with how to handle timers so as to not damage the official Speed Stacks timers at the solving stations. Unfortunately, many competitors and staff confused this “training station” for an official station, and this non-permitted timer was used for several attempts, violating Regulation 7f1a. Because it was impossible to determine with certainty which attempts used the timer, the WRC decided to remove all results for this competition.
A competitor attempted to stop the timer without their palms facing down, violating A4b. Immediately after this, they attempted to stop the timer again with their palms correctly facing down. Both competitor and judge were unsure when the timer was actually stopped, and no video evidence was available. Since no extra attempt was available the WRC has decided to keep the original time as it is not clear if the competitor has done anything wrong.
A competitor had their hands quite close to a covered clock pre-inspection and, as the judge lifted the cover, the clock fell over and a turn was unintentionally applied by the competitor to one of the dials. While the puzzle falling over was the judge's fault, the move was applied by the competitor, which led to a change in the inner clock faces that counts as a DNF (F4). Also, since any moves applied by the competitor in inspection (except those that are within the limits outlined by 10f) are illegal (A3c1), the WRC decided that the correct penalty was a DNF.
After stopping the timer the competitor turned a Pyraminx tip that was misaligned by 120 degrees, but there was disagreement between the judge and the competitor whether it was turned more than 60 degrees or less. While turns greater than 60 degrees count as a move (10f3), and applying a move after stopping the timer is a DNF (A6e1), merely touching the puzzle without applying a move is a +2 (A6e2). The WRC decided that the correct penalty is DNF since it is possible that a move has been applied.
In an unconventional situation, a power cut that ensued during an FMC attempt resulted in poor lighting for about 3 minutes, during which the attempt was “paused” and the lost time added to the end of the attempt for all competitors. After an internal voting process, the WRC decided that the decision of the delegates to have everyone stop for 3 minutes didn’t pose an unfair advantage to any competitor in any way. In general, the WRC advised against giving extra time for an FMC attempt, and to instead cancel the attempt altogether or give an extra attempt if at all possible.
A judge applied an unintentional turn to a clock as they were checking to see if it was solved after a competitor’s attempt was done. This created a difficulty in verifying that the competitor had actually solved the puzzle by the end of their attempt. However, upon reviewing video evidence, the WRC was able to conclude that the exact state of the back of the clock was only possible with the one move made by the judge and that it would have been solved otherwise. On these grounds, the puzzle was considered solved by the competitor.
Several competitions utilizing TimeBase reported incidents where the signed results on the score sheets differed from the results logged on TimeBase databases. As TimeBase is an unofficial system not yet defined in the Regulations, a discussion between the WRC and WRT and a subsequent ruling by the WCA Board came to the conclusion that the score sheet results should stand. Due to the fact that score sheets are defined as the source material for results, it should be the main source that should be deferred to in case of such a discrepancy. While systems similar to TimeBase have the potential to dramatically improve the flow of competitions and to greatly simplify the work needed to ensure that competitions run smoothly, it is not yet officially endorsed, and as such disputes concerning errors in results concerning them will continue to use scorecards as reference.
A competitor handed in an FMC solution containing an arrow. The solution would have been correct without the arrow, and even with the arrow the move sequence was still unambiguous (E2c2). However, since the arrow was written in a place where it had to be counted as part of the solution, and since E2c4+ explicitly mentions arrows as forbidden symbols, the delegates decided to DNF the attempt. The WRC and the Board decided to uphold this decision following two appeals, but the WRC will revisit this part of the FMC regulations in the next regulation cycle.
A competitor forgot to lift a sight blocker attached to a harmonica holder during the execution phase of their solve. The competitor had started execution for around 30 seconds before the Delegate noticed the situation and a sight blocker was placed. Seeing that it is the judge’s responsibility to ensure that there is an opaque sight blocker as per Regulation B4c, in addition to the fact that the competitor was established as trustworthy and did not appear to have taken advantage of the situation, the original result was allowed to stand under Guideline B4c++.
