After a few days of waiting, ICPC finally sent out an announcement concerning the recent situation in Middle East:
Friends,
The ICPC Code of Ethics defines us as a global community. It reminds us of who we are. It provides healthy boundaries to solve problems together to the benefit of future problem solvers. In goodwill, following the Golden Rule, putting people first, and solving problems to grow stronger together, we ask for your consideration to deal with the challenge at hand. We have run out of options to conduct the 2023 ICPC World Finals as planned November 12-17, 2023.
The 2023 ICPC World Finals in Sharm el-Sheikh, hosted by AASTMT, must be rescheduled due to extraordinary circumstances that affect many participants. We are working with AASTMT to identify new dates and plan to announce them no later than January 2024. The targeted new dates are late 1st quarter or early 2nd quarter of 2024. Starting next Friday, November 3, 2023, we will share monthly rescheduling updates.
While we work to reschedule the World Finals, stay involved. Online events will continue as scheduled. The first event is the 2023 ICPC World Finals Online Challenge powered by Huawei, targeted to begin November 20, 2023.
For those with air tickets, some airlines are offering special consideration for travelers affected by the threat of danger in the region. Check with your carrier and for travel alerts from your home country.
The ICPC Global Community purpose has always been that we uplift and shine the spotlight on the next generation and encourage them to solve problems that benefit their neighbors, together. You are all champions of that purpose, investing time and effort in building habits of excellence together, for the benefit of future generations, not only in competition but in the challenge of putting on competitions that offer that service to hundreds of thousands, not just the handful gifted with that opportunity in the early days of computing.
We share in your disappointment and look forward to a series of events and opportunities leading up to the opportunity to compete together at the highest possible level.
We thank you for your support.
The 2023 ICPC World Finals Organizers
In all, unfortunately, after Covid, the WF22/23 Finalists have to wait for another few months to compete. Let's discuss this in this post.
ICPC really managed to nail the timing of wars around Egypt 12 years apart.
More time to practice
We'll soon have people that finished studying a few years ago that will still participate in the ICPC World Finals.
I've graduated for almost a year now, resigned from 1 job just so I can practice full time, turned down 3 job offers. Not a whine but yes, I do feel a bit disappointed
people quit CP after getting full time job.
you quit full time job to do CP.
respect+
ur dedication inspires
My schedule just got even more ruined. Great.
Also the airline refund penalty + wasted visa fees deleted 1.5 months of rent from my bank account. I'm so happy!
we actually took a loan, which we have yet to finish paying, to pay for the tickets we just lost
You are saying that ICPC organization will not cover all travel fees (this includes both plane tickets and visa fees) given this reschedule!?
I truly admire the ICPC organization. They mastered an art of fucking up a schedule..
Here's an email they sent me about my request for a hotel stay extension earlier today:
Let's take a poll, which of these two is more likely?
ICPC communication is a total mess and the people organizing hotel reservations had no idea that the contest would be rescheduled later that day
They knew about the rescheduling and lied to me
Between the many problems with WF20, shifting NAC21 to an online format a week in advance, and now rescheduling WF22 two weeks before teams arrived (and with many teams planning to arrive earlier--I planned to leave in just over a week), it's clear that ICPC needs to make some serious changes. I realize that the organizers run these competitions largely out of the goodness of their hearts (at least, this is my optimistic understanding). However, when you're asking teams to travel halfway across the world for your contest, you have a responsibility to communicate with them promptly, directly, and honestly and to avoid making risky decisions that will end up costing teams large sums of money or disrupting housing/work/life plans. ICPC has blatantly shirked that responsibility for the last three years, and something needs to change if they expect to keep teams' and universities' trust moving forward.
Or 'the decision was made by a small group and shared immediately with everyone, not giving a heads-up to other organizers".
But I agree, recent ICPC decisions are a joke, to say the least.
I think I noticed at least two days ago that they changed the name of ICPC post-WF challenge to ICPC online challenge. I was wondering why.
An interesting data point might be that 10 days ago I have received a rather detailed reassurance from the host, confirming that the finals will proceed in Sharm as planned.
Really unfortunate :(
So true!
Imagine waiting 2 months and there was no progress for Gaza, so they postpone another 6 months. And situation in Gaza worsened and now there are actually terrorist attacks around Egypt. But they can't make it any later than Kazakhstan, so the contest is done in 2024/07 when the whole Egypt is on fire. I am not saying this will happen, but this is exactly what happened in Moscow.
