stefdasca's blog

Cheaters now ruin the problem setting queue as well
By stefdasca, history, 4 months ago, In English

At this point, I think that just about everyone here is familiar with the recent series of blogs surrounding the case of Psychotic_D and his gang of cheaters, things which have been exposed here and by defnotmee in these two blogs (here and here) in more detail.

But what if I tell you that cheaters end up setting rounds on a regular basis too? What makes it even worse is that in some cases, these people use the goodwill of some of the coordinators for their own benefit without having any remorse for their actions, and here is one example in action which caught my attention as it made waves in some of the communities I'm in.

Background story

Cheating is more and more of a problem as shown by the fact that at almost any instance, there is at least one blog talking about a cheater or a cheating group, and this problem got worse now that cheaters can live stream solutions on various platforms.

The first notorious case of a cheater who set a round which came to my mind was the round where TimDee, someone who cheated multiple times according to this comment and the linked blog ended up being a co-author in the round (in fairness, judging from the editorial, 90% of the work wasn't done by him). I thought at first that this should be just a one off, right? Codeforces can't possibly let people who fraud their contests set rounds.

Oh dear, I couldn't have been more wrong

As the number of cheaters grew, more people started using various tricks to also fraud their way into problem setting, without respecting the current system, and I am going to show one case which stroke to my mind after having seen the discussions online. First, it is a known fact that many rounds are set based on official contests, with various degrees of quality, and what I will say here does not apply to these rounds.

While I believe many rounds are set by people based on their connections to coordinators rather than having waited in the queue, talked to coordinators and then have an actual round set up after some time (I have been involved in two such rounds and the process took about 1 year and many problem proposals in each of these, back in 2019 and 2020), nothing has been as worse as what I witnessed over the past couple of weeks. So let's present -2.71

A wannabe innovator turned cheater

Just about everyone who is somewhat more known must have received such messages over time, from various people who want to set rounds and have an easy path to getting it done. At the time, I thought he would simply just try to maybe team up with some more experienced problem writers and maybe have a round like that. Now, let's analyze his behavior during this year.

First, I had a series of messages with him where I reviewed a few of the problems, without the intention of actually coordinating him (I am not a coordinator here and also I have many other things I have to do anyways) only to then see his messages grow more and more absurd and dishonest. His initial motive according to his messages was to make Palestine proud of him before any unfortunate event happens given the ongoing conflict in the region, but going from this and turning it into a weapon to shame people into having him around is something completely different and unacceptable in my opinion.

Spoiler
Spoiler
Spoiler

Over the last few months, I saw his name pop out more and more and I started making some more research. One can notice here that a lot of his comments are about how he claims to be a national pioneer as far as many aspects go.

Recently, I learned that he is in the shortlist of setting a Codeforces round and given how long the queue is, plus the fact that I personally know very capable people who have to be stuck in the queue while such persons end up setting rounds on the fast track was what made me actually write this blog.

His low rating is already enough evidence for probably not having what it takes to be a problem setter, but what if I tell you that he doesn't have the knowledge about some relatively standard topics, such as DP?

Spoiler

At some point, he ended up joining TheForces, as shown by his profile status and his status as a moderator in their discord server, and this is where things started to become more shady, as shown by the evidence below. Given how some of TheForces' staff behave as far as reaching out to coordinators goes, with wuhudsm's case here exposed by errorgorn, our main protagonist of the blog decided to follow his lead too.

In one of his recent rounds, he was caught cheating and in many of his other rounds, he had suspicious submission times and different coding styles in the same round.

However, in yesterday's div3 round, he ended up using a solution for 1996E - Decode which was used mostly by cheaters who were given this code by someone in order to catch them off guard (there was an obvious wrong case when the answer was actually mod-1 and they printed -1, with respect to the modulo, due to adding a +1 at the beginning and removing it at the end without actually knowing what the code is doing 272757058), as shown in this 272834543.

What does this tell us about the current problem setting system

While I acknowledge that there are things which can't be improved fast, due to a relative understaffed coordinating team, I think something which can be improved, and it is about time for such a post, is to have a clear and more transparent version of the ruleset regarding setting rounds, waiting in the queue and the coordinators responsible with each division, as according to my knowledge, at least when it comes to div3 and div4, the system is not explained anywhere, and for div1 and div2 rounds, there is the old system which seems to not work that well anymore.

Personally, I would also argue that the system of becoming a coordinator should also be more transparent, as I'm sure there are people who would love to help with that but they don't know where to reach out to or even worse, they are too shy to just DM someone from the Codeforces' staff for that (which according to my knowledge, it is the current state of affairs).

