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World Cube AssociationCompetition regulationsVersion: 2008 v1, April 9, 2008 |
| 1a) | A competition must have the following officials: an organisation team (with one or more members), a WCA delegate, a main judge per event, judges, scramblers and score takers. |
| 1b) | The organisation team of a competition is responsible for:
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| 1c) | The WCA delegate for a competition is responsible for:
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| 1d) | Each event must have one main judge. The main judge for an event is responsible for:
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| 1e) | Each event must have one or more judges.
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| 1f) | Each event (except for puzzles that are not scrambled) must have one or more scramblers.
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| 1g) | Each event must have one or more score takers.
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| 1h) | Competitors can be divided into groups to handle large events or to enable competitors to help with scrambling or judging.
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| 1i) | The WCA delegate (before the competition starts) and main judge (before the event starts) must be announced to the competitors. |
| 1j) | All officials may compete in the competition, but a main judge for an event must not compete in the event. |
| 1k) | Officials can have several roles combined (organisation team, WCA delegate, main judge, judge, score taker, scrambler). |
| 2a) | Any person may be a competitor during a competition, if he:
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| 2b) | Competitors younger than 18 must first ask their parent(s)/guardian(s) for permission. |
| 2c) | Registrants must provide all required information (at least: name, country, date of birth, gender, contact information, selected events) for their registration to be considered complete. |
| 2d) | All information (except: name, country, date of birth, gender, selected events and competition results) must be used for the competition only, and may only be given to other organisations/persons after permission from the competitor. |
| 2e) | Competitors must be able to show a passport/id-card during registration at the location to prove their identity.
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| 2f) | Competitors must obey venue regulations and conduct themselves in a manner considerate of others at all times during the competition and while at the competition venue. |
| 2g) | Competitors must remain quiet when inside the designated competition area. Talking is permitted, but must be kept at a reasonable level, and away from those competing. |
| 2h) | Competitors must be fully dressed. Competitors may dress in jeans, pants, shorts, slacks, skirts, foot-wear, T-shirts or dress shirts. Hats may be worn. Clothes must not display vulgar language or have inappropriate pictures. |
| 2i) | While competing, competitors must not use sound equipment, other electronic equipment (like walkmans, dictaphones or additional lighting). |
| 2j) | Disqualification of a competitor for an event may be enforced by the main judge of an event if a competitor fails to show up in time for a round of an event. |
| 2k) | Disqualification of a competitor for a competition may be enforced by the WCA delegate for the following reasons:
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| 2l) | Disqualification occurs immediately or after warning based on the nature of the infraction. |
| 2m) | Competitors are not eligible for any refund of any expenses they incurred to be part of the competition as a result of disqualification. |
| 2n) | Competitors may dispute a ruling in verbal form to the WCA delegate. |
| 2o) | Disputes are only possible during the competition, within 30 minutes after the disputed incident happened, and before the next round of the event has started. |
| 2p) | The dispute must be handled by the WCA delegate before the next round of the event has started. |
| 2q) | Disputes are only possible within the parameters of the discretion of the organisation team. No disputes are possible regarding the WCA regulations. |
| 2r) | The competitor must accept the final ruling of the WCA delegate. Penalty: disqualification of the competitor for the competition. |
| 2s1) | For competitors with hearing disabilities, judges may replace the vocal instructions with hand signals. |
| 2s2) | For competitors with physical disabilities, judges may give help with starting and stopping the timer. |
| 2s3) | For competitors with visual disabilities, inspection and solving can be done on a puzzle with different textures or Braille objects. The solving phase must be done according to the Blindfolded Solving regulations. For the blindfolded events the solving phase must be done on a puzzle with regular stickers or tiles. |
| 2t) | Before the competition all competitors should make themselves familiar with the WCA regulations. |
| 3a) | Competitors must bring and use their own puzzles. Competitors may borrow puzzles from other competitors, although both competitors must be ready to compete when they are called for to do so. |
| 3b) | Puzzles must be in reasonable working order, so that normal scrambling is possible. |
| 3c) | Competitors must use any colour scheme for cube puzzles, as long as the puzzles show one colour per face in solved state. For other puzzles competitors must use any variation that has the same moves, positions and solutions as the original puzzle. |
| 3d) | The colours of puzzles must be solid, the same per colour, and clearly distinct from other colours. |
| 3e) | Cube puzzles must either have coloured stickers or coloured tiles. |
| 3f) | Tiles or stickers must not be thicker than 1.5 mm, or the generally available thickness for non cube puzzles. |
| 3g) | Puzzles may be made smoother internally by sanding or using any lubricant. |
