I think the old structure was good enough, as people like me atleast try to finish in top 20, its now nearly impossible for coders like me to think of a prize.

I think the old structure was good enough, as people like me atleast try to finish in top 20, its now nearly impossible for coders like me to think of a prize.

Atleast T-shirts can be given to top 20!!??

Atleast T-shirts can be given to top 20!!??

Good move. I would suggest to give out T-shirts to all others in top 20.

Good move. I would suggest to give out T-shirts to all others in top 20.

I think the old structure was good enough, the new structure is also good when you can make sure that the tie-breaker problem is hard enough.

By the way, I am wondering when will the august winners be contacted about the prize, since I am one of them, I haven’t receive any e-mail about it yet. I just want to know a time point

I think the old structure was good enough, the new structure is also good when you can make sure that the tie-breaker problem is hard enough.

By the way, I am wondering when will the august winners be contacted about the prize, since I am one of them, I haven’t receive any e-mail about it yet. I just want to know a time point

@Gunjan: We will be giving Tshirts to first timers in the top 20 and to people that show considerable improvement of some kind in the top 20.

@zhuxian: we tried contacting you however our email kept bouncing back. Please drop in an email to basil@codechef.com so that we can carry on our communication.

@Gunjan: We will be giving Tshirts to first timers in the top 20 and to people that show considerable improvement of some kind in the top 20.

@zhuxian: we tried contacting you however our email kept bouncing back. Please drop in an email to basil@codechef.com so that we can carry on our communication.

Hi,
I believe that the old structure was good as it would encourage medium level coders like me to improve and reach the top.

Hi,
I believe that the old structure was good as it would encourage medium level coders like me to improve and reach the top.

The previous structure is better, because more participants can think about prizes.

The previous structure is better, because more participants can think about prizes.

I believe that this prize structure should be followed upto ACM ICPC regional because ultimately goal now is to perform better at regional and win slot at World final and then perform better there too which of course you will never be able to achieve if you continue performing 10-20 rank or so in indian ranking.

And yeah in order to promote and encourage new beginner after regional old prize structure should be brought back.

I believe that this prize structure should be followed upto ACM ICPC regional because ultimately goal now is to perform better at regional and win slot at World final and then perform better there too which of course you will never be able to achieve if you continue performing 10-20 rank or so in indian ranking.

And yeah in order to promote and encourage new beginner after regional old prize structure should be brought back.

Of course, nobody is going to like this change, since it means virtually nobody has a chance of winning a prize anymore (there’s only a few people who could ever make the top 2). Seems a little strange to restrict the prizes to these people only and make sure the rest will never get anything, but I guess you must have your reasons.

Of course, nobody is going to like this change, since it means virtually nobody has a chance of winning a prize anymore (there’s only a few people who could ever make the top 2). Seems a little strange to restrict the prizes to these people only and make sure the rest will never get anything, but I guess you must have your reasons.

yes i would also suggest that top 20 should get atleast Tshirts(codechef)… as they have put on some hard work

yes i would also suggest that top 20 should get atleast Tshirts(codechef)… as they have put on some hard work

I think the initial prize structure of giving prize to top 5 was best.

I think the initial prize structure of giving prize to top 5 was best.

Its too cruel to give second $300 and nothing for third.
I’d vote to 300/200/100/75/50 for 1/2/3/4/5 places – same money budget but looks more fair

Its too cruel to give second $300 and nothing for third.
I’d vote to 300/200/100/75/50 for 1/2/3/4/5 places – same money budget but looks more fair

I don’t thing everyone will be able to put his interest for 10 complete days because many will start realize that they can’t make in top 2.

I don’t thing everyone will be able to put his interest for 10 complete days because many will start realize that they can’t make in top 2.

Oleg is correct.

Also, i think that after two months or so CC will loose most of its participants because they will loose hope !

People try real hard to get in top 20 and top 2 is too tough to get.

I would recommend Oleg’s structure for World Top 5, and will also advice to give prizes for top 10 indians.

PS : Most of my friends have already stopped doing CC because you people have no stability !

Oleg is correct.

Also, i think that after two months or so CC will loose most of its participants because they will loose hope !

People try real hard to get in top 20 and top 2 is too tough to get.

I would recommend Oleg’s structure for World Top 5, and will also advice to give prizes for top 10 indians.

PS : Most of my friends have already stopped doing CC because you people have no stability !

I too feel 2 is an extreme.

I too feel 2 is an extreme.

This new form of prize structure is exactly what we need to ensure that there is no unfair means but I also agree with Vaibhav that there should be some other small non-monetary prizes like T-Shirt,Cap or something to encourage beginners.

This new form of prize structure is exactly what we need to ensure that there is no unfair means but I also agree with Vaibhav that there should be some other small non-monetary prizes like T-Shirt,Cap or something to encourage beginners.

