Dear WCA Community,

Starting from January 2019, the WDC will issue a public overview of its activities every month, in order to give a better perception of the work of the Committee to the Community.
We realize that our work is mostly behind the scenes and that it’s based on confidentiality, which is something that can easily lead to the spreading of false rumors and confusion. The WDC would like to establish a routine in its communication towards the WCA Community, to avoid misunderstanding and disinformation and to provide some insight about its activities.

First, a bit of data. In the first month of 2019, the WDC has actively worked on 11 investigations: 3 were opened in January and 8 were still ongoing from 2018. 5 of these cases were closed.

Public announcements about closed investigations

1. The WDC has recently concluded an investigation regarding an underage competitor, who shall remain nameless, because of their attempt to gain a personal advantage in different blindfolded events. A video provided to the WDC shows the competitor using a sight based method to solve their cubes during one of these events at a WCA Competition. This was possible because the judge of this attempt had forgot to administer a blocker between the competitor and their cube. The WDC discussed at length the case with the accused competitor, especially focusing on the method used to solve the cube whilst blindfolded by them. In the end, no proof has been provided to the WDC about the actual ability of the competitor with regards to solving the cube blindfolded. All the questions about their “innovative” method remain unanswered. The WDC has decided to administer a six month ban to the competitor and to DNF all of the affected results.

2. The WDC has decided to administer a six month ban to two underage competitors because of their actions taken in an attempt to help each other get better results. One of the competitors was found to be judging the other and record illegitimate times while the display was off, while the other competitor was found performing moves during inspection, while the first competitor was judging him. Both of them went on to make National Records in two different events, because of their cooperation in cover each others violations of the WCA Regulations. They were both questioned by the Delegate at the competition and were unable to reconstruct their solves and obtaining on these reconstructions the same times as they just allegedly had. They were also not able to answer to the WDC’s questions in a way that could reliably contradict the testimonies of the Delegate of the competition and of the witnesses that contacted the Disciplinary Committee.

3. The WDC has also concluded its second investigation about 2016DERO04 and his results in different Blindsolving events. The competitor has been found guilty of cheating for the second time by the Committee. Consequently, the length of the ban has been increased to a total of 2 years.

The details of this investigation, contained in this report, are shared with the Community.

We don’t plan on publicly sharing reports on a regular basis, but great controversy arose at the end of 2018, after the conclusion of the first investigation. Therefore, the WDC thinks that this can be the right chance of showing how the Committee operates and acts during official investigations. Obviously, we also want to prevent the spreading of false information, which is something that already happened during the month of December 2018.

Finally, we would like to remind everyone to make sure they fully understand the WCA Regulations and competition procedures. If you have any questions or are unsure about how to do something, please do not hesitate to ask the Delegate(s) of the competition. In addition, if you think the competition results are being compromised in any way or see suspicious behavior, find the nearest Delegate immediately and report the incident.

Thank you all for your help in supporting the WCA Spirit and Mission.

Lorenzo Vigani Poli
WDC Team Leader
On behalf of the Disciplinary Committee