Teams advancing to 2016 WF Phuket in Asia have been announced recently. This announcement is undisputedly tantamount to a death sentence for me. I am the one waiting anxiously, refresh Dr. Hwang's blog everyday. But it seems that for years, our training was meaningless.
I think many of us dedicate our passion to programming contests because we see them transparent, fair and without any corruption. And I also believe that as contestants, what we should do is only focus on the practice. And I thought those political business should never come to bother me one day. But sadly, it is my team who is going to become one of the sacrifices of a succession of the dissension.
What happened so far
The quarrel between the Asia director and the local community is a long story to tell. But it has never been as serious as it was in the past season. Now reflecting on this, I know on the surface everything is going okay, but I still feel something wrong. The number of slots is decreasing, as well as the power of those multifarious bonus are rising. So the feeling of the unfairness multiplied. According to this article, before the last day, you do not know the exact X or Y in his algorithm. That means, you can always put any number to these parameters after the contest. And the way he decided to put in those variables, which was quite arbitrary and dictatorial. I am afraid those parameters were used to suppress opponents and those who are close to Dr. Hwang will be easy to pass. Now can it be right, to reject a team on the relationship between the authority? But it is exactly what we do, and now it is almost a open secret for us. If you guys have any opposition, you are directly set yourself to the hard mode. In quicksort, there is a strategy called “killer adversary”, I think that is exactly our situation. In fact, last year in China, the contest divided into 2 events, one called ICPC and another is called CCPC. The CCPC event is simultaneous with Changchun site. And some of the school last year was united to refuse to take part in Changchun Site in order to against the overladen bonus, according to the board, we could see there are lots of strong teams seems didn’t come and take part in the Changchun site. But despite of this, Changchun site still get 1 more slot than other sites, and some site has 3 slots while some site is only 1 slot barely. Is that fair? I don’t think so. Last year, I thought staying in the top 6 could have a chance to enter final… This year, I thought staying in the top 2 must have a chance to enter final. As far as I know, there is no team in our region in history which get 2nd place but cannot go to final. And the logic is the same as what he has done on the Chennai flood. Initially a rule was brought out to reduce the number of slots from Chennai to 1. It was later decided to award an extra slot to Chennai. But it turned out, this extra slot was actually the bonus slot that was going to be given to Amritapuri (as it had proposed to host the world finals in future, smell some sense of Stockholm syndrome?). The net effect is, the number of teams from India is reduced due to postponement rule announced so hastily after the Chennai regional was postponed. This awarding of the extra slot to Chennai is just a sleight of hand designed to look like it is fair.
My wish
Well, don’t get me wrong. I am not against the rule this year, I am against the way the rule has been made. The problem with this system, is that it’s this sort of long, slow expansion in personal power. If you don't make a sound this time, things may become more and more dangerous in the future. One of my spiritual idol Aaron Swartz once argued that it was sometimes necessary to break the rules that required obedience to the system in order to avoid systemic evil. So, at my point of view, at least all officials concerned should be consulted. There should be some discussion before taking any decision. The voting should be transparent. The slot calculation is needlessly complicated and could be much simplified. There could be bonus slots but shouldn’t affect the acknowledged game rules. There should be no parameters remain to be determined after the contest. I know in the early day in the ICPC history, Dr. Hwang had done great contribution to bring this event for us. But as times alter, today, the power is overwhelming, and he is stand on the opposite of the sport spirit, the way in which Dr. Hwang makes decision should be questioned. What he has done this time is just to make an example out of us, to use this case for deterrence. So that next time we are submitted to his power. And if we could not do something that take a fair environment back, the reputation of the contest in the sub-region will be badly influenced. Do we really willing to see there are 5 CCPC together with 5 ICPC in the coming season? Do we really need this privilege to keep the health and vitality? I am afraid our students will be seriously exhausted on this issue and the community will appear to diverge further.
Update
Thanks everyone!
Dr. Hwang has just replied to me that he will try after one week for an additional participation slot for Asia. But still said nothing about the X+Y scheme. Looking for the further reaction. The chance is slim. But no matter what outcome will be, I have already felt the warmth of the community!
