SecondThread's blog

By SecondThread, history, 18 months ago, In English

Fun Facts About World Finals Teams

Are you participating in ICPC World Finals in Dhaka this week? Is someone from your team competing in World Finals? Did your best friend's brother meet someone whose cousin competed in regionals against a team who qualified? If so, we'd love to get some fun facts about the world finals team from you!

If you have any, please submit your fun facts in this google form, or send them in a private message to me, SecondThread, on Codeforces!

What kind of facts are you looking for?

Well variety is what makes things exciting, so we don't want to limit it too much. But for some inspiration, some good ones we've seen in the past include:

  • I play Smash Melee competitively in my free time
  • One of our team members (his_handle) is getting married within a week of finals
  • I'm surprisingly not actually a Computer Science major, instead I'm majoring in x and plan to use it for y.
  • 2/3 of our team uses the non-C++ programming language X.
  • This weird thing happened at regionals when we qualified.
  • Our team practiced pretending to get questions wrong so that when we solved the last problem we didn't ruin the scoreboard reveal for anyone.
  • One of our teammates really likes cycling and once biked over 100 miles in a single day.
  • Last year, we were the highest-scoring team at the NAC not to make World Finals, by 27 minutes of penalty time
  • Our team's mascot is X which we use for Y

Or really anything else that you think is unique or interesting.

What will these be used for?

I'll be commentating during the ICPCLive World Finals stream. Similarly to how we did this during the 2022 North American Championships Stream, we'll use the content in these facts to make the stream more personal, and hype up your team when you submit a problem when we're watching the scoreboard.

We're looking to get at least one fact per team. I'll be bothering you in person in Dhaka before the contest if you don't submit one, so might as well just make it easy on yourself and do it online now to avoid all potential human interactions later on, right? Just fill out this google form, or DM SecondThread!

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18 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +199 Vote: I do not like it

Did you know that some of the teams have to pay $1500 to participate in their regional contest (Arab and African Collegiate Programming Championship).

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    18 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +25 Vote: I do not like it

    It is funny that this astonishingly high price is probably way above the optimal price to maximize profits. If they were to lower it, they would probably have more attendance and make more money.

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    18 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +40 Vote: I do not like it

    It's even funnier that Arab Collegiate Programming Contest has increased their fees this year:

    • If a team pay before or at 15th October, they should pay 1500$
    • If a team pay after 15th October, they should pay 2500$ !!

    Many good teams, who have high chance to qualify to the world finals, can't pay their fees.

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    18 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +49 Vote: I do not like it

    Bill Poucher even knew about this and doesn't seem to bother. It's so f***ed up

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18 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -44 Vote: I do not like it

do it online now to avoid all potential human interactions later on, right?

What if someone (not me) does want potential human interactions with you? :flushed:

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18 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +148 Vote: I do not like it

"I'll be bothering you in person in Dhaka before the contest if you don't submit one".

I would like to be bothered by SecondThread.

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18 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

Welcome to our country. Wish you have a great contest.

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18 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +33 Vote: I do not like it

I am not competing this year, but I am really glad there could be someone that is deep in the community to be a part of the live commentary. Looking forward to the livestream!

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18 months ago, # |
Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

As the teammate from the seventh example who likes cycling, I hope everyone competing in WF has fun, and gets as many AC submissions during the contest as miles they've biked in a single day.

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18 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +49 Vote: I do not like it

One person in my team traveled directly from Denver, USA, to Dhaka.

Fun fact, the distance between Denver and Dhaka is super close to 1 earth diameter (0.0015% difference according to google). So the angle traveled comes out to 2 radians (2 pi radians = 360 deg, pi radians = 180 deg). So Denver is roughly 2/3 from being on the other side of the earth.