Ever since Ex has not been in AtCoder Beginner Contest, it feels like every contest has changed too drastically compared to when Ex was in ABC. The difficulty gap between E-F-G has become much, much wider. Previously, we usually had a choice between whether to solve F or G, if we are stuck in either one of them in occasion. Now, we do not have that choice, as the tasks that used to be at Ex is now at G. I think this is a huge loss for people who could solve until F, because they often lose an entire task to solve. There are many other issues, though I will not enumerate every single one of them.
I understand the current situation, the lack of hard tasks and everything. I know how hard it is to hold a contest with a problemset of 8 tasks every week. However, couldn't we have found a better solution to this hard situation? Instead of removing Ex from the problemset, a Call for Tasks can be held, similarly to how it is done for AGC. If I am not mistaken, AGC Call for Tasks requires that a whole problemset is prepared (similarly to contest proposals on Codeforces). For ABC, if easier tasks are abundant and we are in a lack of harder tasks, a Call for Tasks on separate tasks aimed towards G/Ex can be held. This can effectively alleviate the hard situation we are currently in. And this will be effective as well for people who would be willing to set problems on ABCs, but could not because there was no opportunity.
I hope you could consider this suggestion quite seriously.
Sincerely, chromate00.
Oh yes, I forgot to say this — If you have any different thoughts about this, or questions about my suggestion, please leave a comment! I would like to hear as many opinions as possible, as a variety of opinions always helps.
I dont feel like ABC changed much. I think you should compare some stats considering the number of solvers per task before and after the change to see if your point makes sense. Anyway, I think this issue is not that relevant even if true
Here is a statistic I counted by hand from kenkoooo, a difficulty distribution for tasks E~Ex from 20 latest contests before the change.
Difficulty Distribution per Position Before Change (20 latest rounds before change, ABC298~ABC318)
E Green: 9 (45%) Teal: 7 (35%) Blue: 3 (15%) Yellow: 1 (5%)
F Teal: 6 (30%) Blue: 7 (35%) Yellow: 5 (25%) Orange: 1 (5%) Red: 1 (5%)
G Blue: 3 (15%) Yellow: 9 (45%) Orange: 6 (30%) Red: 2 (10%)
Ex Orange: 6 (30%) Red: 14 (70%)
If you see this, you can see that the difficulty of E-F-G-Ex used to be mostly Green/Teal-Teal/Blue-Yellow/Orange-Orange. And on the 3 most recent contests (after the change), we see Blue-Blue-Orange, Green-Yellow-Orange, Teal-Orange-Yellow. You can see a big difficulty spike on all three of them. If this doesn't represent a change in the difficulty spread, then I don't know what does. While I would hope this is only a matter of fluctuating difficulties, I am honestly worried for if it is not the case.
No, the lack of hard tasks only leads to the last problem being way easier than before. Though I haven't participated in this contest cuz school issues, I believe firmly that I can solve all problems in this one, which is something that I can only dream of a month ago.
Not sure if the cause is of easier problems. After all, there are now 7 tasks and 8 major ratings (Gray/Brown/Green/Teal/Blue/Yellow/Orange/Red). And as A and B are always gray, there must be a 2-color difference somewhere unless they decide not to put any orange/red-rated tasks in the round. An issue in difficulty not only rises from absolute difficulty, it rises from difficulty gaps as well, you should know already.
I think this G from last ABC is overrated. It's only low-yellow level from what I read lol Yeah, it surely rises the difficulty gap. But what can we do? It's stressful to come up with enough ideas to hold weekly educational contests already, let alone trying to make the contest "balanced".
That is why I am suggesting a "Call for Tasks". Just think of how many problemsetters there will be. Currently the Div.2 proposal queue starts from January, and quite some people (like myself and our problemsetting team) have an abundance of tasks for just one round alone, but prefer not to wait for another half a year. If these people can provide the harder tasks on ABC, I think the lack of harder tasks can be alleviated/fixed entirely, is it not so?
Yes. But consider that almost all of the rounds are sponsored, prolly there'll be some issues with the sponsors? idk, but overall it's a great idea ig