Competition Guide

How to Run a Successful Rubik's Cube Competition
GETTING STARTED

• Verify that there are enough interested cubers to attend the competition.
  A good competition should have a minimum of twenty competitors, but more is better. If you are not sure that you can have this many attend, you should probably just have an unofficial competiiton.
• Choose a weekend that you and most of the interested cubers are free.
  If you are not availabe for a certain date, then that is obviously a poor choice. However, if most of the interested cubers are not available for the date you choose, you will have a low turnout. You should try to find a balance between your availability and the availability of your competitors.
• Find an appropriate venue and make sure that you can use it for the competition.
  A good venue will have a large competition area and an area for the spectators to watch. The lighting of the venue must also be very good so the competitors are not distracted or affected by it. See the WCA regulations for more details about choosing a venue.
• Make sure that a WCA delegate can attend the competition.
  All official competitions must have a WCA Board member or delegate attending. The WCA delegate must be a trusted individual by the WCA to ensure that the competition runs smoothly and that all rules are enforced.
• Contact the WCA Board for permission to host a competition.
  E-mail the WCA Board with your idea and tell them about the competition. Be sure to include details about how many people you expect, what the entrance fee would be, where the competition will take place, and who the WCA delegate could be.

ONCE YOU HAVE PERMISSION

• Contact the venue again and finalize the details with them.
  Make sure you guarantee that you have whatever space you chose reserved and that they know what will be going on.
• Make a schedule of events based on when you will have the venue.
  Time all events accordingly. If you will have a large number of comeptitors, you will have to make your events longer. Remember that some puzzles, such as 4x4x4 and 5x5x5, take a long time if you will have slower competitors attending, so you may want to have only one round or a combined final.
• Setup a webpage with the information and registration instructions.
  Be sure to include all information about the date, events, schedule, venue, directions, WCA delegate, and anything else that may be relevant. Also, let the competitors know how they can pre-register for the competition so that you can plan better. It may also be helpful to include a list of hotels in the area, especially for competitions that are more than one day or that will have competitors that had to travel.
• Contact the WCA Board and give the appropriate information for announcement.
  When you e-mail the WCA Board this time, let them know that everything is taken care of and give them all necessary information that they need to announce the competition officially.

BEFORE THE COMPETITION

• Announce the competition to the community through the Yahoo! Group.
  Remember that many speedcubers do not check speedcubing.com regularly, so it would be a good idea to also announce the competition to the speedsolvingrubikscube Yahoo! group
• Contact media organizations for additional publicity.
  Many newspapers or local news stations may be interested in your event. Contact a large number of media groups to get the word out and a few may come to your event.
• Setup the Excel worksheet (available from Ron).
  Make sure you (or somebody who will be available at the competition) is familiar with Microsoft Excel to setup the competition worksheet. You may want to add the names of anybody who preregistered and add the appropriate sheets for the events you will be holding.
• Print registration and competition sheets.
  You will need these sheets before and during the competition, so do not wait until the last minute to print them. More information about these is available below.
• Obtain prizes for the winners.
  The WCA regulations state that winners should receive a prize for winning. At a minimum you should offer certificates, but trophies, puzzles, tiles, or other prizes would be ideal.
• Print the scrambles ahead of time.
  The scrambles are important, so they should be printed early and placed in a sealed envelope. You may have to generate the scrambles yourself using the scramblers on the WCA page, or they may be sent to you. Either way, this should be taken care of early enough to avoid the possibility of a competition without scrambles.

AT THE COMPETITION

• Set-up early.
  It is important to arrive at the venue early to setup so that the competition starts on time. If you fall behind schedule early in the day, it will be very difficult to stick to the original schedule and you may have to eliminate events.
• Make sure there are judges/scramblers available.
  If you do not have judges and scramblers working at all times, the competition will be delayed. If this happens, it will be difficult to maintain the schedule or even continue with the competition.
• Make sure somebody is available for data entry at all times.
  In order to calculate the averages in a timely manner to determine winners and round advancements, times should be entered into the Excel worksheet as they happen. This will also allow you to send the results to the WCA Board as soon as the competition is over.
• Enforce all rules.
  Enforcing all rules of the competition is very important. If rules are broken, the integrity of the competition is at risk and all results may have to be nullified. Therefore, it is important to be knowledgeable about all rules and regulations established by the WCA.
• Have a copy of the regulations handy.
  In case of a discrepancy, it is essential to have a copy of the WCA regulations available to determine the outcome of the situation. The WCA delegate should know all of these rules.
• Make the competition unique.
  Having something unique to your competition, such as special guests or events, will attract more cubers and make it more fun.

by Bob Burton's site