Dear community,
It is with the deepest regret that we inform you that there will be no WCA World Championship this year.
This week, the core team and the WCA Board came to the inevitable conclusion that we must cancel the championship. We are very sorry that we have to disappoint everyone who was looking forward to this event.
For a long time we were confident that the (postponed) championship in Almere could go ahead. However, the recent developments show us that this is no longer a realistic scenario.
One of the goals of the WCA World Championships is to have participants from as many countries as possible. Traditionally many of these participants travel a long distance, often with their families, to attend the event. Therefore we think that we should give the participants maximum confidence that the competition will take place, once they have registered and booked their trips.
Unfortunately now with less than five months before the planned dates of the World Championship we cannot give that confidence. We have to deal with ongoing uncertainty surrounding government regulations for major events in The Netherlands. Regulations are changing by the week and measures that have been relieved are again taken once the number of new positive tests is increasing. Usually the first measure to be taken is to cancel events with many attendants and such a measure is the last to be relieved again.
In addition to that, international travelling is still very limited and highly regulated. Even people who are fully vaccinated often need to be tested. Many countries have negative travel advice or require quarantaine when travelling. We know from several top cubers that they were not going to attend the World Championship because of these limitations. We have no control over these measures and no exceptions will be made for our World Championship.
Even if in December everything is looking better, there will still be a real risk that we have to cancel the competition if the number of new positive tests is increasing or if some countries give negative travel advice for The Netherlands. The conditions for the competition are also quite uncertain: we may be required to do daily testing for competitors and visitors. We have to deal with the risk of competitors and/or staff getting infected during the championship and not being able to participate or do their staff duties.
This definitively puts an end to our current plans for a large championship in The Netherlands. Next year there will be the continental championships in Copenhagen, Melbourne, Brasilia, Cape Town, Semey and Toronto. The next World Championship will be in Seoul, Korea. We wish the organizing teams the best of luck.
We wanted nothing more than to organize the best World Championship ever and give you a fantastic experience. As the organizing team, we are of course very disappointed. But it is what it is, unfortunately. We thank everyone who contributed to this championship. Together we put an enormous amount of effort into this. Many thanks, it was a pleasure to work with you.
Dear competitors,
We are sorry to inform you that the following competitions have been cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
All paid fees will be 100% refunded. Competitors who have cancelled their registration will receive another 50% refund too. Please wait in patience for the refund. If you have any questions, please contact the organizers and/or delegates.
Stay safe.
Dear competitors,
We are sorry to inform you that the following competitions have been cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
All paid fees will be 100% refunded. Competitors who have cancelled their registration will received another 50% refund too. Please wait in patient for the refund. If you had any questions, please contact the organizers and/or delegates.
Stay safe.
The subsequent re-opening registration and other arrangements will be updated on the competition website. We kindly remind the cubers from other cities outside Chengdu not to arrange the itinerary before the follow-up announcement is updated.
Beijing Summer 2021, the event planned to be held in Beijing from July 31st to August 1st, has been cancelled.
Regarding the refund of this competition and other matters, the organizing team will contact all the registered competitors by follow-up E-mails. Please be patient.
Thank you all for your attention and support to this event. We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.Due to the repeated COVID-19 epidemics, there are currently local cases in many places in China. Please fully understand the entry and exit policies of the region and relevant departments before signing up, and bear the related risks of not being able to travel and not participate in the competition.
The WCA is making efforts to preserve the history of how our organization began and the important milestones we have reached along the way to where we are today. As a part of this mission, we would like to introduce the WCA Archive Team (WAT) which will be the team of people focused on this work! Currently, the team is seeking new members to help work on their projects. They hope to have members that can represent each region to make their work more efficient. The application is open to everyone; it's not a requirement to hold a current position in the WCA to be considered.
Curious about the experiences of cubers back then? Interested in uncovering past cubing stories and retelling them in a new light? Want to discover more of the WCA's past and future? If you said yes, then you may be a great fit for the WAT!