Can My Young Person Help at a Competition: Run/Judge/Scramble?
Running1 and judging2 are open to everyone and we ask all competitors to help with these activities. There is a tutorial at the start of each day to teach competitors how to do these roles (that are really easy.) We encourage parents to help too as this helps the competitions run on time, and from experience it helps the parents' day go quickly and helps you understand what is going on. Give it a go!
We don’t ask brand new competitors to scramble3. Scramblers are assigned based on a computer program that works out who is likely to be the best scramblers who aren't currently competing in that group. These are then shown on the competitor cards4 we give out at the check-in desk at the competition.
We avoid letting people "scramble because they want to" because we need experienced cubers to ensure that scrambling is done properly and quickly. It's always a bad feeling when we must ask someone to stop scrambling for not doing their job properly, so we try to do everything to avoid that from happening.
Glossary:
1 Someone helping at a cubing competition by taking a cube from the scramble station, finding the applicable competitor and taking them to a solving station where a judge will then supervise their solving. Runners also collect cubes after they have been solved and return them to the scramble station if there are more attempts to complete.
2 The person responsible for watching a solve to confirm that it was valid and the initial person to record the times on the competitor record sheet.
3 Mixing up the cube. In competitions there are ‘official’ scrambles that must be used.
4 A piece of paper you are given when you arrive at the competition and register. It contains your ID number and tells you which groups you are in for competing, scrambling and judging.
1 Someone helping at a cubing competition by taking a cube from the scramble station, finding the applicable competitor and taking them to a solving station where a judge will then supervise their solving. Runners also collect cubes after they have been solved and return them to the scramble station if there are more attempts to complete.
2 The person responsible for watching a solve to confirm that it was valid and the initial person to record the times on the competitor record sheet.
3 Mixing up the cube. In competitions there are ‘official’ scrambles that must be used.
4 A piece of paper you are given when you arrive at the competition and register. It contains your ID number and tells you which groups you are in for competing, scrambling and judging.
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Kirsty Grainger, 2023-2024