Dear WCA Community,

The WRC would like to inform you about the versions of the WCA Regulations and Guidelines, which are going into effect May 1, 2019.

You can review all changes in this comparison on GitHub. If you do not want to open all the individual changes, you can click on “Files changed” to see the complete files of the regulation and guidelines. All changes and additions are marked green and removals are red.

Round format changes:

• Means are now recognized for 4x4x4 Blindfolded and 5x5x5 Blindfolded "Best of 3" rounds. (commit | discussion)
• The "Best of X" format has been removed from all events except blindfolded events and 3x3x3 Fewest Moves. (commit | discussion, commit | discussion, commit | discussion)

Competition organization changes:

• Scramble signatures should be used for all competitions (commit | discussion | discussion | discusssion)
  • Scramble signatures are planned to become mandatory in 2020.
• The WCA Delegate must not give scramblers (or anyone else) access to scramble sequences for any group before it has begun. (commit)
  • Note that TNoodle 0.14.0 includes scramble set PDFs with individual passcodes to help with this.
• Time limits have been clarified (commit)
  • Time limits must be announced before the competition, rather than just before the round.
  • Only one cumulative time limit can apply to a given round.
  • Cumulative time limits include time elapsed in DNF attempts.
  • The judge and WCA Delegate may estimate cumulative elapsed time (commit)
• Scramblers should be visually isolated from competitors. (commit)
• Many competition requirements have been moved from the Regulations to the new WCA Competition Requirements Policy (commit)

Other substantial changes and clarifications:

• Individual non-permitted puzzles in multi BLD may count as unsolved instead of DNFing the whole attempt, at the discretion of the Delegate. (commit | discussion)
• Clarified that competitors start the attempt for blindfolded events, and that they must ask the judge before "testing" a timer. (commit | discussion)
• Competitors are allowed to have hand warmers and food at certain times, at the discretion of the Delegate. (commit | discussion)
• The competitor must not ask for assistance during a pop, and the judge should prevent others from assisting. If someone picks up a popped part for the competitor, the judge or competitor may ask them to place it on the solving station and not to assist any further. (commit | discussion)
• The competitor may touch the official stopwatch, unless the organization team provides an unofficial stopwatch for the competitor. (commit | discussion)
• Starting the timer always ends inspection and begins the solve. This means that the competitor cannot "test" the timer once inspection has begun. (commit | discussion)
• It is explicitly forbidden to cause puzzle defects intentionally. (commit | discussion)
• If there are multiple green faces next to the top face, the darkest is placed in front for scrambling. (commit)
• We've specified that Multi-Blind result times are always rounded to seconds, matching the results database. (commit)
• Notation for NxNxN cubes has been clarified (commit)
  • Outer Block Moves that move n slices (e.g. nFw) must have 1 < n < N (where N is the number of layers in the puzzle).
  • Execution Turn Metric (ETM) is defined, and used to define the move limit for 3x3x3 Fewest Moves.
• Clarified that any center piece may have a logo, not just the most central one. (commit | discussion)
• Clarifications for Fewest Moves (commit)
  • Information to identify an attempt is defined as name, WCA ID, or registrant ID (at least one), and optionally competition name/round/attempt number.
  • The competitor may write information to identify the attempt before the attempt has begun.
  • The competitor may write information to identify the attempt in front of a judge while submitting a solution (but the information must not be added after).
  • Competitors should black out/scribble out moves that are not part of the solution.
  • Judges may interpret {r}, <r>, or (r) as [r] for inexperienced competitors.
  • Competitors may supply their own pens for Fewest Moves if they wish. (commit)
  • Pencils and similar writing implements are explicitly permitted for Fewest Moves.
  • Competitors may join a 3x3x3 Fewest Moves attempt late, if there is no risk they could have information about the scramble. (commit)