Disciplinary Log

Dear WCA Community,

In the last quarter, the WIC opened 7 cases and closed 10. This resulted in 3 bans and 6 warnings. Also, 1 case ended with no action. Below, you can find summaries of some notable cases:

• The WCA Integrity Committee was informed of financial misconduct by a competition organizer. After reviewing details from multiple community members, the committee determined the competitor misused competition finances for personal gain. As a result, the WIC issued an indefinite ban to the competitor until the misused funds are repaid, along with an additional multi-year ban in accordance with the severity of the offense.
• The WCA Integrity Committee received reports of misconduct by a competitor’s guest. After consulting multiple witnesses, the committee confirmed that the guest engaged in inappropriate behavior, including disrespect towards delegates, hate speech, intimidation, and advocacy of such conduct. The WIC decided to issue a short-term ban on the guest from competing and attending competitions.
• The WCA Integrity Committee was provided conclusive footage of a competitor starting the timer inappropriately by sliding the hands on the timer during one of their official attempts and wearing in-ear headphones during the same official attempt. Due to the lack of cooperation from the competitor, the WIC decided to issue a short-term ban from competing and disqualify all the attempts from the round in which the video evidence was recorded.
• The WCA Integrity Committee has also prioritized improving existing workflow with new members and project collaboration with other WCA teams.

Do you have questions for the WIC? Feel free to send us an email, or ask your question in the Integrity section of the WCA forum.

Dear WCA Community,

As of August 1st, 2024, the WCA Integrity Committee (WIC) was established as part of an amendment to the Motions. The WDC and WEC were merged and the WIC has taken on the role of both committees, with additional responsibilities. You can find more details in a recent announcement here.

The WIC has been hard at work behind the scenes merging the two committees while ensuring that cases close in a timely manner. We appreciate your patience as we continue to adapt to the new workflow and learn to support each other with team members coming from various places within the WCA. You can find a full list of current members here.

With this merger, the WIC will continue to update the community on a quarterly basis with disciplinary cases. In the last quarter, the WIC and WDC combined opened 23 disciplinary cases and closed 17. This resulted in four bans and three warnings. Thirteen cases ended with no action, upholding a delegate ruling in a dispute, or otherwise deferred back to delegates to manage locally. Below, you can find summaries of some notable cases.

Dear WCA Community,

The Disciplinary Committee has concluded an investigation on a case of cheating by a well-known competitor in multiple events spanning several competitions in 2022 and 2023. As a result, they have been banned for 2-years and 6-months from competing, ending on June 24th, 2026.

The WDC allowed the competitor to submit footage for review. Any result that the WDC could not determine as valid has been disqualified. As specified in Regulation 9t, if there was any change where the competitor would not have advanced to the next round, all results of the competitor for those subsequent rounds were removed.

Since this competitor is well-known in the community and is still a record holder, the WDC decided to make the report for this investigation public. The intention is to explain the reasons behind our decision and provide insight on how the Committee works.

The WDC has elected to fully anonymize this report and the video evidence due to the age of the accused competitor. The WDC strongly discourages the community from publicizing the name of the accused competitor for this reason. The full report can be found here.

Best regards,
Shain Longbehn (WDC Leader)
On behalf of the WCA Disciplinary Committee

We are happy to announce that we have a new Committee Leader. Shain Longbehn will become the new Leader of the WCA Disciplinary Committee (WDC). Shain was already working as a member of the WDC.

Shain was selected by the WCA Board and approved in a vote among the current Committee Leaders and Senior Delegates, following Section 4 of our Motion about WCA Committees and Teams.

We would like to thank Sebastiano Tronto for the significant work he has done in leading the WDC for the past 3 years. We wish Shain all the best as he takes on his new responsibilities.

Shain was the only applicant for the role and his successful candidacy document can be seen here.

Dear WCA Community,

In the last 3 months the Disciplinary Committee has worked on many cases of cheating and inappropriate behavior. We have also onboarded some new members, enabling us to spread this work with more ease among the team. At the same time, the diversity provided by a large team helps analyze all the incidents from different points of view.

During 2023 we have opened 77 new investigations, a handful of which are still ongoing. In this last digest of the year we would like to discuss two of the cases that we have recently worked on.

There will be an appointment of a new WCA Disciplinary Committee Leader, as Sebastiano Tronto’s term is ending as the Leader of the WCA Disciplinary Committee Team. The WCA would like to take this opportunity to thank Sebastiano for leading the WDC for the last 3 years.