In addition, I think given that we have now several rounds where cheaters author problems, plus the rather frequent occurrence of them being among testers, who can later leak problems, something must be done about this.

I want to thank errorgorn, defnotmee, chromate00 and TheScrasse for reviewing the blog and adding more evidence.

  • Vote: I like it
  • +146
  • Vote: I do not like it

»
4 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by stefdasca (previous revision, new revision, compare).

→ Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +55 Vote: I do not like it

Personal story,

I was involved with setting one task (its position was our protagonist's, but then my task went in to replace it) in his contest. Now I don't think I can utilize it anywhere usefully.

F**k.

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    4 months ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it -11 Vote: I do not like it

    Psychotic_D and his gang of cheaters

    Meme

    Hope, TheForces will recover from this.

    All the best to the TheForces leaders.

    → Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +147 Vote: I do not like it

Personal story:

A while ago I forbid myself to ghost people, and I decided that my replies must always be positive and/or useful. This is how I was accidentally coordinating the Div. 2 round by -2.71.

Now I decided I should try to have more practical sense and try to do something useful for the whole community, not just for the person I'm talking with. Just ignoring that Div. 2 and picking one from the queue could have been better.

→ Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
← Rev. 4   Vote: I like it +50 Vote: I do not like it

However, in yesterday's div3 round, he ended up using a solution for 1996E — Decode which was used mostly by cheaters who were given this code by someone in order to catch them off guard (there was an obvious wrong case when the answer was actually mod-1 and they printed -1, with respect to the modulo, due to adding a +1 at the beginning and removing it at the end without actually knowing what the code is doing 264957280), as shown in this 272834543.

It is worth noting that the person who did this is probably amenotiomoi/EndlessDreams once again.

Evidence

Good to know he is using his power to do funny things now. It's also kind of ridiculous how many cheaters are there. There are 7 pages of hacked submissions.

→ Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -14 Vote: I do not like it

I think it's good that there are people like stefdasca, but it's bad like -2.71

→ Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

Ok , I know him since the first day with discovering Codeforces , in 2022 he was invited to IOI qualifications at that time , he was given a cf gym link to participate and he only solved trivial brute force problems then ; While I was discussing with him about cf platform , I found that his interest is to become a problem writer (13 years then) , as usual he asked some of top rated among the country ; and everyone was like (nah , look a newbie wants to author rounds on cf) , so he tried to improve , but he found a better chances (for him) to improve in ; for example : he got 2 medals in the local mathematical Olympiad , right after two years with math Olympiad , he got an invitation of participating for unofficial mirror of Palestinian ICPC qualifications , he participated on it and got the First AC among all universities on the contest , right after this he found it's an optimal time to start working on problem setting (momentum) , few days after the first plan , as you all know , the stupid thing happened on Gaza and he'd definitely to pause it .

Here I'll be 100% honest , without mentioning anyone , he messaged some of high rated and well-known cpers in the community , in order to finish the contest (and do something remarkable before he quit)

Let me tell you that this man isn't ghosting or using or forcing or .... someone , he's just wants to finish a long waited dream .

He mistaken and Me and Him were discussing , and he acknowledged that he did a mistake , but never thought of ruin the round or sth similar , moreover the round was meant to be the last step on his cp career until everything settles well .

And "The Spoiler of dp" isn't unawareness of dp but struggling and the need of changing the mindset of dp in the mind and try to give the brain more suitable mindset .

Overall , He did mistake , and certainly he has to apologize , but I hope the community is understanding what it means to finish a dream that has been waiting for a long time .

On behalf of him , I send my sincere apologies to everyone who felt bad about him , I just hope that community can let the this contest has a place , and not letting the testers efforts (at least) goes like this .

He's still on the beginning of his journey 15/16 years , so If I were someone who's an authority , I don't want to kill his hopes and innovation , but to guide him to achieve the best ; currently in the current situation he cannot improve ; he indeed did wrong things but I already saw older cpers who did it again and again and after a long time got punished .

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    4 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it
    Spoiler

    I won't comment on his actual achievements, if he achieved them, well done to him, but he should have followed the rules like everyone else without being rude to numerous people along the process, myself included. We can't have everyone simply message coordinators hoping to get someone kind enough to do it.

    I know many people who dream of setting rounds but they wait in the queue like everyone else. Even when people from my country come and want to set local contests, they still have to respect some rules as far as their competence goes.

    I thank you for the apology, it is appreciated but personally I don't think he should author an official round, not until he follows the criteria others respected over the years. He can put them in a gym or something.