Post-competition, a competitor found that two attempts of their average had been incorrectly scrambled by the same scrambler using a different orientation than the standard green-front, white-top. Events potentially affected by a z2 scrambling error (including 3x3) are not usually orientation dependent, because most of these events have their vast majority of competitors as dual-color neutral. The WRC found that since most competitors are able to start their attempts on opposite colors, the attempt would be allowed to stand seeing as there was no significant advantage or disadvantage posed to the competitor.
If you have any questions for the WRC, feel free to reach out to us via email or on the WCA Forum!
A young competitor was found repeatedly using portions of the inverse scramble when competing in FMC, while deliberately trying to cover their solution with rotations. The competitor was given a formal warning and the delegates were advised to check future attempts carefully.
A couple cases related to touching, poking, and/or hugging other competitors without asking permission. The WDC would like to remind everyone to respect personal spaces and boundaries, and to always ask before touching another person.
A competitor contacted a delegate confessing to two past episodes of cheating. These included insisting on a faster result for an ambiguously written time, and applying a move after stopping the timer. Given the context of the situation and advice from the delegate, the WDC decided that no further action was necessary.
The WDC has opened several cases recently of competitors stopping the timer early and peaking under the blindfold. These incidents can be avoided by attentive judging and sufficient judge training. The WDC would like to remind judges to stay focused during a solve and to hold sight blockers appropriately, as well as remind delegates to further emphasize the importance of attentive judging at their competitions.
In February, a vote among Senior Delegates and Committee Leaders was held to select a new leader for the WDC following the end of Sebastiano Tronto’s term. I, Shain Papalotl Longbehn, was elected as the new WDC leader. I am grateful for the opportunity to lead this team of passionate and intelligent individuals. Thank you once again to Sebastiano for his commitment to the team the last three years.
Applicants can expect a reply to confirm the receipt of the application, and may later receive a request to be interviewed. If you have any questions related to the application process, then do not hesitate to reach out first.
Thank you for your interest in the WEC and the WCA!
Since this competitor is well-known in the community and is still a record holder, the WDC decided to make the report for this investigation public. The intention is to explain the reasons behind our decision and provide insight on how the Committee works.
The WDC has elected to fully anonymize this report and the video evidence due to the age of the accused competitor. The WDC strongly discourages the community from publicizing the name of the accused competitor for this reason. The full report can be found here.
Best regards, Shain Longbehn (WDC Leader)
On behalf of the WCA Disciplinary Committee
The council has 2 sub-teams - Community Representatives and WCA Representatives. This announcement is for both Community Representatives and WCA Representatives member positions. You can apply to either of them depending on whether you are a WCA staff member or not.
The key projects of the council are management of the WCA forum and gathering community feedback useful for the WCA by working on annual surveys and competition surveys.
The qualities expected of candidates are:
Communication: Internal communication is done in English, so an intermediate standard of English is required.
Work Ethic: Members will be expected to contribute regularly and not ignore messages for many days. The expected time commitment is 2-4 hours per week on tasks for the council.
Innovation: There will be significant time spent discussing our methods of working and doing a lot of idea gathering on topics to focus on. If you think that the WCA is currently perfect then you probably aren’t the person for this!
Interest: An enjoyment to discuss WCA matters among the community is ideal.
Maturity: Online discussions will need to be thought-provoking and productive. When providing community feedback you’ll be representing the community and not your own views.
Specialisations: The goal of the team is to cover a wide spectrum of the community and therefore members can partly focus on certain areas that they are knowledgeable and passionate about. This could be a geographical area, or any sort of “category” of cuber e.g. South American cuber, Oceania cuber.
