# Should judges and scramblers wear gloves?



## abunickabhi (Jun 30, 2022)

In world championship 2007, every judge and scrambler wore a pair of gloves.
The motivation to do this are two-fold:

It keeps cleanliness and hygiene.
If the cube has a specific lubing and tensioning, it gets less disturbed if handled by the non-competitors by gloves.


----------



## Eli Apperson (Jun 30, 2022)

abunickabhi said:


> In world championship 2007, every judge and scrambler wore a pair of gloves.
> The motivation to do this are two-fold:
> 
> It keeps cleanliness and hygiene.


At most comps people are gonna be trying others puzzles and sharing their own, I don't think most people care.


abunickabhi said:


> If the cube has a specific lubing and tensioning, it gets less disturbed if handled by the non-competitors by gloves.


No, while scrambling you only touch the outside of the cube. How would wearing gloves affect the tensioning at all, that doesn't make any sense.


----------



## abunickabhi (Jun 30, 2022)

Eli Apperson said:


> At most comps people are gonna be trying others puzzles and sharing their own, I don't think most people care.
> 
> No, while scrambling you only touch the outside of the cube. How would wearing gloves affect the tensioning at all, that doesn't make any sense.


When you wear gloves, you are kind of careful in touching the cube and the speed at which you put the cube and remove it from the box. 

I have been to a lot of messy comps where cubes are shoved into the box and the tension changes a teeny bit after 5 solves. It is a minute thing but it exists and happens occasionally.


----------



## DuckubingCuber347 (Jun 30, 2022)

Gloves aren't the greatest way to promote hygiene because people than get careless. A better way would be to keep hand sanitizer and hand towels for the scramblers. But really, hardly anyone cares if other people touch their cubes and if you're worried about something trivial like that you shouldn't be at a competition, should we have one competitor per table and sanitize the station each time? That's irrational.

As for affecting the lubrication and tensioning. For the lubrication, only way you'll effect it is by reaching in between the pieces and smearing your finger on it, gloves won't make a difference. If there's lubricant on the exterior I think the competitor would appreciate you rubbing some of it off so it's not greasy, something you don't need gloves for. And tensioning? C'mon, what does that even mean, do scramblers punch the cubes or something and you want them to wear gloves as a cushion? That doesn't make any sense.

These are illogical questions.


----------



## DuckubingCuber347 (Jun 30, 2022)

abunickabhi said:


> When you wear gloves, you are kind of careful in touching the cube and the speed at which you put the cube and remove it from the box.


Do you have anything to back that up with? That sounds completely made up.



abunickabhi said:


> I have been to a lot of messy comps where cubes are shoved into the box and the tension changes a teeny bit after 5 solves. It is a minute thing but it exists and happens occasionally.


That sounds like bad organization to me. If you're worried about this kind of thing post a message on the WCA forum to propose some new regulations that promote responsibility and maybe place a supervisor at each table. If a cuber thinks they notice a difference in tension they can retension their cube in between solve. A "minute" thing should not cause great inconvenience.


----------



## Thom S. (Jul 1, 2022)

TheCubingCuber347 said:


> A better way would be to keep hand sanitizer and hand towels


How to tell someone doesn't know how hand sanitizer works


----------



## DuckubingCuber347 (Jul 1, 2022)

Thom S. said:


> How to tell someone doesn't know how hand sanitizer works


I heard it mixes really well with silicone lubricants.


----------



## Thom S. (Jul 1, 2022)

TheCubingCuber347 said:


> I heard it mixes really well with silicone lubricants.


The way hand sanitizer is supposed to be used the alcohol it dries up completely way before you are allowed to touch anything again


----------



## DuckubingCuber347 (Jul 1, 2022)

Thom S. said:


> The way hand sanitizer is supposed to be used the alcohol it dries up completely way before you are allowed to touch anything again


I am well aware of that and mayhaps I should have made that clear, but in the case where you accidently dump a massive glob of hand sanitizer and you don't want to spend 1+ minute rubbing your hands, a towel would offer a quick solution.


----------



## Ayce (Jul 1, 2022)

abunickabhi said:


> In world championship 2007, every judge and scrambler wore a pair of gloves.
> The motivation to do this are two-fold:
> 
> It keeps cleanliness and hygiene.
> ...


