# 2008 = 2007 * 2 (number of competitions)



## Stefan (Nov 7, 2008)

With the announcement of Carnegie Mellon Fall 2008, we have now doubled the number of WCA competitions in 2008 compared to 2007.

1982 - 1
2003 - 2
2004 - 12
2005 - 24
2006 - 33
2007 - *53*
2008 - *106*
2009 - 6


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## masterofthebass (Nov 7, 2008)

wow... that's astonishing. Eventually there will be at least 1 competition in each area of europe / US every week.


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## cmhardw (Nov 7, 2008)

I wonder how long it will be before big competitions like Worlds, Continental, or National competitions will be by invitation only?

Chris


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## Lotsofsloths (Nov 7, 2008)

cmhardw said:


> I wonder how long it will be before big competitions like Worlds, Continental, *or National competitions will be by invitation only?*
> 
> Chris



That is a good idea.


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## Dene (Nov 7, 2008)

WC better not be invitation only... Nationals, maybe, but not WC.


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## Bryan (Nov 7, 2008)

Dene said:


> WC better not be invitation only... Nationals, maybe, but not WC.



I would expect WC to be invitation only before Nationals. But really, invitation would be a misnomer. More likely it would be pre-qualification. As long as the pre-qualification can occur at any WCA event, it seems like it would be an eventual step made.


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## pjk (Nov 7, 2008)

I am not too surprised, but that is quite a jump from just a year ago. This really shows how much the sport is growing. Yes, I do call it a sport.



Bryan said:


> Dene said:
> 
> 
> > WC better not be invitation only... Nationals, maybe, but not WC.
> ...


I agree. Qualification sounds more reasonable.


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## brunson (Nov 7, 2008)

pjk said:


> I am not too surprised, but that is quite a jump from just a year ago. This really shows how much the sport is growing. Yes, I do call it a sport.


I think I've settled on this qualification: If people compete at it, it's a sport.


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## Dene (Nov 7, 2008)

I don't think qualification is a good idea for WC either. People will come to it because it is the WC, why can't they compete too? I think everyone should get a bit of a go, at least, for the biggest event we have.


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## blade740 (Nov 7, 2008)

I figure you would have WC as a large multi-day event. You'd have the "World Speedcubing Open" as a 2 day open event, then the "World Championships" as the prequalified event. Cubers could come to compete in the Open the same way they would go to WC now, and if they like, they can stay and watch the "main event" as the top competitors in each event battle it out on stage.


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## masterofthebass (Nov 7, 2008)

umm.... how would it be feasible to have 2000 people come to world championships. No other WC is an open competition. At some point, we will have to regulate the level of competitors at higher level competitions.


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## Escher (Nov 7, 2008)

i would expect an invitation to compete only system if it gets much bigger. top 5% of cubers maybe?


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## SparkZer00 (Nov 7, 2008)

I dunno, invitation only, not in the sense of a misnomer, seems unfair to cubers. I think that one of the main purposes of competitions is so that the interaction of fast and slow cubers together, being a community sport, is important, and an idea that our sport was built on and thrives on today. Invitation only, in my opinion, would start to crumble that from beneath us.


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## Escher (Nov 8, 2008)

perhaps. i would expect some kind of seperation, simply for practicality, at a WC. 
i could envisage a two tiered WC, with essentially a massive qualifying round.
a big weekend event would definitely be a good idea too.
you could also argue that attending a competition in this style would be an excellent way of spurring on new cubers. 
...but i can see your point.


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## SparkZer00 (Nov 8, 2008)

Escher said:


> perhaps. i would expect some kind of seperation, simply for practicality, at a WC.
> i could envisage a two tiered WC, with essentially a massive qualifying round.
> a big weekend event would definitely be a good idea too.
> you could also argue that attending a competition in this style would be an excellent way of spurring on new cubers.
> ...but i can see your point.



I agree. I have known several people who have quit cubing because they went to a competition and lost immediately, or gave up because they saw faster cubers dominate and just own everyone, inciting in those people a mindset that there's no way for them to get faster.


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## Dene (Nov 8, 2008)

masterofthebass said:


> umm.... how would it be feasible to have 2000 people come to world championships. No other WC is an open competition. At some point, we will have to regulate the level of competitors at higher level competitions.



TBH, I think we're a while away from that, unless the WC were in California. Even then, everyone should be allowed in the first round. The majority of people will be just doing 3x3x3, so there could just be a huge preparation for the first 3x3x3 round, then the rest would be the regular cubers anyway.


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## Bryan (Nov 8, 2008)

SparkZer00 said:


> I dunno, invitation only, not in the sense of a misnomer, seems unfair to cubers. I think that one of the main purposes of competitions is so that the interaction of fast and slow cubers together, being a community sport, is important, and an idea that our sport was built on and thrives on today. Invitation only, in my opinion, would start to crumble that from beneath us.