The application period is open for candidates to submit their candidacy document from now until April 30, 2024, 23:59 UTC to Abhijeet Ghodgaonkar ([email protected])
The candidacy documents must be submitted in PDF format, and should include the following:
Your Name
A brief personal summary
A summary of involvement in the WCA competitions and WCA teams
Ideas as a member of the WCA Advisory Council
Thank you in advance for your candidacies and support!
We would like to thank Sebastiano Tronto for the significant work he has done in leading the WDC for the past 3 years. We wish Shain all the best as he takes on his new responsibilities.
Shain was the only applicant for the role and his successful candidacy document can be seen here.
WMT owns the WCA Merchandising ecosystem, including designing, advertising and coordinating WCA merchandise across the world
Marketing Initiatives:
WMT works on new marketing initiatives that grow and promote our organization, such as the WCA Newcomer Month
The application is open to everyone. Potential applicants do not have to hold a current position to be considered.
Minimum Requirements for Applicants
Interest in marketing the WCA and our brand
Proficiency in English
Able to commit at least 4 hours per week including attending monthly meetings
Creative mind and good communication skills
Specific Skills we are looking for (any of these is a huge plus):
Experience in writing Press Releases and working with traditional press outlets
Experience with design tools like Adobe & Canva
Experience with Shopify
Experience in merchandising, email marketing or digital advertising
Based in Europe/Africa/Oceania/South America (WMT lacks members from these regions)
Applicants should submit a PDF application including a brief personal introduction, their involvement with the WCA, their motivation for applying to the WMT, and any relevant experience or skills.
Applications should be sent to [email protected] from now until February 4th, 2024, 23:59 UTC to be considered.
The priority application period is open for candidates to submit their candidacy document from now until February 4th, 2024, 23:59 UTC privately to Antonio Kam ([email protected]). Candidacy documents must be in PDF format, and must include:
A brief personal introduction.
A summary of experiences/accomplishments to demonstrate that you can meet the requirements.
What motivates you to join the WRC?
Do you have any topics/issues that you are passionate about helping the WRC improve?
Optionally, any additional experience that is relevant to WRC work.
You can expect a reply to confirm whether your application is complete, and may receive a request for an interview with the WRC.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate in reaching out to Antonio Kam ([email protected]).
Thank you for your interest in assisting the WRC and the WCA!
We try to reply to all emails and DMs within a 24 hour period and having more members gives the WCT more opportunities to be reactive.
Social media posts are planned at least 2 days in advance and are posted when members are available.
Internal emails regarding other WCT projects are answered within 48 hours and other work may come from those projects that take various amounts of time.
Time commitment per week is between 2-5 hours.
Characteristics we are looking for
Social media knowledge: You should be familiar with many social media platforms and their basic functions. While you may not have used them personally, you will have to post to them as the WCA and should know what type of content goes on each.
Fluent English: Our posts on most social media platforms are in English and we answer most emails in English. We do, however, receive emails in many different languages and having people responding in the sender’s native language is always appreciated. For this, we do welcome those that are fluent in other languages alongside English.
Communication skills: You should be able to write a professional, concise email to answer competitor questions and to convey a thorough knowledge of the WCA resources for competitors. You will be responsible for writing social media posts that are appropriate and convey the mission of the WCA.
Patience: Always maintaining professionalism when answering the same question many times is hard, but necessary for our day-to-day communications. You should keep friendly communications within our email and social media interactions.
If you are applying as a Graphics Designer, then you should have experience working with Adobe Photoshop or any similar programs.
The application document must be in PDF format, and should include the following:
A brief personal introduction
Your involvement with the WCA
Your motivation for applying to the WCT
Your skills that are relevant to the WCT
Please send the application in PDF format to ([email protected]) from now until Thursday, January 25th, 2024, 23:59 UTC to be considered.
Applicants can expect a reply to confirm the receipt of the application, and may later receive a request to be interviewed. If you have any questions related to the application process, then do not hesitate to reach out to Zain Ali ([email protected])
Thank you for your interest in assisting the WCT and the WCA!