For people incredibly germ-phobic, (like me) I think it would be a good change. It would keep the cubes' condition, and in a pandemic, this would come especially in handy. But if you think about how many gloves would be needed, wouldn't it just add to the cost of the competition fee/delegate?


----------



## Thom S. (Jul 1, 2022)

Ayce said:


> But if you think about how many gloves would be needed, wouldn't it just add to the cost of the competition fee/delegate?


Who decided competitions should be free anyway?


----------



## Eli Apperson (Jul 1, 2022)

Ayce said:


> For people incredibly germ-phobic, (like me) I think it would be a good change. It would keep the cubes' condition, and in a pandemic, this would come especially in handy. But if you think about how many gloves would be needed, wouldn't it just add to the cost of the competition fee/delegate?


I could be wrong, but I wouldn't think people very afraid of germs would come to competitions anyway.


----------



## Eli Apperson (Jul 1, 2022)

Thom S. said:


> Who decided competitions should be free anyway?


Cheaper competitions will allow more people to come, which I think would be ideal. The more a comp costs, the more people it could exclude.


----------



## Tabe (Jul 2, 2022)

Unless you're changing gloves between every scramble, they would be pointless. And changing gloves between every scramble is not practical. 

As for lube being disturbed, this seems like a non-concern. If you're so sensitive with such an incredibly precise lube setup that a couple scrambles affects you, I don't think there's anything that can be done for you. Would such a person re-lube their cube every 5 solves at home? And that's not even talking about how gloves wouldn't help with this anyway. 

Finally - tensions? How would gloves help? Do tensions on a cube that doesn't have a stripped core REALLY get changed by scrambling a few times in a comp?


----------



## IsThatA4x4 (Jul 2, 2022)

Tensions and lubes I can't really see being disturbed, or at least not to any more extent.
Let's say that scrambling didn't _at all_ affect lubing / tensioning.
We still have to consider other competitors sharing, dust / humidity dependent on the venue, temperature, how worn screws or springs are, and competitor nerves.
All of the above could change how you turn and how lubed / tensioned the cube feels. Preventing this from happening during the scrambling process seems like a wild goose chase if it only adds to many other factors that are relatively out of control.
For example, at my first comp, my cube felt dry because I kept using it, the venue was relatively cold, and I kept undershooting my turns. So, I kept adding lube until it felt right.
The next day, when I was back in my normal environment, I realised how seriously overlubed my cube was.


----------



## hyn (Jul 3, 2022)

Eli Apperson said:


> Cheaper competitions will allow more people to come, which I think would be ideal. The more a comp costs, the more people it could exclude.


The cost of going to oceanics 2022 is almost the same as getting a GAN 11m pro


----------



## Sajwo (Jul 3, 2022)

That's a nice idea. Looks professional and keep the cubes clean.


----------



## Filipe Teixeira (Jul 9, 2022)

what's next? use gloves to wash your hands?


----------



## qwr (Jul 18, 2022)

I can see it being an optimal accommodation for really germophobic competitors (fun fact: Trump is quite the germophobe) but it would be a lot of burden for all competitors


----------



## OreKehStrah (Jul 18, 2022)

I definitely think it would be a nice option. At a comp I went to last summer, I submitted my cube (with a clean exterior) and when I started the first solve it had a lot of lube on the outside of the puzzle that was NOT there before (presumably from them handling some kid's nasty overlubed cube) and I ended up messing up an alg because of it lol.


----------



## GenTheThief (Jul 18, 2022)

OreKehStrah said:


> I definitely think it would be a nice option. At a comp I went to last summer, I submitted my cube (with a clean exterior) and when I started the first solve it had a lot of lube on the outside of the puzzle that was NOT there before (presumably from them handling some kid's nasty overlubed cube) and I ended up messing up an alg because of it lol.


How would gloves help with this though? Lube would still get from a dirty cube onto the gloves and back onto your cube. If the scramblers didn't have gloves on they might be able to have the foresight to wipe their hands off before scrambling the next cube, but if they've got gloves on it would be much harder to tell if they've touched a greasy cube.

However, it would help if scramblers have naturally greasy hands. Even if I can't necessarily articulate it, I would definitely appreciate it if scramblers wore gloves.


----------



## qwr (Jul 18, 2022)

For cleanliness, alcohol wipes may be more effective


----------