Invitation for all competitions, yes. Invitation for just a select few, no. When there are 100's of competitions, not being able to go to one (or two) of them just because you're not the fastest isn't the end of the world. For someone who says, "Well, I only want to go to one competition, and I want that to be World's." Well, sorry, that's just kind of selfish.

If there was pre-qualification for competitions, perhaps that would spur more people to organize more regional competitions.


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## CharlieCooper (Nov 9, 2008)

i'm not sure it would necessarily be right to only have the creme de la creme of cubers at worlds etc. there are people who go to a lot of competitions and are very dedicated to speedcubing who aren't necessarily the fastest.

i understand that there will be a time when there are just too many people, but i guess the sport will need to adapt. we can't start shutting people out as soon as the hobby gets popular!


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## Bryan (Nov 9, 2008)

For those in the US interested in the distribution of the competitions for 2008

http://www.cubingusa.com/comps2008.html

It has a few bugs where competitions held in the same spot, you can't see both.


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## shafiqdms1 (Nov 9, 2008)

pjk said:


> I am not too surprised, but that is quite a jump from just a year ago. This really shows how much the sport is growing. Yes, I do call it a sport.



yeah, I consider it a sport too. Sorry if this is kind of off topic but, do any of you guys think that cubing will ever be an event in the Olympics?

-Shafiq


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## MistArts (Nov 9, 2008)

shafiqdms1 said:


> pjk said:
> 
> 
> > I am not too surprised, but that is quite a jump from just a year ago. This really shows how much the sport is growing. Yes, I do call it a sport.
> ...



We had a debate thread on it. Search around.


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## philkt731 (Nov 10, 2008)

I'd also like to point out that of the 4035 people that have ever competed in the 3x3x3 event, 1811 were new to competition in 2008.

At the end of 2007, 2224 people had competed in 3x3x3, 993 of which were new in 2007.

In 2006, there were 568 new competitors of 1231 who had ever competed


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## TimMc (Nov 10, 2008)

If you're going to be doing qualifications before WC then would you consider having a quota on the number of competitors per country so that each may be represented fairly? 

Is WC to become more of a country oriented competition like the olympics or is it just about the individuals? Anyone can set a WR at any competition so...

Tim.


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## cmhardw (Nov 10, 2008)

philkt731 said:


> I'd also like to point out that of the 4035 people that have ever competed in the 3x3x3 event, 1811 were new to competition in 2008.
> 
> At the end of 2007, 2224 people had competed in 3x3x3, 993 of which were new in 2007.
> 
> In 2006, there were 568 new competitors of 1231 who had ever competed



Wow! We're pretty consistently adding about 80% of the current year's competitors for the next year! That's a decent sized growth each year!

--edit--
too tired, the first calculation I did with the roughly 45% number is that each year roughly 45% of the cubers are new. This means that each year is a roughly 80% growth from the previous year.
--edit--

Chris


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## Gunnar (Nov 10, 2008)

TimMc said:


> If you're going to be doing qualifications before WC then would you consider having a quota on the number of competitors per country so that each may be represented fairly?
> 
> Is WC to become more of a country oriented competition like the olympics or is it just about the individuals? Anyone can set a WR at any competition so...
> 
> Tim.



I strongly oppose the idea to set a quota per country. This is a individual sport and as such the location of your birth/living place should have nothing to do with the participation in a championship.

For example, in athletics, only three americans are allowed in 100m, and three kenyans in 3000m steeplechase, which exclude a great deal of the elite runners from the championships, only based on a factor not being relevant to running; being their citizenship. I would never want to have the same situation with speedcubing.


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## TimMc (Nov 10, 2008)

Gunnar said:


> I strongly oppose the idea to set a quota per country. This is a individual sport and as such the location of your birth/living place should have nothing to do with the participation in a championship.
> 
> For example, in athletics, only three americans are allowed in 100m, and three kenyans in 3000m steeplechase, which exclude a great deal of the elite runners from the championships, only based on a factor not being relevant to running; being their citizenship. I would never want to have the same situation with speedcubing.



I wouldn't regard it as a team sport. But even as an individual sport, having these restrictions would allow a country a fair chance of saying that they're the fastest. Of course, that's assuming you want your home country behind you at world championships.

It might not be big enough to be worrying about it just yet but it's worth discussing. If there are foreseeable problems with keeping things the same then surely alternative regulations should be looked at...

lol, you could have points per year like the tennis. Requiring the "elite" to participate in more competitions. Again, to keep that fair perhaps only national competitions would result in "points".

Tim.


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## AvGalen (Nov 10, 2008)

Why would competitions ever be invitation only?

* Euro 2008 wasn't much bigger than Euro 2006
* Every competition wants to get more competitors, not less
* When there are more competitions all over the world, some people will travel less because there will be another competition closer next week
* Combined finals, time-limits, bigger competition areas and more timers should suffice for a long time
* Invitation only is completely opposed to the WCA-philosophy of


> more competitions in more countries with more people and more fun, under fair conditions.


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