# WCA Proximity Policy



## gsingh (Aug 10, 2022)

Saw this on the WCA forum and decided to post it here.





World Cube Association


The World Cube Association governs competitions for mechanical puzzles that are operated by twisting groups of pieces, commonly known as 'twisty puzzles'. The most famous of these puzzles is the Rubik's Cube, invented by professor Rubik from Hungary. A selection of these puzzles are chosen as...




forum.worldcubeassociation.org





I'll copy and paste the message here for anyone that does not have an account on the WCA forum.

*The proximity policy:*

The proximity policy states that:



> WCA competitions will be accepted if they are at least 100 km or 19 days away from any other competition.


With the caveat of:



> The WCAT should particularly review a proposed competition if there is another competition for which the distance between them is less than 100 km and the time between them is less than 19 days. A Delegate requesting approval for such a competition must provide further information on why the competition should still be accepted. Possible arguments that support such a competition being accepted include:
> 
> The two competitions don’t have events in common.
> The two competitions take place in different countries.


*The reasoning behind the policy:*

The basis behind the policy is to prevent against a region focusing its competitions on one particular area rather than across the region, disadvantaging those who would have to travel further in order to reach these competitions. It attempts to ensure that competitors across a region all have reasonable access to competitions while also preventing against the possibility of organizers hosting weekly local competitions such to wildly advantage their access to competitions while disadvantaging others.

*The issue:*

The issue is that while this policy may have sufficed in November 2017 when its most recent version was introduced, it is now wildly outdated, overly restrictive, and simply not designed to deal with the present quantity and demand of competitions of a cubing scene incomparable to what it was 5 years ago.

In the UK where I live, 2017 saw an average of one competition every 5.8 weeks; at present this year, it is one every 1.5 weeks. Given the UK is now approaching a point of one competition per weekend, the proximity policy is now serving merely as a hindrance to the competition organizing process. A competition in London restricts nearly the entirety of the South East from hosting a competition via the proximity policy and vice versa. The challenges of sustaining such frequent competitions given the restrictions of the proximity policy are mounting.

I have heard numerous countries complain of the hindrance the present proximity policy poses for competition organization, with Australian delegate Kerrie Jarman noting that “the current proximity policy works against us.” [1] 2

Furthermore, the proximity policy is biased against regions with higher population densities in which a 100km radius restriction restricts a larger percentage of the region and its population from further competitions. Likewise, the smaller a region is, the harder it is to work around the policy.

*The solution:*

I propose two solutions on how to address the issues caused by the proximity policy:


Remove it entirely and replace with guidance that regional cube associations should still endeavor to ensure that competitions are distributed across the region. I believe that this is the best option, as it allows local delegates who know their region’s population density and competition demands complete flexibility to organize competitions wherever and however they best fit. WCAT can assess competitions on a competition-by-competition basis to ensure that the absence of proximity restrictions is not abused.
Loosen the parameters of the proximity policy; 50km and 12 days would be more reasonable given the present demand for competitions and would still give considerably greater flexibility than the way it stands presently.
*Conclusion:*

It is clear that the proximity policy as it stands is in serious need of review. As foreseen in the January 2018 WCA board meeting, “It is predicted that in some time, because of growth, we will have to revisit this policy once again” [2] 2 and now is high time for its revisitation. With the demand for and output of competitions as high as it is in the post-pandemic cubing scene, we need a reworking of the proximity rule that helps rather than hinders competition organization and furthers the WCA’s mission of having more competitions in more countries with more people.

So, what do you guys think? In my opinion (this is gsingh now) it should be completely removed.


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## kubesolver (Aug 11, 2022)

There has already been discussion here and on wca forum and I fully agree with this being a bad rule. 

However I came to the realization that it isn't a fight worth fighting right now because the current bottleneck to having more competitions is by far scarcity of organizers willing to run them.


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## kubesolver (Aug 11, 2022)

Which makes be think that the way to increase number of competitions would be to allow organizers to profit from them. 

Is much rather go to a comp with high entry fee than don't go to a comp at all


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## Tabe (Aug 12, 2022)

There's an easy way around the proximity rule - series competitions.


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