The ICPC headquarter sents an e-mail to update the status of WF2020:
In summary, contestants of WF2020 won't need to be together. Each individual can choose to be on-site or remote separately. Moreover, it seems we can use our own computers, which means this is still the same as the 3-machine mode as NERC last year.
Although I am not the contestant of WF2020 (yet another sad and angry story), I still think this kind of WF mode is not fair. 3-machine is totally different kind of competition as the normal ICPC contest. Moreover, I don't think ICPC has the anti-cheating or monitoring technology system that is powerful enough in such important event.
From what I know in 2020-2021 season, only Chinese Regionals did use some comprehensive anti-cheating system. What if some contestants share their account to others, like gathering 10-20 people working on the contest. Does ICPC's technology is strong enough to prevent such things happen? It is the responsibility of the host and ICPC to make sure the competition is technically fair.
I know these years are special. The global pandemic strongly affects everything. But I still think any event should be hosted properly. Otherwise, the best choice might be postponed or cancelled.
What's everybody's opinion on this? Especially for those WF2020 contestants.
If WF is held following the rules in the e-mail, I think a new name instead of ICPC is needed. Maybe EX-ICPC :-)
Maybe IUPC Moscow Railway Station?
People will call NXIST pioneer in the future.
Didn't anybody else receive the letter?
In my opinion it's trash(I completely agree that results for 3-machine and 1-machine modes can be completely different even if assume that everybody will compete honestly). Waiting more than a year for this feels very sad. I hope at least that organizers will not count this participation so that some people will be able to compete one more time.
Well, shit.
I think all of us are unhappy with the new rules. I have no idea what will happen with the epidemic situation, further postponing, etc. But, I do not see a valid reason for 3 computers and some other options for better overall experience:
Rules same as IOI, virtual machines, one computer, recording screen + maybe camera recording the room
Organizing the finals on several "sites" (Europe/China/NERC/India/America...)
Yes, I know, some people start working in a different country, or simply moved from some other reason. I believe that cases are pretty rare and most of them still can afford to spend time in their own country or some "local site" (otherwise, they likely couldn't come to the Moscow).
I don't think such cases where people move to other countries would be that rare personally — many people go to grad school/jobs etc after graduating, and I would hazard a guess that many people who do ICPC also go into higher education. In my team for example, all 3 of us would be in different countries (India, South Korea, USA), and not all of us can make it to Moscow. If it's being held partly remotely, I think it would be fairer to just do 3-computer contests with all contestants having to be present on local site in their currently residing country. (For me, the 3-computer issue is a much smaller issue than no external monitoring, despite both my teammates having not done any CP for over a year now).
I do not know how many people are out of their team country, but probably ICPC can take a survey and find the exact number — no need for guessing. I do not see a reason for a "fast decision" after a year of waiting.
I understand your situation, I will be out in my country too. But, I think your situation is not connected with covid at all. You would have the same issues even there is no virus today. (which was the initial plan for ICPC organizers). Currently, there are no restrictions for travel from the USA to India (do not know for South Korea), no quarantine, and similar stuff...
The only thing that I want to point out, you would have the same problem after postponing, even without covid today (as 90% of rest participants with some issue). And organizers were aware about that issues 1 year ago, when they made this decision.
Clarification: I intend to come to Moscow as of now, but I don't see the point in travelling across the world for an online competition. If it was onsite — sure, all of us would definitely travel. If it's online — I don't think it's worth it anymore.
I am also curious about this number, but I suspect it's much higher than you'd expect; there are a lot of international students, and many of them have gone home in the pandemic. I think it might be as high as 5-20% of teams, which is a pretty big fraction. Lots of countries still do have travel restrictions, and lots of people still feel international travel is pretty risky; I would not travel outside of this country just to meet my teammates. If the pandemic/vaccination efforts were going better, I think the same-location model might've been viable, but with these conditions, I don't think it's feasible to force team members to gather in the same place for the foreseeable future.
It took me four years to qualify the WF. Because of the epidemic, I had to accept the postponement of the competition one more time. Finally, you told me that I need to participate in the match remotely.
If ICPC foundation think online competition is a nice choice, they should hold the competition earlier rather than postpone it for one and a half year.
This email brought me only disappointment and anger. I can accept a longer extension, but I cannot accept an online match. It is awful!
Probably they don't think it's a nice choice and for that reason waited and tried to organize a real onsite contest. Nobody knew a year ago how the pandemic would develop. I think it's useless to blame the ICPC organizers.
I agree. But it is just tough for me to accept that measure. Even multisite competition is comfort for me.
Maybe I can't see any of the lives of ICPC WF offline before I retire. As a acmer, that's indeed a pity!
Maybe that's ACPC World Beginnings 2021
fuck.
Reminds me of NXIST. Beware of cheaters!
I'm a 2020 world finalist. I don't have any disappointment about contest format since there is literally no way to conduct this contest fairly and without sacrificing the contestant experience. If they postpone it longer, even more people will move on to jobs, grad school, etc., and be more out of touch with the contest and practicing. Also it would have to be postponed a ridiculous amount if the goal is to make sure almost all pandemic-related travel restrictions are gone.
