Hi everyone, I wanted to ask if having 3 solves for the 4x4 BLD, or the 5x5 BLD, or both would ever be considered for compeition solving? If overall time in the tournament is an issue I have two solutions to propose as ideas to start from for a resolution of that issue: Solution 1) Allow 2 solves for everyone for the 4x4 and 5x5 BLD since that is the current standard. Those who solve at least one cube in their category in under a certain cutoff time are allowed a 3rd solve. Solution 2) Competitiors are all always allowed 3 solves for each larger cube BLD, however if they miss another event they are scheduled for due to being in the middle of a BLD solve, they are automatically disqualified from that other event. Or some other similar penalty so that they don't take up extra time for the entire event, or hold up a speedsolve round where they are awaiting results. These are just some ideas for this. The reason I suggest this is that I think for the 4x4x4 we will soon see times fast enough to allow 3 solves per competitior. Look at how many people are learning the 4x4 BLD based on posts in the yahoo BLD group recently. Also for the 5x5x5 I think there might reach a point where 3 solves could be done in close to if not right at 1 hour by the same person, which is still a long time, but not unreasonably so for a competition. I just wanted to ask and see if the general opinion supported 3 solves for the larger cubes, or if there was even any interest in the idea. I am already practicing for only having two solves per category, so I personally could be happy either way, though I would slightly prefer 3 solves per cube to be honest. Thanks for any consideration of this question, Chris

Hi Chris, In a big competition even one attempt is hard to plan. We want to do many events, with many competitors. And the average number of events per competitor is rising. First they did only 3x3, now also 4x4, 5x5, Magic and so on. Also, there are some fast guys like you, but to have a full 5x5 blindfolded event, we need to plan at least two hours. Although to me these events are amazing, still they are not very popular (in the sense of # of competitors). So my opinion is that 'best of 2' is enough. In European competitions we normally do 'best of 1', although in the past we allowed 'best of 2' when all competitors failed in their first attempt. Have fun, Ron

Hey Ron, Thanks for the fast response. Yeah I can see what you mean, the BLD events are still not very popular for the bigger cubes, and also they already do take up a lot of time, especially for the judges! I remember the judges said they would rotate watching me during my solves at US Nationals, and also you are very aware of it when watching Bruce's videos of my solves. I can definitely see your point and I agree, I think 2 solves is a very good balance between allowing this event at all (since it is so time and judge time consuming), and making sure that the competitors get as many tries as possible. 2 solves sounds good to me, I'll just work on my accuracy a bit more than I do for 3x3 BLD Thanks Ron, Chris