I have been wondering and I do have a question in my mind.

Frank, would you be allowed to use your Olympicube 5x5 in a championship right now?

If you could, it would be so nice! It seems to be super smooth. Of course, you will have to be very careful in order not to get it stolen...... LOL.

Thanks in advance.

David

http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/reg ... s/#puzzles

He can with the new regulations. The word "generally available" was removed.

generally available was removed because in some countries, puzzles aren't always generally available.

As long as the puzzle behaves like the originals, it's allowed.

However, some competitions only allow Rubik's products, although most allow any.

Wow, I'm glad we all gave Frank a hefty half an hour to respond before jumping in ourselves...

I'm sorry, but I didn't see why this question should exclusive to Frank. There are plenty of people here that may have been given and answer.....

Besides, it wasn't really a Frank question anyway. Frank may be the only one affected by the answer. If it was suppose to be directly specificially at a person, then he should have asked Ron or Tyson. Besides, I'm sure rastarubik was really looking for an answer, regardless of where it came from.

Do either of you have one?



Why just Ron or Tyson?

It's not whether we have one, it's if we know the WCA rules, that's why it was suggested Ron/Tyson be contacted.

Regulations do allow me to use the OC 5x5 in competitions other than the world championships. However, I would also request permission from the inventors prior.

If all the criteria were met, I am still unsure whether I would use the cube. Chances are, that I would beat my personal records and since I am the only speedcuber utilizing the OC 5x5, it may be considered an "unfair advantage" by some. Quite frankly, I don't think that I want to catch flak from people because of that.

It would be very nice to use though.

I think it would be great publicity for OC for you to use it in a competition Frank.

What is your PB with the OC5?

I would argue, since you're not the record holder currently ( Frédérick Badie 1:46.43 France Roissy 2007 ) I wouldn't think its an unfair advantage. Otherwise, you could argue that race car drivers have an unfair advantage because not everyone has the same engine or manufacturer.

I would only be upset if Frank uses the OC5 in competion because he's lives out west (idaho?) and I live in the East (PA) so I would not be able to see it.

Sure, it's great publicity for Olympic Cubes, but that isn't necessarily good at this time. At best, it won't have any real effect, since they're not selling any products yet. At worst, it will have negative effect, since even more pressure will be placed on Mr. Verdes, which could end up decreasing the quality of the final product.

In addition, I think that if the mechanism really is that much better than the existing models, and you can't get the Olympic Cubes (assuming you're not one of the very few testers and collectors who already have one) at this time, it would be unfair to use it in competition.

Here's an analogy to the way I see it (personally): suppose you were in a car race, and you used a prototype of an engine which was not only significantly more powerful than every other engine on the market, but which was impossible to get if you weren't an engine collector, a friend of the engine's inventor, or already one of the fastest race car drivers in the world. It seems to me that, if you set an official racing record using that engine, many fans and racers would consider you to be having an unfair advantage over everyone else...

That considered, though, if Olympic Cubes was almost at the final stage of preparation for their cubes, or if they were almost ready to release them (even if it was only the 5x5x5 that would be released at the beginning), I would recommend for Frank to use it in competition, as a sort of preview of things soon to come. If other cubers would be able to have the Olympic Cubes within a month or a few months, the advantage would be fair.

That's only for 2007. If you look for all years, Frank is still the record holder beating that time by 0.15 seconds.

Funny how that works out, huh? It's really a toss up between those times because picking up the cube just a hair faster or hitting the timer just a little quicker could have meant a world record.

Let's just say that I have had far more sub 1:40 times with the OC 5x5, than with the Rubiks version. However, my fastest time with a Rubiks 5x5 that was witnessed was a 1:34.xx. Clancy and Bob can vouch for that.

Thanks for the correction. I like the new setup for the records page, but i keep forgetting about the year menu.

qqwref, good point on the racecar analogy, and I was thinking but didn't type that the publicity would be best just before or just after a release to the public.