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 is chosen to be contested during official events of the WCA.
As the WCA has evolved over the past decade, over 100,000 people have competed in its competitions. Despite this growth, it remains an organization that is entirely run by volunteers, from local organizers to WCA Delegates to even the WCA Board. With more financial support, organizers hope to bring an even greater level of professionalism to our competitions as it continues to sanction more events across the globe.
SDM caught up with Lauren Clement of the WCA to talk about the organization and its events.
Sports Destination Management: It looks like the World Cube Association puts on a lot of competitions. Does your organization sanction them, do you work with local clubs or organizations – or how are they otherwise organized?
Lauren Clement: Yes, we approve of competitions that follow our WCRP (Competition Requirement Policy). The whole WCA system was created to ensure that competitions are run fair with a proper set of rules and regulations.
We appoint Delegates who oversee the competitions on WCA’s behalf. They also work with the local clubs, regional organizations, individual organizers as well as groups of organizers in their area to organize more competitions successfully.
SDM: Are there national championships? In which puzzles/disciplines?
Clement: Yes, National Championships usually happen once every year and are run by organizational teams in each country independently. So far, there has been at least one National Championship in 83 different countries! Sweden has already organized 21 National Championships which is the highest by any country.
Moreover, we also have Continental and World Championships that are held every other year on alternating years. These are still run by local organizational teams but have a more formal application process about which team will win the bid to have the Championship in their city. We have had at least one Continental Championship in every continent except Antarctica. Europe leads above all other continents with 10 Continental Championships organized over the years. We have had 11 World Championships with our 12th coming up this year in Korea.
At most Championships, all official WCA events are held for people to compete in.
SDM: How many people generally participate?
Clement: For all of our competitions, local and Championships, this really depends on the geographic area that the competition is being held in and the limitations of the venue or style of that competition. When an area is new, a competition may only get a few competitors to join and even in some active areas, competitions that focus on longer events (such as blindfolded or Fewest Moves) may limit the competition to fewer competitors because of the logistics of running that type of competition.
In active areas, we typically find that competitions will reach their competitor limits quickly, even when those limits are in the hundreds of competitors, so it is also hard to say what the demand would be if we were able to hold our events without restrictions. Our largest competition ever was Asian Championship 2016 which had 955 competitors!
SDM: Are those championships held as a group (multiple twisty puzzles being contested) or for one type of puzzle at a time?
Clement: This typically depends on the layout of the venue, and which round of the event is being held. For first or second rounds of the events, there are usually more than one event being held at once because the competition will have different stages set up to hold multiple events at the same time. Even if the stages are all holding the same event, typically events such as the Blindfolded events are being held in other rooms of the venue entirely because the environment needs to be quiet for those events.
For later rounds such as Semi-Finals or Finals, the stages are typically dedicated to one event at a time as these are the rounds that spectators enjoy viewing the most, as they will have the best cubers at the competition. Again, this does not happen the same way at every Championship because of different venue capacities or preferences of the organizational teams.
SDM: How do you go about selecting host communities for national championships? (Is there an RFP process?)
Clement: National Championships go about this in their own ways depending on the size of the country’s community and how developed they are in building their community. When a country is only starting to have competitions, they may have a less formal process for choosing where a Championship will be held.
Other countries may have a formal bidding process which requires organizational teams from different cities to submit proposals to hold the competition in their city. This is also how Continental and World Championship locations are decided: there is a formal application period where organizational teams can submit proposals for the Championship event to be held in their country, complete with information about venues, a proposed budget, and other logistical answers. These applications are reviewed by the WCA Board of Directors who will interview the applicants and consult with other WCA Staff members about the applications.
SDM: What are you looking for in a city and in a facility as a potential host?
Clement: Again, it is difficult to speak for all of the National Championships but for the Continental and World Championship competitions, we are looking for a competition that can reinforce our concept of large WCA competitions, boosting the professionalization of our organization and being able to offer the competitors the best possible experience and the world the best possible show. We also consider factors such as the attractiveness of the city for tourism and whether the transportation to the location is accessible to travelers from around the world.
SDM: Did you find that interest in these puzzles grew during the pandemic?
Clement: It is difficult for us to judge the impact of the pandemic on how many new people became interested in cubing vs. how many people who were involved before fell out of the community because we were not able to hold official competitions.
What we have noticed since bringing back competitions to most areas in 2021 is that there does seem to be a high level of interest from people around the world to participate in our events which has led to many competitions filling to their competitor limits within seconds of registration opening. The demand for competitions still remains high and our organizational teams are doing their best to bring larger and more frequent competitions to the areas where there is the most demand.
As a comparison, we had about 27,000 new competitors in 2019 and we had about 26,000 new competitors in 2022, so it would appear that we have returned to where we left off before the pandemic, even though not all areas have brought back competitions yet.
SDM: How did you keep up interest in puzzles and in the organization during the pandemic?
Clement: Although many areas were unable to hold official competitions during a large part of 2020, the WCA was still as active as always with administrative projects that were introduced to the community. We launched the WCA Forum, redesigned our homepage, held a test launch of WCA official merchandise, publicized our Code of Conduct, created educational resources for organizers and competitors, updated our scrambling program, and launched our Competitor Safety Policy which allowed competitions to be reintroduced to various communities in a responsible and safe manner. Although we did not hold any events online officially, we did promote over 200 unofficial, online competitions that were organized by various members of the community so that people would have a chance to keep their competition skills refined.
SDM: What age group/demographics do you see participating – or is it across the board?
Clement: It really depends on the local area and the type of community that has been or is being established there. Some countries see a lot of younger competitors (in the 9 - 12 years old age) while others may skew towards teenagers or older competitors. We see more male competitors than females across the board.
SDM: How should communities get in touch with you if they want to host an event?
Clement: Anyone can read about starting the process of organizing a competition here. The best first steps for them would be to find a suitable venue and begin thinking of possible dates that would be best to hold the competition. Once they have a general plan, they can find contact information for the Delegates in their area here. For any other questions on organizing or general inquiry, we can always be reached through our Contact Form or through the email contact@worldcubeassociation.org
SDM: What else do you think it is important for people to know about WCA?
Clement: It is important for us to mention that our organization is run entirely by volunteers, there are currently no paid organizers, Delegates, or Staff members anywhere in the organization. We are very thankful for the people who commit their personal time to help us be a successful organization and we encourage anyone who wants to become involved to reach out!
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