# Idea: Alternating 1 Year event



## AvGalen (Aug 6, 2018)

At Euro 2018 I pitched this idea to a few people and now it is time to do the same on the forum.

The general idea is that instead of having events that we continue to do "for eternity", we add 1 "Event of the year" that will be a different puzzle every year. So for example for 2019 it would be KiloMinx, but in 2020 it would become TeamBlind, 2021 gets Match-The-Scramble and in 2021 it would become "whatever the buzzing in 2020 would suggest".

Currently we are still doing some puzzles where the only reason we do them seems to be "because we have always done them". 

Some advantages of introducing a different event every year:
1) New records, excitement, race to hold the first competitions, etc
2) New personal challenge to learn another puzzle, develop methods, improve techniques, etc
3) Shops/manafacturers should see some opportunity here

Some disadvantages:
a) Every year we have to decide/vote which puzzle it is going to be and make sure that these are readily available from shops. This means that we should prepare at least 6 months in advance.
b) Every year regulations might have to be adjusted, databases prepared and organizers have to get used to new things
c) Because Worlds and other big tournaments aren't organized every year some puzzles might never be done at them

Some questions that come to mind:
I) Is 1 year a long enough time for such an alternating event?
II) Should there be a possibility to keep a puzzle if it is incredibly loved?
III) Should these always be relatively easy/short puzzles?

Just to be clear, this is just something that I mulled over in my mind and it doesn't have any official WCA-endorsement. I actually expect them to have some issues with this as it is quite cumbersome. I am just surprised that event-wise in the 15 years almost nothing has changed except (from memory):
* Addition and modification of Multi-Blind
* Addition of Big Cubes
* Removal of Magics
* Addition of Skewb
* Modification of several events (shorter time, more puzzles for mean/average)

I would personally link this to the removal of Clock, which to me is the best example of an event that has become completely stale. However for this forumtopic I don't want that to be the focus of the responses.

So....what do you think?


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## TipsterTrickster (Aug 6, 2018)

Hmm... Sounds like an interesting idea. This would also defeat the purpose of record breaking because once the year is over then you cant get the record, also there would be little progression in the events, lastly you couldn't really main any of those events and would discourage people from practicing them.

Ps: don't remove clock


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## Trexrush1 (Aug 6, 2018)

For many reasons this wont work. Basically what Tipster said, plus the fact that in being temporary, the value of holding these events is next to none ( "I was 3rd place in the world for an event that only lasted a year" lol) and thus holding them in big competitions is a waste of time. In addition, because they are temporary, organizers will be inclined to hold the event in comps, taking time away from events that people actually care about. The WCA can afford to add perhaps 1 more event in the future, but not without sacrifices. The best solution is the encourage comps to hold random unofficial events. Events like that are fun, without being a burden for organizers. But cycling different events officially isnt a solution for expanding the speed-solving community.


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## bobthegiraffemonkey (Aug 6, 2018)

Interesting, I think it could be worth considering as a preferred unofficial event, which would eliminate the WCA related problems. As for timescales and big competitions, maybe introduce one each year but have it last for say two years. Each event gets more time to be held, but it still gets changed up every year.

I don't think there's any unofficial event I really care about so I'm personally not affected much by how this turns out though.


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## Ronxu (Aug 6, 2018)

A year isn't anywhere near enough time for people to become even half decent at a new event. I got 3rd at Euro 2014 in skewb with an average of 7.06, which is hilariously slow today. By the time people start to figure out and learn good methods, the event would already be gone.


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## AvGalen (Aug 7, 2018)

Ronxu said:


> A year isn't anywhere near enough time for people to become even half decent at a new event. I got 3rd at Euro 2014 in skewb with an average of 7.06, which is hilariously slow today. By the time people start to figure out and learn good methods, the event would already be gone.


But Euro was not at the end of the year and Skewb was not announced to become official 6 months in advance and good Skewbs weren't common for a while! If you look at the WR's for Skewb you can see that after 1 year the average dropped from 13.7 to 3.10 (now 2.03, a huge drop from the 2.51 before) and single dropped from 9.21 to 1.81 (now 1.01, again a huge drop from the 1.67 before). "Unless you are Polish" Skewb became a stale event roughly a year after it was introduced not only for records but also for methods.
I would say that for 95% of all competitors the first year of a new puzzle is the exciting year, after that it just becomes something you do and because of experience you might break your PB sometimes but you don't really study-to-improve that puzzle much anymore


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