I think, some person should not be eligible to win two months in a row, to encourage others to prizes too.

I think, some person should not be eligible to win two months in a row, to encourage others to prizes too.

Instead of keeping very high prize money, you can reduce the 1st and 2nd prize cost and thus giving away more (say 5) consolation prizes.
(Just a suggestion )

Instead of keeping very high prize money, you can reduce the 1st and 2nd prize cost and thus giving away more (say 5) consolation prizes.
(Just a suggestion )

it is too much. The previous one was lot better. I dont know about local contestants, but maximum of the top 10 in international list are renowned faces in topcoder as well, so you cant call them cheater. Previous structure was more encouraging, but in new structure it is just demotivating. You work hard for 10days and seeing not in top2 but in say 3-4-5 is so much dishearting.

Hey guys,

We value feedback. We work on feedback. To an extent that we are now being regarded as not being stable.

We started with prizes to motivate you all, but we were told that we were throwing away money to a handful of coders.

We rejigged the prize money to award more people, and we ended up encouraging plagiarism .

Now, we thought of removing the prizes believing that money should not be a motivation, while keeping some reward only for the top 2 performers. By doing this, we have tried to make it extremely competitive for the top programmers to fight it out and win.

And while doing so, it is not that we have ignored the rest. We have resolved to provide the rest of the community with a platform where they can come, compete and have more fun and in this process learn. We are focused to make this platform more robust and more fun for all of you and every moment we have been working towards it.

We have changed our problem setting process to bring in better problems which are more fun. We brought you the short contests. We are doing our bit to help Indian programmers perform better at the ACM ICPC with our Go For Gold initiative. We are providing the platform to colleges for hosting their internal contests. And now we want to focus on making the platform robust to handle more participation and encourage newcomers.

It is not the money that we want to save. It is your learning that makes us happy. The small amount that we save in this exercise, we intend to put it to good use. We want to remove the emphasis from money. And, we also have some ideas to reward improving performances! There are some cool goodies up for grabs for noticeable performances.

So please let us not get disheartened and fret over this. Let us all cheer up and get back to what we are here to do – start cooking some kick ass code!

And… we still value your feedback. Please keep pouring it in and let us know where we can improve. We will try and do our best to work towards it.

Fair enough, but like I said before, there’s no reason for ANYONE to like the new system over the old one. A lot of people will be put off by knowing they have no chance of getting a prize. For example, I consider myself rather useless at challenge problems and don’t enjoy them that much, but knowing that I had a chance to make the top 10 made me spend a lot more time on them. In all future contests, I will still attempt to solve the 5 normal problems, but doubt I will spend any time ever working on another challenge problem as I know I can’t make the top 2.

If your reason for changing the system is due to people cheating that’s fine; but saying that you’re doing it to encourage people to give their best effort is rather naive; clearly there will be an opposite effect.

T-shirts for those who solve atleast 3 problems

Ya, same as Stephen, ( but with 1 – 2 normal problems and not 5 :p ) and may not try putting a lot of effort to get 1 more normal problem, which I was doing till last month. Now I feel, I can as well try the problems any time after the contest ends… and you know its not the same with out a contest running , so its kind of having bad effect.

Well sincerely, even I am against this new idea. As it will do the other way. Rather than promoting the competitors to do their best, it will reduce the number of competitors in the challenge. So better is switch back to your previous awarding criteria.
Or at least if you can’t pay, then award some kind of recognition or certificates to top 20 contestants.

@Bairathitrahul, @Stephen: We know you guys have every reason to feel disappointed. But please consider that this was in the larger interest of the community. Trust us, we have considered the merits and demerits of the giving away money as prizes many times and came up with something that we thought will be best for the larger section of the community at this point in time.

Let us not forget, that we are still open to feedback and will work towards doing the best for everyone, that we can. We do have ideas to recognize and reward good performance and we are committed to doing so. Please do not loose heart over the prize money and try and have fun while cracking some interesting problems which are coming up.

I too join with T-shirt batch … there should be some award of achievement. The people in top 20 are not so poor programmers I think … It does not sound so reasonable to treat it as ” throwing away the money … “

We will have something in for noticeable performance.

Will T-shirt be given to top-20 Indians this time or only to global top twenty .. ??

The classifications remain the same. However this time it may take us some more time to reach out to the winners. Please bear with us.

What would you classify as a noticeable performance?

I think giving prize to only top 2 is totally unfair. If we see the profile of the top two they are always the same programmers. They are proffesional  contest programmers ,beating them is next to impossible. You may solve 6 problem but not faster then them. Hence I think instead of decreasing the number of prizes Codechef should increase  the number of prizes and goodies.

Hello! Is this prize structure still working now?