Candidates are expected to fulfill their terms (24 months) and to spend at least 7 hours per week on average to work for the committee. The qualities expected of candidates are:

• Strong leadership skills
• Experience in conducting independent investigations.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Commitment to confidentiality and ethical conduct
• Good judgment and decision-making skills
• Familiarity with WCA activities
• Excellent communication skills

Dear WCA Community,

In the last three months the Disciplinary Committee has worked hard to make sure that every competitor complies with the WCA regulations and that competitions remain a safe and pleasant environment for everyone. We have also opened a new round of applications to select a few new members, and we are currently in the selection process.

The WDC has also worked on writing some guidelines to help WCA Delegates handle common disciplinary issues that arise during competitions. These Guidelines for Disciplinary Incidents are now an official WCA document, available to all delegates via the panel on the WCA website (link accessible to WCA Staff members only). We plan to keep this document updated and add some examples in the future, so if you have any advice for us related to this do let us know.

In the last 3 months the WDC has closed 27 investigations, including 6 that resulted in a ban and 9 that resulted in an official warning. These cases included:

• Multiple attempted cube thefts.
• Various interpersonal issues, e.g. bullying.
• Multiple attempts of cheating, for example by peeking in blindfolded events, stopping the timer early or manipulating the results on the scorecard.

To expand on this last point, we have noticed more cases of competitors stopping the timer early, sometimes by accident and sometimes in an attempt to get better results. We would like to remind everyone that, when acting as a judge, you should always pay attention to the competitor and call a delegate if you notice anything suspicious. Moreover, keep in mind that gen5 timers flash twice when the competitor stops: if you notice this happening early during the solve, or if you do not notice this at the end of the attempt, this likely means that the timer was stopped early.

To conclude this Digest, we would like to remind everyone to make sure they fully understand the WCA Regulations and competition procedures. If you have any questions, or are unsure about how to do something, please do not hesitate to ask the Delegate(s) of the competition. In addition, if you ever think the competition results are being compromised in any way, or if you see suspicious behavior or feel uncomfortable at a competition, please find the nearest Delegate immediately and/or contact the WDC to report the incident.

Do you have questions for the WDC? Feel free to send us an email, or ask on the Disciplinary section of the WCA forum.

Best Regards,
Sebastiano Tronto
On behalf of the WCA Disciplinary Committee.

The WCA Disciplinary Committee (WDC) is looking for new members! Everyone can apply, and we encourage community members who are not part of the WCA Staff to send their application.

What does the WDC do?

Most of our work consists of investigating disciplinary incidents at competitions, such as cheating attempts or inappropriate behavior. If the circumstances require it, we may issue warnings or bans. We also give feedback to WCA Delegates on how to handle certain situations during WCA competitions, and we actively work to improve the WCA Motions and policies related to these topics.

If you are interested in the details of our rights and duties, check out the Motions 10.2022.3 - Disciplinary Committee and 15.2022.1 - Suspensions and other Sanctions, as well as the Code of Conduct. The Disciplinary Log contains public announcements made by the WDC in the past, including public reports for some important incidents and periodic WDC digests. Feel free to ask questions about any of this in the Disciplinary section of the WCA Forum.

Dear WCA Community,

As the number of competitions around the world continues to increase rapidly, this unfortunately has meant that there has also been a dramatic rise in the number of disciplinary cases. In the last 3 months, the WDC has opened 20 new investigations, and has closed 17. Below you can find a summary of some notable cases from this period.

Dear WCA community,

The Disciplinary Committee has recently concluded an incident involving the misconduct of a competitor. Since this person used to be a WCA delegate, our investigation has been preceded by the decision of the Ethics Committee to demote them from their official position. We have prepared a public report of our investigation and we would like to share it with you.

The report discusses the topic of sexual harassment, therefore it may not be suitable for all readers. Although it is unpleasant to bring up such a topic, we think it is important for the community to know that the WCA reacts firmly to these kind of actions.

We support everyone who has been the victim of harassment or other improper behavior. If you have ever been in an uncomfortable position during a WCA event, we encourage you to talk about it with your local community representatives or with the WDC.

You can find the report of the aforementioned investigation here.

Best,
On behalf of the disciplinary committee,
Sebastiano Tronto

Dear speedcubing community,

The WCA Disciplinary Committee (WDC) has recently concluded an investigation regarding a series of misscrambles which occurred at Singapore Championship 2023. Due to the high profile nature of this incident, and the public attention that it has received, the WDC would like to publish some details publicly.

