Greetings to every one who's looking forward to take part in NERC 2020. Many of you cold have seen the Special Regulation Rules for ICPC NERC in 2020/2021 Season.

In a nutshell -- quarterfinals (regional contests) can be held either online or offline (organizers consider that), half-finals (Northern Eurasia Finals) are held striclty online, each team can use three PCs, each team can use the Internet freely, it's not mandatory for a team to gather in line room, there's no proctoring system at all. Also best teams of NEF will advance to World Finals 2021 Selection Round, its exact rules are not yet known. So, some kind of a rehearsal before Super Regional Finals that should come in effect in 2026 or later.

And completely another situation in the special rules for Russian School Team Contest (RSTC?) for the same year -- it's held online but any team should gather in one place, should use only one PC and only a set of specific Internet pages. Also there's a proctoring system at all stages.

I understand that RSTC is held by Russian organizers online (IFMO mostly). Consider ICPC stages -- there's some pressure from ICPC directors. So the difference makes sense. Anyway, it's really huge, regional organizers should matter much more.

I think, NERC 2020 will have a number of obvious yet serious issues: 1. Cheating at all stages. The main thing that stops people from cheating -- is surveillance which is absent this time. Yeah, sure, you can't google much without nice skill but it's also difficult to control any communications between different teams and between teams and their coaches. 2. Almost complete lack of team work. Yeah, sure, the ones that are willing to work in a team still can do that. But the optimal strategy using 3 PCs means that people in a team shouldn't really communicate during first 4 hours of the contest. Well, except for distributing problems between people in the team. 3. There's no atmosphere of celebration and solemnity. You're just sitting at home and solving stuff which is no different from regualar Codeforces rounds even if they're cool. Just having your team in the same room would give you much more energy, mood, excitement even if all the other teams are not there physically.

It's just my opinion and it doesn't affect anything by itself, but I'd like to know what all the participant think regarding this topic. I think, combined opinions has more weight and the organizers could listen to it.

I personally ask NercNews to add some kind of proctoring to NERC 2020. The contest is important enough to do all the things possible to hold it successfully even in this time of Corona lockdown without lose of traditions.