    → Reply
    • »
      »
      »
      4 months ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +71 Vote: I do not like it

      more importantly, we simply cant have cheaters be setting rounds....it compromises the security....the case is different if they cheated years ago and it was a one-off incident, this is not the case here.

      → Reply
    • »
      »
      »
      4 months ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 127   Vote: I like it -18 Vote: I do not like it

      stefdasca is an asshole.

      → Reply
    • »
      »
      »
      4 months ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 90   Vote: I like it -45 Vote: I do not like it

      stefdasca is an asshole.

      → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 months ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

        Given how many problems he asked me about, there's a non zero chance I know some of them too and I haven't committed to testing or anything.

        I wouldn't have taken the round obviously but the statement is simply not true.

        → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 months ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        Serious point : if anyone of cf community is going through what's he going through then he'd simply just quit

        Honestly, he should. If you're on a situation where your safety is in danger, why would one bother with trying to push something like this.

        → Reply
  • »
    »
    4 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    And "The Spoiler of dp" isn't unawareness of dp but struggling and the need of changing the mindset of dp in the mind and try to give the brain more suitable mindset .

    Mister, from talking to the people involved it was clear he wasn't capable of setting a round, even if he did know dp. You need to be of a certain skill level to be able to meaningfully contribute in problemsetting, otherwise other people will have to clean up over what you do.

    → Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +46 Vote: I do not like it

I guess I don't really understand this:

cheaters end up setting rounds on a regular basis too

TimDee's case has been discussed endlessly. But other than that? Yeah it's pretty well-known at this point that -2.71 keeps pestering coordinators despite not really having the problems to actually author one, but do they have an actual round coming up or something?

to have a clear and more transparent version of the ruleset regarding setting rounds

I don't think it will help, actually. At least the rating bounds for setting Div. 1 and 2 rounds are well-documented. This whole case has ultimately been about them asking for an exception and trying to go around the rules.

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    4 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

    do they have an actual round coming up

    div2 very soon....

    → Reply
  • »
    »
    4 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +20 Vote: I do not like it

    My intel is that 10th august was their round...

    → Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +92 Vote: I do not like it

Personal story:

I was approached by -2.71 when he asked me to help him write a checker for a div 3 round. This was kind of weird as you dont ask random ppl to write a checker for you, and can't you just ask your coordinator to help? But whatever, it was div 3, so I sent him an example checker. Anyways, i still dk what div 3 this is. So he probably lied to my face.

Anyways, fast forward abit, he wants me to coordinate his div 2 round (skipping the queue). I told him no, ask your div 3 coordinator (which probably doesnt exist), he can recommend you better if you are good. THen he tried to guilt trip me into coordinating his round by saying he is victim of Invasion. Ok, I gave in. I'll coordinate if its good. I asked him to send me his d2F. I'll coordinate if its good. It was easy... and bad. He tried sending another problem. After I solved it, I realized he didn't actually have the solution. Then he even had the gall to ask me if I can solve a generalized version of it.

Thankfully for me, I wrote an entire essay to tell him why me coordinating his round was a waste of everyone's time. He didn't message me again. Unfortunately, seems that TheScrasse was not so lucky. Plus, imagine how many other coordinators he might have asked, using the Palestine situation as guilt tripping material.

Now, I think at this point, given all the allegations against theforces members and their unethical methods for getting coordinators to coordinate their rounds, something must be really wrong with theforces. I'm really hoping this is just a small minority in theforces.... seriously, in my almost 3 years of coordination i've never encountered such problematic authors. If these are the people moderating theforces, what does it say about the community as a whole?

→ Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Also I apology specially to TheScrasse and KAN who put a lot of efforts for the round

→ Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +21 Vote: I do not like it

didn't expected

→ Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +40 Vote: I do not like it

Short personal story:

Starting from May this year, he sometimes sends me a problem which he doesn't have a solution, and asks a solution from me. He also asked me to implement the solution to a problem in his round, which is quite weird.

Actually for one of the problems he sent I found out that there is a cool non-trivial solution, but now we probably can't use it anywhere. R.I.P.

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    4 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    I'm very curious about this infamous d1E problem but now it seems like we will never see it :(

    → Reply
  • »
    »
    4 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

    Bonus: his rather aggressive response after my joke when we were talking about the previous scandals

    → Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -111 Vote: I do not like it

It seems most of the people under this blog are right, I apologize to those who I mentioned in the previous version.

The strictest rules should be enacted to combat such situations.

I try as hard as possible to create the most trusted TheForces team from now on.

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    4 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +38 Vote: I do not like it

    stop cringing please

    → Reply
  • »
    »
    4 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +35 Vote: I do not like it

    Meaningless statement to me. I don't care if he was caught in the crossfire or not. If he had committed to anything, he would have to do it right regardless — i.e. he has anticipated all situations and consequences.