The WDC opened an investigation into this matter after being contacted by the Delegates of the competition, following several high-level cubers achieving extremely good times on incorrect scrambles. The Delegates were able to match these scrambles as coming from the same individual, whom they also reported was ignoring requests to not scramble, and were able to create a list of other attempts that may have been potentially affected by this individual. After using video evidence provided by several competitors, the WDC was able to check several of these attempts.

After reviewing these attempts, the WDC has come to the conclusion that the individual responsible for these misscrambles displayed extreme negligence in regard to ensuring that the scrambles were correct, and also ignored the requests of the delegates during the competition. The WDC was not able to identify any malicious intent from this individual, but regardless of intent the WDC finds it extremely concerning that such widespread misscrambling occurred.

Due to the reasons above, the WDC has issued a 6 month ban from competing for this individual.

The WDC would like to remind everyone of the importance of ensuring that everyone receives correct scrambles (with the exceptions of 4g1) as well as following the requests of WCA Delegates at competitions. While we realize many competition duties such as scrambling are carried out by volunteers, the WCA also recognizes that scramble accuracy is an integral part of ensuring fair and equal conditions at all WCA competitions.

Best regards
Nicholas McKee
On Behalf of the WCA Disciplinary Committee

Dear cubing community,

The Disciplinary Committee has recently concluded an investigation on a competitor's online behavior. This has generated some public discussion, and we would like to clarify our stance on this matter.

Dear WCA Community,

We hope that the beginning of 2023 is going well for you. Below you can find a summary of some notable WDC cases from the past three months.

1. Earlier in the year, the WDC investigated a case of a high profile competitor cheating in 3x3x3 Multi-Blind by peeking under the blindfold. The WDC concluded that the competitor had cheated, and that this cheating extends to several prior competitions as well. A full public report on this case has been made available, which can be found here.
2. A similar case of blind cheating was caught where a competitor took advantage of their judge’s poorly placed sight blocker, in order to peek at their cube and fix several mistakes. This cheating extended to several attempts at the competition in question, including two national record averages. After several exchanges with the WDC, the competitor admitted to cheating, and apologized for their behavior. The competitor was issued a 9 month ban, and the affected solves have been changed to DNF.
3. A competitor was caught with the 4x4 OLL parity algorithm written down on their leg. After being confronted, the competitor quickly admitted they had not memorized the algorithm, and that they didn’t know doing so was against regulations. The affected results were changed to DNF and a formal warning was given to the competitor, along with a reminder to be familiar with the WCA regulations.
4. A young competitor who achieved several unusually fast times was suspected to be making turns to their cube underneath the table cube during inspection. The guardian of the competitor initially admitted that they had done this, however the WDC doubted that claim, instead believing that the competitor had switched the cube they were using under the table for one with a predetermined scramble. After reaching out to the competitor, they were quick to confirm the WDC’s theory and apologized for their mistakes. The competitor was issued a formal warning and the results in question were DNFed.
5. Recently, the WDC has received a number of harassment cases from several different countries, some of which involving WCA staff. We would like to remind everyone to be respectful of others, and ensure that you are upholding the WCA Code of Conduct.

The WDC would also like to remind all judges to give their full attention to performing their duties as a judge, particularly holding the blindfolded sight blocker correctly, and not distracting themselves or the competitor. We would also like to remind all judges to not hesitate in speaking to their competition’s delegate if they have questions or notice any suspicious behavior.

Do you have questions for the WDC? Feel free to send us an email, or ask your question in the Disciplinary section of the WCA forum.

Dear WCA community,

The Disciplinary Committee has just concluded an investigation on a case of cheating in 3x3x3 Multi-Blind. The competitor was found guilty and we are convinced that this behavior extends to prior competitions as well. As a result, they have been banned for 2 years and some of their results have been changed to DNF.

Since this competitor is relatively well-known in the community, still holding multiple national records (unaffected by our investigation), the WDC decided to make the report for this investigation public. The intention is to explain the reasons behind our decision and give you some insight on how the Committee works.

The report can be found here.

Best regards,
Sebastiano Tronto,
On behalf of the WCA Disciplinary Committee

Dear WCA Community,

The end of 2022 is approaching. We hope that this was a successful year for you, and hope that the upcoming year will be full of even more cubing, records, and fun!

