IM and GM title - In chess, Memory sports etc, if a competitor achieved a certain level, he is given a title such as "international master" (IM)and "grand master" (GM). Why not for cubers ? My suggestion for the titles are as follows 1. IM norms - 222 avg sub 8 sec - 333 avg sub 20 sec - 444 avg sub 80 sec - 555 avg sub 2 min 30 sec - square-1 avg sub 40 sec (or) megaminx avg sub 2 min 30 sec 2.GM norms -333 avg sub 15 sec -333 blind sub 3 min -Should have got IM title. I strongly believe, such titles might motivate many more. John Louis

Interesting idea, although I think that the requirements should be limited to each puzzle, as opposed to awarding such titles to well-rounded people. Example: Yu Nakajima is clearly one of the best speedcubers, but he doesn't [seem to] solve any other puzzles. Should he not receive a title? That doesn't seem right to me.

Go back two years and look and look at the rankings. Would you have suggested the same times there? I think this is always going to be a moving target. Plus, if someone achieves the average once, do they have it forever? I'm not sure how Chess and memory sports work. I'm not sure how motivated people would be to be able to say they're an "International Master". I certainly wouldn't be. I'd much rather be able to say that I'm ranked X in the world, or I can solve in under 20 seconds, or that've I've taken X place in a national competition. But a title? I don't know, it doesn't seem to be motivating and would just be another thing to explain to people.

[quote="BryanLogan":uiurwl1t]Go back two years and look and look at the rankings. Would you have suggested the same times there? I think this is always going to be a moving target. Plus, if someone achieves the average once, do they have it forever? I'm not sure how Chess and memory sports work. I'm not sure how motivated people would be to be able to say they're an "International Master". I certainly wouldn't be. I'd much rather be able to say that I'm ranked X in the world, or I can solve in under 20 seconds, or that've I've taken X place in a national competition. But a title? I don't know, it doesn't seem to be motivating and would just be another thing to explain to people.[/quote:uiurwl1t] I was thinking about this and I think that the requirements should be more similar to something like "the top X% in the following events..."; that is, of course, if these titles were to exist. In chess, from what I remember, you have a rating, which changes with each game you play, and you are given a title based on attaining a certain rating. These titles are also for life. This system would not be viable for cubing, imo.

Chess is a professional sport. If you look at the history of chesss, there are many top class players had never won any title. But they are in the elite brand of Grand Masters because they reached certain standard in chess. It is something they earned for their hard work. I thought, it may work out in cubing as well. For example you take Erik(The Netherlands). So good and yet so far. I do not know the norms I had suggested here for IM and GM may not be correct on par with chess or memory, but something like this might me good for any sport. John Louis

I like this idea. You could get norms for top positions in big competitions (worlds, European/American/Asian championships and a few others?). If you have 3 (or some other number) norms, you get the title for life. If one should be able to get titles for other puzzles than the standard cube is a difficult question. If we have, say, 15 different GM titles, the title system would get messy, and a title would be less impressive. Somewhat related: In chess, your ranking doesn't matter at all. You get the title for getting good results in strong competitions (competitions that always have GMs and IMs playing).

[quote="Max":1uk2fyyh]In chess, your ranking doesn't matter at all. You get the title for getting good results in strong competitions (competitions that always have GMs and IMs playing).[/quote:1uk2fyyh] Yes it does, you have to get above a certain Elo ranking for each title to achieve it.