Competition Guide - Getting Started
- Try to attend another competition
While not required, attending a competition before you host one is very beneficial. You'll have an understanding of how a competition is run. Also, you may meet other people who would be interested in helping you hold a competition. It's difficult to explain every process of running a competition in a document. Experience is a much better learning tool. - 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, look at past competitions in the area to see what the turnout was, or ask in the various online forums if people would be interested in travelling to your competition. - 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. Even if you think the venue would let you use them, ask first. Some venues might have strict usage policies that would prevent you from holding a competition. - 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. A list of delegates can be found on the WCA website here. - 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. - Make sure you have enough help.
Make sure you have enough people who are guaranteed to be there that are willing to help you judge and scramble. While you may get more from competitors that sign up, you want to ensure you have at least a core of volunteers.
- 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. Avoid the temptation to try and schedule everything. Remember, you can always add events on the day of the competition. - 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. CubingUSA can provide you with a website if you need one. - 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.
Next: Before the competition