The WDC would like to share with you some insight on the work we have done in the last three months. Firstly, we have concluded a few investigations that could be of interest for you:

1. A competitor signed up with a new account and registered for a competition despite being banned. This was caught by the Delegates when submitting the results of the competition, and the results of the competitor were removed. This attempt to circumvent a WDC decision has been taken into account to determine the final duration of the ban.
2. As an unusual coincidence, we had two nearly identical cases of cheating in a blindfolded event on the same weekend, but in two different countries. When confronted with the evidence, the competitors immediately owned up to their mistakes and apologized. The affected results have been disqualified. Given the relatively young age of these competitors, and the fact that they immediately confessed, we concluded both cases with a warning. We believe that they understood their mistake and that bans were not necessary in these cases.
3. In the past few months there has also been an increase in cases of cube stealing, and we are about to close two investigations related to this. We take this chance to remind all competitors to keep an eye on their belongings at all times and not to leave their puzzles unattended at competitions.

On a different note, you may have noticed that some new members have joined our committee. Indeed, during the past three months the senior members have gone through the applications of 29 candidates, most of whom were potentially excellent WDC members. Of these, 16 candidates were selected for an interview, and finally 8 of the interviewed candidates have been selected to join the Disciplinary Committee.

The new members have taken up their role with great enthusiasm and energy, and have already carried out a few investigations. With their help, the WDC will be better equipped to make sure that the WCA Regulations are followed, and that competitions remain a safe environment for everyone.

To conclude this Digest, we would like to remind everyone to make sure they fully understand the WCA Regulations and competition procedures. If you have any questions, or are unsure about how to do something, please do not hesitate to ask the Delegate(s) of the competition. In addition, if you ever think the competition results are being compromised in any way, or if you see suspicious behavior, please find the nearest Delegate immediately and report the incident.

Do you have questions for the WDC? Feel free to send us an email, or ask your question in the Disciplinary section of the WCA forum.

Sebastiano Tronto
WDC Leader
On behalf of the Disciplinary Committee

Dear WCA Community,

After a couple of years of little WCA activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are finally seeing a gradual return of competitions in most regions around the world! This is exciting, and we hope that things continue to improve so that we can have more competitions and more fun all around the world.

Unfortunately, as competitions are returning, we have also seen an increase in the number of attempts of fraud, cheating and other kinds of misbehavior. The Disciplinary Committee has decided to publish a short and anonymized report for some of the cases that we have investigated this year. We hope that this can give you an insight into the work that the WDC carries out behind the scenes:

1. At a competition earlier this year, three young competitors entered restricted areas of the building where the competition was hosted, despite being told not to by the delegates. Whilst in a room that was meant to be locked, two of them turned the taps on and left them on as they returned to the competition. This was not discovered until a few days later, when the water had already caused significant damage to the building. The competitors were caught and identified thanks to the surveillance cameras. When confronted with the evidence, they confessed, and their parents paid for the damage done to the building. Given the severity of these actions and their consequences, we gave all three competitors a ban for entering restricted areas, and the two of them responsible for the flooding received a longer ban.
2. A person signed up for a competition with a fake name, a fake email address and left offensive remarks in the registration comments. With the help of Sam Spendla from the Results Team we were able to identify this person as a registered speedcuber, and we noticed that it was not the first time they did this. When we confronted this person they immediately confessed and apologized. We gave this competitor a formal warning. We would like to take this chance to remind everyone that using official WCA resources to make fun of delegates and organizers for your own amusement is not acceptable behavior.
3. A competitor claimed that one of the times they obtained was faster than what was entered on WCA live, due to a 1 being mistaken for a 7. To support this claim, they shared an edited picture of the scorecard with the local community. After a detailed investigation we determined that the time had been entered correctly the first time, and that this competitor was trying to deceive us and the delegates in order to obtain a faster time, and in this case a national record result. The competitor was issued a ban.
4. A competitor reported being the victim of what they described as harassment: some personal information was shared by another competitor as a community contribution via official WCA social media. The competitor made it clear that they had no remorse for their actions and admitted to delaying his response in order to avoid being banned before a major competition in their country. In our investigation we have also discovered a pattern of bullying, harassment and mockery against the competitor who reported the case to us. With all of this in mind, after our investigation we decided to issue a ban. We would like to take this chance to remind competitors that we have a zero tolerance stance on bullying and any actions that are taken in a deliberate effort to cause others emotional or physical harm.
5. Ending with a positive note, we have a guilty competitor who redeemed himself. Back in 2014, Carlos Miguel Pérez (2014) defrauded multiple fellow speedcubers by promising to sell them cubes, taking their money and never delivering the cubes. You can read the original public announcement here. After almost 8 years Carlos was able to prove to us that he had contacted the defrauded competitors and returned their money or given them their cubes. As is standard in cases of fraud and theft, bans remain permanent unless the competitor responsible returns all stolen property and/or funds, so in this case we have lifted Carlos’ ban and he is once again able to compete in WCA competitions.