Whether the format is 1 computer or 3 computers per team, onsite teams have an advantage for having easier communication and easier access to a shared machine if that were the case. To make this fair, the only option is to sacrifice the experience of onsite contestants, forcing them to communicate and access the computers as if they were remote.
Every option I can think of has significant downsides, so all I want out of world finals at this point is the ability to meet other people attending the event in person and doing whatever activities they plan. One year ago it would have been impossible to have any onsite component at all. I'm happy that we get to have an onsite experience regardless of anything else.
To make this fair, the only option is to sacrifice the experience of onsite contestants, forcing them to communicate and access the computers as if they were remote.
What is this supposed to mean? As far as I'm concerned remote teams will be allowed to gather at one place, is this not the case?
I'm mostly referring to teams that are unable to gather all in one place, or where a team has a combination of remote and onsite members. Definitely there will be a lot of such teams. It's unreasonable to think almost all teams can and will gather in one place given travel restrictions, international students, people who graduated, etc.
Yes, If you can gather, you can gather. If you can't, you just can't!
Personally, I think it's good thing to give onsite teams a slight advantage (e.g. slightly easier coordination); you want to encourage teams to be onsite/"normal", rather than having teams that could be onsite instead electing to go remote.
I do wish we could build a good remote 1-computer-at-a-time setup; probably something like you each have a VM (or you all SSH/X11-forward into a shared VM), but 2 people are locked out by the CMS at any given point in time and can only use voice chat.
If people could freely choose between on-site and online, I agree too that they should be encouraged to go on-site. However in my opinion, people don't need much encouraging there. Everyone (or most of the people) wants to go on-site! If one cannot participate in this year, it's likely due to the pandemic. For them it's not a choice between on-site and online; they are simply unable to, or do not feel safe enough to travel and go on-site. In that case there's not much we can encourage them to do.
One of the greatest on-site advantages in my opinion is the printed-out statements. It usually took our team ~5 minutes to print them out, a very significant length of time especially at the beginning of the contest. If we are to keep them, online participants would feel very much disadvantaged; if we are to drop them, that's an disadvantage to the on-site participants; what time after the start of the contest is fair to distribute the statements? Should we never?
Sure, there's not much need for encouragement, but at the same time, I don't think we need to go to the opposite extreme of "forcing them to communicate and access the computers as if they were remote" like 1-gon suggested. Let them participate as normally as possible, and try not to give remote contestants any advantages or any significant disadvantages.
Re: statements, I think we shouldn't drop them, so I guess there are a few solutions. The simplest is having trusted proctors for each remote contestant who print out the statements ahead of time (IOI-style video proof and stuff can help with the trust issue, and you might want proctors anyways). Another technical solution is giving non-coding contestants access to a PDF viewer in addition to voice chat (maybe you should also give them a shared whiteboard to simulate paper); I think as long as all 3 contestants can read them at the same time, there's not a big disadvantage.
I think they should take a poll about what the contestants want to do
Exactly.
Until now, all the information is posted without any survey. For me, I can only accept them without any negotiation => I have to give up my internship, my traveling plans, etc.
Did they actually realize how many teams/contestants can/can't attend and corresponding reasons before they made any decision?
I understand that a survey might've been nice, but I don't see why you're complaining about giving up internship/travel plans; they chose literally the most permissive plan possible: each individual contestant can choose to be remote if they want, so it should be as flexible as possible already right?
Not for this new update, I mean the previous updates.
All the previous postpones are based on making this event onsite => that's why I'm willing to give up summer internships/travel plans for attending finals. Now they tell me I can also do finals remotely. what???
My complaining is from the fact that all my efforts are wasted, but received: "you can participate finals remotely, and 3 computers possibly". I can't accept such changes currently.
Well I guess it's more complicated than just what the majority wants.
Let's take my country — Vietnam for example. Here, ICPC World Finals is definitely not as prioritized as other aboard events like sports, government meetings,... thus the participants like me can not get vaccine for such reason.
Although flights are not totally locked and we are getting a PCR test almost everyday during the event, it's very risky for us (which might also affect other participants too) to compete onsite.
About the ICPC headquarter's decision, I think it's great that they still leave an option for onsite participation. In an email last year I remember they said that they very much recognized participants' hard work to make it there and they would do the best to make the World Finals happen. That's why I believe they have made a hard choice, but somewhat the best for everyone.
I just hope that WF2021 would be as normal as it is possible. Maybe multisite, but at least not online
I can't understand it.
I thought they wouldn't make a difference between online and on-site participation.
Found this tree here
Just one clarification, this qualification is for regionals that are yet to be scheduled for WFs supposed to happen in June 2022? Or for the world finals supposed to happen in June 2021?
These too many parallel worlds finals plans at the same time make it really difficult to keep track of who is eligible for which WFs.