Hi WCA Community,

In the last quarter, the WIC opened 24 cases and closed 19, both a record number for the Committee. This resulted in 5 bans and 8 warnings, while 6 cases ended with no action. Below, you can find summaries of some notable cases:

• The WCA Integrity Committee was informed of a competitor intentionally stopping the timer prematurely and allegedly positioning himself at solving stations where the display is turned off or where there is no display to avoid being caught. Due to limited availability of footage, it could not be immediately confirmed whether the competitor was performing early stops, but evidence was eventually discovered after monitoring their solves. The competitor was contacted and asked to provide any remarks about the matter. However, the competitor did not admit to any wrongdoing despite the multiple opportunities to do so. The competitor was issued a multi-year ban and the concerned results were disqualified. Despite being the same type of offense as the third case, the ban enacted was more severe due to aggravating circumstances.
• The WCA Integrity Committee received reports of a competitor who was completing moves on their puzzle during the inspection phase. The competitor admitted to making moves during inspection on some of their official attempts but the WIC believes that the extent of this cheating is further than what was admitted to. The WIC elected to disqualify some of this competitor’s results and enact a short ban.
• The WCA Integrity Committee received reports of a competitor who had improved at a suspiciously fast pace. The delegates also believed the competitor showed signs of cheating by stopping the timer early with their wrists. Throughout their subsequent competitions, evidence of this competitor cheating was gathered. Affected results were disqualified and this competitor received a short ban.
• The WCA Integrity Committee received evidence that two competitors had participated in manipulating each others’ scorecards, recording times which were not actually achieved by the competitors. These competitors had multiple competitions worth of results disqualified and were issued a formal warning.
• The WCA Integrity Committee was informed of a competitor cheating in blindfolded events by peeking under the blindfold. Based on the evidence, the WIC determined that the competitor cheated several times. After an internal deliberation the WIC decided to issue a formal warning and disqualify all their results from blindfolded events.

Here are some other general WIC updates:

Zachary Miller (2017MILL04) has become the new Leader of the WCA Integrity Committee. We wish him the best of luck! Also, we are incredibly grateful to Shain Papalotl Longbehn (2020LONG05) for his performance and dedication to his role as leader over the last two years. Thank you so much for your work Shain!

New members have joined the WCA Integrity Committee:

• Daniel Darcy (2022DARC03)
• Elian Beguec (2014BEGU01)
• Finn Trass (2016TRAS01)
• Jakub Hanuszkiewicz (2014HANU01)
• Max Kwok U Sam (2018SAMK01)
• Meng Chon Kuok (2023KUOK01)
• Pauline Bonnaudet (2009BONN01)
• Yash Budhiraja (2018BUDH01)

Jonas Balsfulland (2012BALS01) recently stepped down from his position as a WIC member. Thank you so much for your work Jonas!

The WCA Integrity Committee will work closely with the WCA Major Championships Team (WMCT) to assist the organizers of major championships in selecting volunteers.

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Do you have questions for the WIC? Feel free to send us an email any time.