Hello,

Today we want to announce the new changes to our event categories. They have been live on the site for a few days but we want to provide some further insight.

Previously, we had five categories: unofficial, WCA, extreme blind, misc, and hidden. There were numerous problems with these that led to nearly every event ending up miscellaneous. The “unofficial” category was meant to be the “main events” but was given the unofficial name, despite almost all our events being unofficial.

The first category is the “Main” events. This takes the place of the former “unofficial” category. These events represent the mainstay unofficial events that provide unique experiences and have robust speedsolving capabilities. Events in this category would be strong candidates for future WCA events. It also contains former WCA events. Clock and any future removed WCA events will end up in the main category. New events will be added to the main category if they begin developing a large following and receive traction at large WCA competitions.

The WCA and Extreme BLD categories remain unchanged. FTO will be moved out of Main and into WCA in 2027.

“Side” is a new category that takes the place of miscellaneous. Side events are unique puzzles that do not have large followings yet or are not currently seen as future WCA candidates. These events do not have any modifiers and are simply a timed solve.

“Challenge” is the first of the brand new categories. Challenge events are variations on WCA events that have a unique modifier not seen in the WCA version. For example solving a megaminx one handed or doing FMC with a 4x4.

The next new category is the “Team” category. Team events are events that have a result done by two or more individuals.

The “Relay” category contains events where one person will solve several puzzles in one attempt. This category is currently quite small and we are working on some new fun relays to be added.

The final new category is “Order Variations.” This contains higher (or lower) versions of both official and unofficial puzzles. It also currently contains cuboids. If more cuboid speedsolving occurs with mass-produced hardware, we will split cuboids into their own category.

We have added some new events based on previous event submissions to the new events form. Triangular Clock, 3x3x5 Cuboid, and Jing’s Pyraminx are all new public events that can be held in competition. For future event suggestions we plan on prioritizing new and unique puzzles over additions to categories like challenge.

Lastly, we are working on announcing our changes to the timer rules for 2027 soon. However to get the news out sooner, unofficial comp organizers will not be expected to purchase new timers for 2027.