To conclude this Digest, we would like to remind everyone to make sure they fully understand the WCA Regulations and competition procedures. If you have any questions or are unsure about how to do something, please do not hesitate to ask the Delegate(s) of the competition. In addition, if you think the competition results are being compromised in any way or if you see suspicious behavior, find the nearest Delegate immediately and report the incident.

Do you have questions for the WDC? Feel free to send us an email, or ask your question in the Disciplinary section of the WCA forum.

Sebastiano Tronto
WDC Leader
On behalf of the Disciplinary Committee

The WCA Disciplinary Committee (WDC) is looking for new members! Everyone can apply, and we encourage community members who are not part of the WCA staff to send their application.

What does the WDC do?

Most of our work consists of investigating disciplinary incidents at competitions, such as cheating attempts or inappropriate behavior. If the circumstances require it, we may issue warnings or bans. We also give feedback to WCA delegates on how to handle certain situations during WCA competitions.

If you are interested in the details of our rights and duties, check out the motions 10.2022.3 - Disciplinary Committee and 15.2022.1 - Suspensions and other Sanctions, as well as the Code of Conduct. The Disciplinary Log contains public announcements made by the WDC in the past. Feel free to ask questions about any of this in the Disciplinary section of the WCA forum.

Requirements

The only strict requirements for WDC members are:

• Ability to communicate in English (written)
• Familiarity with the WCA competition environment (having attend a few competitions is enough)

Other qualities we look for are:

• Ability to discuss reasoning and ideas with team members
• Logical and analytical reasoning
• Confidentiality
• Communication skills

The following qualities are useful, but not necessary:

• Expertise in one or more speedcubing events
• Fluency in a language other than English

The committee would greatly benefit from the diversity of their members. We therefore especially encourage applications from community members with a different cultural background, nationality, age and gender from the current members.

Applications

Applicants can send their application as a PDF document to stronto@worldcubeassociation.org before Friday, October 14, 2022, 23:59 UTC. The application document should contain:

• A brief personal introduction
• Summary of activities done for the WCA and for the cubing community
• Overview of the personal skills relevant to the role
• Motivation for applying to the WDC

Everything should be contained in a single PDF file. Applicants can expect a reply to confirm the receipt of the application within 24 hours. The selection process will start after the application period is over, and it might include an interview or other kinds of assessment.

If you have any questions feel free to contact the WDC leader at stronto@worldcubeassociation.org.

We are happy to announce that we have a new Committee Leader, Sebastiano Tronto. He will become the new Leader of the WCA Disciplinary Committee (WDC) and was already working as a Member of the Committee.

There will be an appointment of a new WCA Disciplinary Committee (WDC) Leader. The application is open to all WCA members. Potential applicants do not have to hold a current position to be considered.

Candidates are expected to fulfill their terms (24 months) and to spend at least 5 hours per week on average to work for the Committee. The qualities expected of candidates are:

• Strong leadership skills
• Attention to detail
• Ability to discuss reasoning and ideas
• Familiarity with WCA activities
• Excellent communication skills

The application period for candidates to submit their candidacy documents is from now until January 18th, 2021, 23:59 UTC. Interested candidates can send the application privately to the WCA Board (board@worldcubeassociation.org).

Since we didn’t receive any applications for the position of WCA Disciplinary Committee Leader, the WCA Board has stepped in as the WDC Leader effective immediately. The Board will continue in this position until a new leader is found.

There will be an appointment of a new WCA Disciplinary Committee (WDC) Leader, as Lorenzo Vigani Poli's term is ending as the Leader of the Committee. We would like to thank Lorenzo for the work he has done in this position.

Candidates are expected to fulfill their terms (24 months) and to spend at least 4-6 hours per week on average to work for the Committee. The qualities expected of candidates are:

• Secrecy
• Objective thinking
• Fairness
• Thoroughness

The application period for candidates to submit their candidacy documents is from now until November 23rd, 2020, 23:59 UTC. Interested candidates can send the application privately to the WCA Board (board@worldcubeassociation.org).

Dear WCA Community,

Here you can find some noteworthy updates about the activity of the Disciplinary Committee over the first three months of 2020.

Dear WCA Community,

For this last Digest of 2019, we want to summarize everything achieved by the WCA Disciplinary Committee over the year that ended a month ago.

Dear WCA Community,

Here you can find some noteworthy updates about the activity of the Disciplinary Committee over the month of November 2019.

Dear WCA Community,

Here you can find some noteworthy updates about the activity of the Disciplinary Committee over the month of October 2019.