Proposal

Allow painted colours, and 2mm tiles on Megaminx:
https://github.com/cubing/wca-documents/compare/fixes...puzzles

Pros

The change is fairly minimal.
The change most allows most popular puzzles from 2013 to remain legal -- more so than originally allowed in 2014-01-01.
- In particular, it corrects the main type of puzzle that was affeced by the 2014-01-01 Regulation: Megaminx with thick tiles.

Cons

This is not the change some community members were hoping for.
- In particular, some competitors are interested in using "stickerless" puzzles or pillowed puzzles.
Megaminx tiles are allowed to be thicker than other puzzles, which is inconsistent.

Notes

Community Considerations / Anything Goes

The WRC must balance two considerations: clear, consistent Regulations that every competitor/Delegate can interpret on their own, vs. competitor freedom to select any puzzle they like.

In general, there must be some limits to what a competitor may use. The puzzle should have similar states and physically resemble the original puzzle, a competitor must actually perform all the moves of his/her solution (no self-solving/digital cubes), and the puzzle must not give an unreasonable information about pieces by look or feel (especially for blindfolded).

In the 2014 Regulations, the WRC worked to make puzzle requirements as clear as possible by working with the existing structure of the Article 3. This is partly because of many inquiries about what puzzles are legal, and issues with inconsistent Delegate rulings (as well as Delegates knowing the latest interpretations).

The WRC considered switching to a radical "anything goes" policy based on work by Sébastien Auroux. However:

The proposal is not sufficient "as-is", and no one has taken a significant effort to improve it.
It may take a long time to smooth out the edge cases and interpretations (months or years of competitions).
It is unclear if the eventual Regulations would be clear, simple, and uncontroversial enough.

In particular, there may be disagreement on unusual puzzles, and puzzle manufacturers may produce even more puzzles with even more enhancements than they currently do. The resulting variety may make it harder for Delegates to determine what puzzles are legal. Given inconsistent rulings in the past, "Delegate discretion" is an undesirable way to handle this.

Since most competitors are interested in certain puzzles that they currently prefer for speedcubing, the WRC has decided to focus on adapting the current Regulations to allow these. Based on Delegate feedback, a speedsolving.com poll, and certain other speedsolving.com discussions, the following topics are important right now:

Tile Thickness
Painted/printed colors
Puzzles with multiple plastic colors (e.g. two-color FanShi)
"Stickerless" puzzle with face colors visible inside
Pillowed puzzles

Tile Thickness

This speedsolving.com poll indicates that Megaminx tiles were the biggest competitor concern about the 2014 Regulation changes. (The WRC has been alerted that Megaminx poll option may contain untruthful votes, but competitors definitely care about Megaminx.)

While the WRC believes that there should be thin limits on tile thickness, it is clear that many competitors still prefer Megaminxes with thicker tiles (including several top competitors). Although this makes it easier to see parts on back sides of the puzzle, most competitors are not using this to gain a conscious/intentional advantage. Unlike other puzzles, thick tiles on Megaminx have also been more common due to the Mefferts Megaminx from the mid-2000s. In the interest of more fun for Megaminx competitors, it is reasonable to allow competitors to use these puzzles for now.

In order to keep continuity with past Regulations as well as the 2014 grace period, the WRC is reverting the tile limit to 1.5mm for all puzzles.
Slightly thicker tiles are allowed specifically for Megaminx, at the discretion of the Delegate (which is intended to cover Mefferts and similar Megaminxes).

Painted/Printed Colors

The WRC originally removed painted/printed colors because:

This slightly simplifies the Regulations.
This makes it easier to identify a legal puzzle: puzzles with stickers/tiles are more clearly seen to be legal because they are so common.
Very few competitors were using puzzles with painted/printed colors.
- The WRC is still unaware of any competitors whose ability to select a satisfactory speedcube was significantly affected by the 2014 change.

However, a puzzle with properly printed/painted colors does not offer an unfair advantage -- in fact, they may provide less of an advantage than tiles. In addition, some community members prefer that competitors have this choice on principle. Since this is a fairly minor change, the WRC is adding it back.

Puzzles with multiple plastic colors

Although it may be preferable to require a single plastic color for simplicity (easier for a Delegate to evaluate), these will not be affected for now.

"Stickerless" Puzzles and Pillowed Puzzles

While most competitors believe that they use these puzzles out of preference, it is possible to interpret these features as significant advantages compared to existing puzzles.

For "stickerless" puzzles in particular, the WRC is happy to consider future proposals that allow competitors to use their preferred "stickerless" puzzles, as long as they are carefully worded to avoid unintended possibilities of allowing arbitrary colored plastic.
The same holds for other possible allowances like pillowed puzzles.

lgarron commented 10 years ago

(Previous post updated a bit to handle 1.5mm change.)