The build up to October Mega Cook-Off 2015 was a tad like a ripple. We had seen a smoother September Cook-Off 2015; we had seen the tumultuous ACM-ICPC Asia-Amritapuri Site, First Round – Online Contest 2015 and a special mention to the disastrous August Cook-Off 2015. So we went into October Mega Cook-Off 2015 absolutely oblivious to what the coming 2:30 hrs had for us. And as they say “when uncertainty is high, plans should be specific, but flexible.” And the only plan we had was to make COOK63 a smooth affair and few other variants of the same plan locked in the back of our mind. And that is how the October Cook-Off 2015 started. How it went though? We will see ahead.
As the clock was nearing 21:30 Hrs on Sunday, 18th October, 2015 the atmosphere here at CodeChef headquarters was getting tensed. The clear voices were now replaced by quite wispers and there was a shortage of fingers to cross. Skipping a heartbeat or two we were ready to welcome the COOK63. And as the clock struck 21:30 Hrs, October Cook-Off 2015 started to a jumping ovation from us, and we are sure, from some of you as well. The problem set of Jingbo Shang was live and accessible to all and sundry. And we could not have been happier. We have said this earlier as well, and we will say it again, nothing pleases us more than a smooth start to the contest. And we got one. It was now time to focus on how it was doing. So let us throw some light on its proceedings.
The problem set of Jingbo Shang was turning out to be a tough nut to crack, as after the first AC in the third minute on STEM, there was a scarcity of green ticks on the rank table. The participants were trying their hands alike on STEM and ASP. However, ASP found more love than STEM. With one ACM ICPC Indian regional over and two pending, the testing that this problem set would have given to all ACM ICPC aspirants would certainly be of great help to them in the coming time.
The testing for this testing problem set was done by Xiaoxu Guo. Accompanying Shang and Xiaoxu on the problem setting panel was Pushkar Mishra as editorialist, Sergey Kulik as Russian translator, Hu Zecong as Mandarin Translator, and VNOI Team as Vietnamese translator. Taking care of the proceedings as contest admin was, Praveen Dhinwa.
The testing nature of problem set could be understood from the fact that only djdolls and slimtashady in top 10 were able to keep a clean sheet on their score card. However, they too were not able to crack all the five problems of the contest. In fact none of the participants were. The highest number of problems solved in October Cook-Off was 4, by akash4983. The problem set kept the participants on the edge of their seats till the very last moments of the contest with everyone trying to get past one more problem and move several positions on the rank table. However, not many were able to get past more than two and among the very few that did, we had our winners. So, let us go and meet them.
We start with the ROW top 10:
And now, the Indian top 5:
A big round of applause to all you wonderful people adorning our rank tables and our contests.
We are now done with all the online rounds for ACM ICPC India regionals and are waiting for the results. So, while we wait let us put the paddle on the metal and get the final preps in place. We have the editorials of the October Cook-Off 2015 ready for you and we know you have gone through them, but here they are for you once more.
With that, this delayed train of posts which started with July Challenge 2015 around a few days back moves towards its final stop, the October LunchTime 2015. So, let us not delay it any further and move towards the final stop and hope for this series to run smoothly from here onward.
As always we would like to hear your thoughts about the contest, about the post, about anything in fact. We love hearing from you guys, so fire up your mailboxes and let us know your thoughts at: [email protected]
That will be all from us for now.
See you at the contests.
Regards,
Rudreshwar,
Team CodeChef