| 3h) | No modifications are allowed that enhance the basic concept of a puzzle. Some examples of enhancing the basic concept are: new moves are possible, normal moves are impossible, more pieces are visible, colours on the backside of the puzzle are visible, moves are done automatically, more or other solved states. |
| 3i) | Any modifications to a puzzle that result in poor performance or results by a competitor are not grounds for additional attempts in a event. |
| 3j) | Puzzles must be clean and must not have any textures, markings, elevated pieces, damages, or other differences that distinguish one piece from a similar piece. |
| 3k) | Puzzles must be approved by a judge before the competitor competes. |
| 3l) | Cube puzzles must have at most one logo. For Rubik's Cube or bigger cube puzzles the logo must be placed on one of the centre pieces. |
| 3m) | All puzzle and sticker brands are allowed, as long as the puzzles comply with the other WCA regulations. |
| 4a) | A scrambler must apply the scramble sequences. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4b) | Puzzles must be scrambled using a computer-generated random scramble sequence or scrambled position, that must be kept secret for all but the scramblers. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4c) | Standard metric for scrambling and solving is Half Turn Metric (See Article 12). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4d) | Cube puzzles must be scrambled with the white (or the lightest colour by default) face on top and green (or the darkest adjacent face by default) on the front. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4e) | Competitors must solve the same scramble sequences or scrambled positions per group of competitors. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4f) | The number of moves to scramble a puzzle must be:
All scramble programs kindly provided by Jaap Scherphuis, Syoji Takamatsu (Pyraminx), Clément Gallet and Herbert Kociemba.
All scramble programs (except Cube Explorer) in a zipped file. |
| 5a) | Puzzle defects are defects of puzzles, like: pieces popping, wires breaking, screws/caps/stickers falling off. |
| 5b) | If a puzzle defect occurs, the competitor may choose to repair the puzzle and continue the solve or choose to stop the solve.
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| 5c) | If a competitor has a puzzle defect, this does not give him the right to an extra attempt. |
| 6a) | Awards, prizes or honours may be given to competitors according to the announcement of the competition. |
| 6b) | Competitors should attend the winner's ceremony to be eligible for awards/prizes/honours. |
| 6b1) | The winner's ceremony should be held in the competition venue, within one hour after the end of the last event. |
| 6c) | Winners of awards, prizes or honours should be prepared to talk to journalists or any media covering the competition. |
| 6d) | Organisation teams of competitions should have (at least) certificates for all category winners, signed by the leader of the organisation team and by the WCA delegate. |
| 7a) | Competitions may be held on any location, inside or outside. |
| 7b) | Audience should be at least 1.50 meter away from the competitors. |
| 7c) | Lighting of the competition area needs special attention, with preferably white light, so that competitors can easily distinguish the colours of puzzles. |
| 7d) | The temperature of the competition area should preferably be 21 to 25 degrees Celsius. |
| 7e) | The competition area must be smoke-free, and should have a reasonable noise level. |
| 7f) | The timer must be placed directly (no objects underneath it) on a table, desk or console that suits solving while standing. For Solving With Feet the timer must be placed directly on the floor. |
| 7g) | Competitors must solve while sitting or standing. |
| 7h) | The competition area must have a competitors area.
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| 8a) | Guidelines for a competition to become official according to the WCA:
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| 8b) | An open competition is open to anyone. |
| 8c) | A closed competition may be open to:
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| 8d) | Competitions may have time limits per round of an event, to make sure that the time schedule can be followed. |
| 8e) | If during a round a competitor does not solve within the time limit, then his solve may (courtesy of main judge) be stopped and disqualified by the judge. The main judge decides whether the competitor may continue the round, for example if the time was exceeded because of a puzzle defect. |
| 8f) | If the WCA regulations are not followed correctly during a competition, then the WCA Board may declare the competition, specific events or specific solves unofficial. |
| 9a) | The puzzles for which competitions are governed by the WCA are:
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| 9b) | Official speed solving events and formats of WCA are:
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| 9c) | Official special events and formats of WCA are limited to Rubik's Cube:
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| 9d) | Official blindfolded events and formats of WCA are limited to Rubik's, 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 Cube:
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| 9e) | New official events may be added each calendar year, and existing official events may be removed.
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| 9f) | The results of a round are measured as follows:
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| 9g) | Combined rounds are two or three rounds combined during one time frame, where results of earlier rounds are taken into account for next rounds.
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| 9h) | WCA must provide WCA world rankings for single and preferred average/mean formats where applicable. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9i) | Results of official WCA competitions must be listed on the WCA world rankings, if the full WCA regulations were applied.
