Timosh's blog

Div. 1 as a CM
By Timosh, history, 5 weeks ago, In English

I managed to solve 2 problems on Codeforces Round 1004 (Div. 1), which may not be much, but it was quite frustrating to see that I was ranked 800/1080, while I was used to seeing something like 300/27K on Div. 2s. Is it even worth taking part on Div. 1s as a CM?

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5 weeks ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +44 Vote: I do not like it

Depends on your goals. If you wanna beat tourist someday — you should participate in Div. 1s.

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    5 weeks ago, # ^ |
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    That's like saying "if you want to beat s1mple some day, you should play cs". The correct statement(s) would be "if you want to beat orzdevinwang/donk some day, you should play div-1/cs".

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      5 weeks ago, # ^ |
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      I don't get what you're saying, I said exactly the same.

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5 weeks ago, # |
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If you are worried about rating, your rating is not going to change a lot (I think). If you are complaining because you used to be on the top 1% of a contest and now you are on the bottom 20%... do div. 4 contests, I guess haha

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5 weeks ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

Seems consistent to me.

You can get top300, where only 2100- rated people are participating. When 1900+ are participating, you're placing lower as expected, cause the number of high rated people that are participating officially is much bigger.

As far as rating goes, you won't be able to participate in div2 once you hit 2100. If 2100 is your final goal, maybe it makes more sense to only particiate in div2 contests, however I dooubt it will make much difference, cause it's not just your place that matters, but the participants' ratings, that are above/below you.

You should reach your true rating regardless. I think that might be less random in div2.

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    5 weeks ago, # ^ |
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    Yeah, Thanks. I expected Div. 1s to be somewhat harder compared to that of Div. 2s, and the problems to be non-standard, requiring a lot more insightful ideas. On top of that, competing with Masters, GMs. Anyways, I will be taking Div. 1s regardless, as I believe I will get as comfortable as I did with Div. 2 when I was a pupil or so.

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5 weeks ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +52 Vote: I do not like it

It was my first div1 contest, and, like you, I solved the first two problems. My rating dropped by 14 points (which I don't think is too bad).

For me, the most important difference was the first problem — not solving A in 1 or 2 minutes negatively affected my confidence throughout the contest. However, that's more similar to OIs and I'll get used to it eventually, anyway.

Being ranked much lower than usual is frustrating, but in reality, being the 800th of the best is better than being the 200th of the not so good participants.

Also, I actually enjoyed the extra challenge. One of the benefits of div1 is that you can focus on harder problems, which I find much more fun, without spending time or getting tired while solving easy ones.

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    5 weeks ago, # ^ |
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    Thanks for the information. The thing is, I haven't done much of Div. 1, so I don't actually know how it works or how it is different from others.

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    5 weeks ago, # ^ |
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    I think you need stronger heart. I encountered a penalty in Div.1 A, but I managed to adjust my mood and solved B,C and D1 fast.

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      4 weeks ago, # ^ |
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      I think the main difference was that I didn't get the usual boost from solving a problem in just a few minutes. So actually it didn't affect me negatively, it just didn't affect me positively. Maybe I should've put it differently.

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    5 weeks ago, # ^ |
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    Grandmasters experience not solving A fast too. Usually, Div1A is Div2C, which still takes some time. And I looked at this round and it's quite a hard A.

    I think I prefer combined to Div 1 only, I get A and B to kinda warm up. Also, they last for longer usually 2.5-3 hours instead of 2. So it's likely I will actually end up having more time for harder problems as first few don't take much time.

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      4 weeks ago, # ^ |
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      Yes, I didn't mean that I expected to, or thought I should, solve A quickly, it was just a big difference compared to div2.

      In most div2s, I only solve 3 problems, and my rating usually drops. However, yesterday I solved div1 A and B which were the same as div2 D and E, so I think I can solve these problems, but don't have enough time to do that. However, I'm sure this isn't true for everyone.

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        4 weeks ago, # ^ |
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        Interesting. I actually had a really similar experience when I became candidate master. And I guess Div2/Div1 is quite different for Candidate masters due to time it takes for A/B.

        You can look at my contest history and see that when I became candidate master I did 2 Div1s and got more rating, probably for that reason. And nice thing is that you do not need to quickly solve A/B and getting stuck on them is not possible.

        So yeah, I do get what you mean. Just wanted to let you know that GMs experience similar stuff, though to a lesser extent.

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          4 weeks ago, # ^ |
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          And nice thing is that you do not need to quickly solve A/B

          True. TBH I think the harder A might be a good thing, overall.

          Usual div2 A/B problems are not very interesting, and starting from a harder level means that I enjoy the contest from the start. Maybe that's also why I sometimes enjoy OIs (even VCs) more than CF contests.

          There are defenitely some drawbacks, but nothing I can't get used to.

          Thanks for mentioning that GMs also experience similar things — sometimes it can be easy to forget that people with a higher rating don't find everything easy.

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5 weeks ago, # |
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It is better to be worst among bests, than best among not so goods

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5 weeks ago, # |
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I can't imagine the level of competitiveness in Div1.

Like, in today's contest, only ~300 people solved D+E in div2 (which is A+B in Div1), and OP still ranked in the bottom 25% of Div1. kek

if I were you I'd make alt tbh

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5 weeks ago, # |
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haha

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