    → Reply
  • »
    »
    4 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +76 Vote: I do not like it

    Bro he can't just guilt trip everyone into accepting his round because of some completely unrelated thing, lol. Why can't he just stay safe and make a round after he gets more experience and is in a safer environment? Was it really necessary to go through all of this?

    → Reply
    • »
      »
      »
      4 months ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -100 Vote: I do not like it

      It seems most of the people under this blog are right, I apologize to those who I mentioned in the previous version.

      The strictest rules should be enacted to combat such situations.

      → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 months ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it -51 Vote: I do not like it

        I can't speak about others, but tibinyte actually made it three times to the Romanian camp, by passing onsite selections, and nobody has ever suspected him, so even if he had 1 skipped or whatever, that doesn't reflect his real skill.

        Please stop throwing baseless accusations for once.

        → Reply
        • »
          »
          »
          »
          »
          4 months ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +63 Vote: I do not like it

          Please stop throwing baseless accusations for once.

          lol

          → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 months ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +24 Vote: I do not like it

        Yes -2.71 have cheated and that's unacceptable from anyone holding a round, but does this mean he's stealing his round's problems or will share them with someone else before his round? No one can claim that.

        No one can reject them too.
        For example can you reject the situation "he has been leaked the task, in exchange of solutions for some ongoing problems?"
        At least, the assumption "-2.71 behaves gentlmanly for CP" collapsed by his cheating, so it's natural we can't trust such stealing or leaking won't happened.

        → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 months ago, # ^ |
        ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +37 Vote: I do not like it

        Well, from the perspective of who can probably talk about it...

        I believe just cheating once shouldn't just immediately disqualify them forever, some people decide to learn the hard way (unfortunately, like me). However, the apology and remorse matters very much as well. This blog was here because we found out he cheated and yet found no remorse (only trying more evasion).

        If a cheater does not have the courage to apologize, will they take the responsibility after a problem is faced with an issue? I am not sure what would happen if they were obliged to fix the issue, really.

        Anyways, I understand you about having to defend the TheForces community. It is really a sad thing to see a community that started for the good deeds, face the risk of cheaters. Probably though, any community had to face it at least once throughout their history. Sad thing, but it is an experience we must learn from.

        → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 months ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

        Did you even read my comment? I didn't mention the fact that he cheated.

        does this mean he's stealing his round's problems or will share them with someone else before his round?

        Well, he did copy problems and he did send problems to people unrelated to the contest.

        In the END, I had the goal of helping the community with high-quality rounds, but some toxic people don't want that, no problem because I've reached what I wanted, Goodbye CF community.

        Idk why you're making this about you.

        → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 months ago, # ^ |
        ← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +68 Vote: I do not like it

        I cheated so hard and got so far
        But in the end, it doesn't even matter

        → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 months ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

        You're telling me that even after my public apology, I still cannot be forgiven for my actions?

        → Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +51 Vote: I do not like it

Personal story:

I was attracted very cute community rounds of TheForces, so I wanted I would be of help and then I take the moderator's role. In the -2.71's case, though his message is unskilful, I accept his enthusiasm, so I has discussed with him about some problems. In other cases, when I receive "help me!" DM, I'll write some reply wishing the growth of questioner.
Of course, in any case, I trust (and assume) every CP player (especially, contributor) is gentlemanly at the very least point (such as no cheating), until now. But I faced too many counterexamples for this. My mind was too straightforward. I sorrow that I should suspect this basis from now.

→ Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +193 Vote: I do not like it

The round by -2.71 has been called off. I'd like to apologise to all the people involved in preparation of the round.

I have to say that the original round proposal was submitted by orange Rainbow____, so it wasn't too suspicious. It became apparent now that -2.71 was given access to their account (so also take the comments above with the grain of salt).

There'll be another round on the 10th at the same time.

→ Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +99 Vote: I do not like it

Personal story:

Today I met a most wonderful person and had a very beautiful interaction with them. They told me "The weather sure is hot, right?", to which I responded with "Yeah".

→ Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -25 Vote: I do not like it

Personal story:

After 3 months of summer break, I'm going to meet my toxic college mates on 31st July.

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    4 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

    It's better to make some good friends in college then.

    Btw we're from the same college
    → Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -57 Vote: I do not like it

Sorry I don't understand yapanese

→ Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +42 Vote: I do not like it

If only i practiced as hard as i follow codeforces drama ;(

→ Reply
»
4 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

waiting in a queue sucks

→ Reply