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| 9j) | Events must be held only once during a competition. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9k) | If an event is held, then all competitors may participate in that event. Events may have a maximum number of competitors. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9l) | All competitors must compete in each round during the same time frame. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9m) | Events must have at most four rounds. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9n) | Events with up to 100 competitors must have at most three rounds. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9o) | Events with up to 16 competitors must have at most two rounds. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9o1) | Events with up to 8 competitors must have at most one round. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9o2) | Combined rounds and Qualification rounds count as one round when counting the number of rounds per event. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9p) | For each round of an event, at least one competitor must not proceed to the next round. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9q) | Events and rounds must have at least 2 competitors. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9r) | A qualification round is a round of an event held before the first round of the event. The goal of a qualification round is to let unranked or low ranked competitors qualify for the first round of an event with many registered competitors.
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| 10b) | Only the resting state of a puzzle is considered, when the timer has stopped. | ||||||||||||||||||
| 10c) | Puzzles may be in any orientation at the end of the solve. | ||||||||||||||||||
| 10d) | All pieces of a puzzle must be fully attached to the puzzle, and in their required positions. Exceptions: see Article 5 Puzzle defects. | ||||||||||||||||||
| 10e) | A puzzle is solved when all face colours are reconstructed and all the parts are aligned within certain limits.
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| 10f) | Limits of misalignment for puzzles:
Examples:
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| 10g) | For Magic (and similar puzzles) the puzzle must be flat on the surface. The maximum elevation of the bottom side of the puzzle at the end of a solve is two tiles higher than flat. 10g1) If one tile or two adjacent tiles are elevated too high or folded, and the puzzle is otherwise solved, then the puzzle is considered solved, with a penalty of 2 seconds. In all other cases the result is DNF. | ||||||||||||||||||
| 10h) | Other puzzles are solved according to the solved state as defined in the generally accepted goal of the puzzle, with the regulations of the cube solved state applied when applicable. |
| 11a) | Incidents are:
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| 11b) | In case of an incident during an event the main judge of the event must decide about the outcome. |
| 11d) | If the WCA regulations are not fully clear or if the incident is not covered by the WCA regulations, then the main judge must make his decision based on fair sportsmanship, after consulting the WCA delegate. |
| 11e) | In case of an incident the main judge may award a competitor another attempt, that replaces the attempt for which the incident happened. |
| 11f) | The main judge and WCA delegate must not support their decisions with video or photograph analysis. |
| 12a) | Notation for Rubik's Cube and similar puzzles: Face Moves:
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| 12b) | Rotations for all cube shaped puzzles:
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| 12c) | Notation for Square-1:
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| 12d) | Notation for Megaminx (scrambling notation only):
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| 12e) | Notation for Pyraminx:
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| A1) | Attempts for events categorised under Speed Solving must abide to the following procedure.
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| A2) | Scrambling
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| A3) | Inspection
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| A4) | Starting the solve
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| A5) | During the solve
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| A6) | Ending the solve
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| A7) | Administration
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| B1) | Standard procedure is followed as described in Article A (Speed Solving). Additional/special regulations for Blindfolded Solving are described below.
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| B2) | Starting the solve
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| B3) | Memorisation
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| B4) | During the solve
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| B5) | Ending the solve
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| C1) | Standard procedure is followed as described in Article A (Speed Solving). Additional/special regulations for One-handed Solving are described below.
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| D1) | Standard procedure is followed as described in Article A (Speed Solving). Additional/special regulations for Solving With Feet are described below.
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| D3) | Starting the solve
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| D4) | Ending the solve
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| E1) | Regulations are as described in Article A (Speed Solving). Additional/special regulations for Fewest Moves Solving are described below. |
| E2) | Procedure for Fewest Moves Solving:
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| E3) | The competitor may use the following objects: paper and pen (both supplied by judge), 3 cubes (self supplied), unlimited coloured stickers (self supplied).
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| F1) | Standard procedure is followed as described in Article A (Speed Solving). Additional/special regulations for Clock Solving are described below. |
| F2) | Scrambling
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| F3) | Inspection
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| G1) | Standard procedure is followed as described in Article A (Speed Solving). Additional/special regulations for Magic Solving are described below. |
| G2) | Scrambling
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| G3) | Inspection
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| G4) | Starting the solve
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| H1) | Standard procedure is followed as described in Article B (Blindfolded Solving). Additional/special regulations for Multiple Blindfolded Solving are described below.
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| Z1) | Organisation team may collect all puzzles for scrambling "during registration". |
| Z2) | Organisation team may limit the number of events per competitor. |
| Z3) | Organisation team may select competitors who directly qualify for certain rounds of certain events, based on the results of certain competitions. |
