Dear WCA Community,

On the back of the very successful Newcomer Month initiative in 2024, the WCA Board has again approved a set of exceptions to the WCA Competition Requirements Policy for competitions taking place in the month of March 2025.

As part of this initiative, competitions in March 2025 can choose to reserve up to 50% of the competitor limits for WCA Newcomers or cubers with a 2025 WCA ID. The exact details are as follows:

• Exception to Announcement Criteria 5.1: up to 50% of the competitor limit may be reserved for competitors without a WCA ID or with a 2025 WCA ID. Registrations for competitions with a specific portion of the competitor limit reserved must not utilize qualification times. If more competitors who qualify for reserved spots register than spots available, they may still be accepted provided the overall competitor limit has not been reached.
• Addition to Announcement Criteria 6.2: Competitions which reserve a specific portion of their competitor limit, must have registration closed no later than 2 weeks prior to the competition. At this point, any competitors on the waiting list who do not qualify for the reserved places may be accepted to the competition until the total competitor limit is filled. If the competitor limit is not filled by the time registration is closed, additional registration periods may be opened. Additional registration periods shall have no reserved places and must be conducted on a "first come first serve" basis.
• Exception to Announcement Criteria 6.5.1: Registrations from the waiting list shall be accepted based on qualification for the available spot. Competitors without a WCA ID or with a 2025 WCA ID shall be eligible for any empty spot created by a withdrawal. Competitors with a 2024 WCA ID or earlier shall only qualify for a spot if the withdrawal was by a competitor who did not take up a reserved spot.

The WMT and Board are confident that this initiative will again provide many more opportunities for new speedcubers around the world to experience the joy of participating in a WCA Competition and the thrill of recording officially recognized times.