Disciplinary Committee

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.

Dear WCA Community,

Here you can find some noteworthy updates about the activity of the Disciplinary Committee over the months of August and September 2019.

The WCA Disciplinary Committee (WDC) is seeking new members to help them with their mission! Applications are open to everyone and community members not currently holding a WCA position are encouraged to apply.

What does the WDC do?
- Advises the WCA Board in special cases, like alleged violations of WCA Regulations
- May be contacted by WCA members in case of important personal matters regarding WCA competitions.

If you want to get more insight about the work of the Committee, you can check the Disciplinary Log on the WCA website. Suspensions and other Sanctions are defined in Motion 15.2019.1. The official rights and duties of the WDC are documented in WCA Motion 10.2019.2.

Dear WCA Community,

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

Dear WCA Community,

Here you can find some noteworthy updates about the activity of the Disciplinary Committee over the months of May and June 2019.

Dear WCA Community,

Here you can find some noteworthy updates about the activity of the Disciplinary Committee over the months of March and April 2019.

Dear WCA Community,

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

In the second month of 2019, the WDC has actively worked on 8 investigations: 4 were opened in December 2018, 2 in January and 2 in February 2019. 7 of these cases were closed. The WDC has now closed all the cases that were opened in 2018.

Dear WCA Community,

Starting from January 2019, the WDC will issue a public overview of its activities every month, in order to give a better perception of the work of the Committee to the Community.
We realize that our work is mostly behind the scenes and that it’s based on confidentiality, which is something that can easily lead to the spreading of false rumors and confusion. The WDC would like to establish a routine in its communication towards the WCA Community, to avoid misunderstanding and disinformation and to provide some insight about its activities.

Dear WCA Community,

The WCA Disciplinary Committee (WDC) has been facing a rise in the number of investigations concerning competitors trying to achieve a personal advantage by cheating (or attempting to cheat) during blindfolded events.

WCA made an important announcement about blindfolded solving on the WCA forum.