Eventually, WF2022-WF2031 will be hosted altogether in Sharm el-Sheikh.
And somehow there is a mass protest against El Sisi in 2031
[DELETED]
In that case, I guess they’d change the location
And tell you 2wk before the contest
Seriously, I don't think they understand that for certain countries' people, it is actually hard to obtain visas for certain places. Not to mention how inconvenient it may be to travel over the globe to a random place by taking at least 2 stops.
I’d definitely love if world finals were in stable regions but maybe those are not applying for hosting and icpc has to choose among who applies. Not really sure though
Moscow on fire? Moscow has never been on fire last few years bro))) u got something wrong
The "international society" (aka countries lead by US) always say Russia is more dangerous than it is, in reality most of Russia is safer than major cities in US like St. Louis or New Orleans.
ffs learn how to read
I'm not good at history, but I think Moscow wasn't on fire for the last 200 hundred years.
200 hundred? 20000?
Is there any effects for ICPC 23/24 season?
Holy! I am required to conduct military service right after WF Egypt. I wish I can get a clearer timeline so I can ask my government to adjust my schedule. :(
F
Same question, what will happen to IOI2024???
its in almost a year so there's a lot of time to anticipate. I hope the situation will be stable by then but if not maybe it will be online
IOI International Committee is aware of ICPC decision.
Thanks. I hope IOI2024 will go well =)
ICPC really needs to provide justification for this huge decision, especially on very short notice.
I understand what is happening, but they word it rather vaguely: "... extraordinary circumstances that affect many participants". Have they ever done any survey regarding this? or at least asked the opinions from coaches?
A lot of us are actually mad/disappointed and can't get any refunds, weeks and months of planning are wasted, and schedules are ruined.
I do hope that they have a good backup plan, and I won't buy hosting three WFs together in 2024.
There has been big escalations in the conflict in the last 24 hours, Isreal army launched a ground operation yesterday evening, there might be evacuation of civilians towards Sinia region which is very close to Sharm El-Shisk
The funny part is ACPC regional contest is also scheduled in Sharm El-Shisk a week after the WF, and as far as I know it's still on schedule!!!
Well, a regional event is easier to host than an international one
So it's Okay for regional students to do the contest in un-safe place but not Okay for international students?
For people that already live in that region, it does not make much of a difference. But I guess ACPC includes other countries too?
ACPC contains all Arab and African countries
I can see a scenario where the regional happens while ICPC gets cancelled. Do you think they will cancel ACPC too?
I don't think they will. Organizers don't care about the safety of students, they only care about money and ACPC is full of curupt money.
Mandatory context regarding the situation in ACPC: 1, 2. Apparently it's still not addressed.
Our region is used to unsafe places XD
Well, they can charge $1500 per team to participate, but even if they switch to an online format they can still charge this much
I mean you can't be possible comparing arab lives with other lives.
I feel if they would have shifted the competition to Cairo, it would have been possible to host the competition still
Luxor in the south of Egypt hosted the regional contest twice in the last 3 years, it would have been a much more interesting choice.
But still it's not an easy thing to find hotels for this huge number of contestants, I thing this is a major blocker.
Any news on airlines that will compensate flight cancellation? Specifically Turkish airlines.
Here is some information about Turkish airlines: https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-int/passenger-rights-for-egypt-lebanon-jordan-flights you might be able to reschedule your flights without incurring major additional expenses.
I wouldn't expect any airlines making exceptions for tickets issued after October 7 (which might be unfortunately the case for many contestants).
If there is a major schedule change (which I think is probable) then you might be still able to cancel your tickets and obtain a refund. This is what I have done the previous time the WF were scheduled to happen in Sharm.
ACPC start date is 17/11/2023, That day supposed to be the last day of ICPC WF.
The title of this blog should honestly be ICPC World Finals 22&23 Canceled.
Let me raise you that ACPC was scheduled right after ICPC from 17/11 to 21/11 and there are no talks of delaying that thus far. * Insert penguin meme here *
Perhaps the organizers are waiting until all ACPC contestants have definitely purchased their flights before announcing it's cancelled as well.
I think it's more like they are waiting for the contestants to pay 2000$ for the registration fees.
Seconded
I'm wondering if any of you has been able to use the "force majeure event" argument suggested in the rescheduling letter? More specifically, I'm referring to:
For those with air tickets, airlines offer special consideration for travelers affected by such circumstances.
Are you aware of any airline that does that?
Egypt Air gave my team a refund, minus $150 for each ticket.
Unfortunately, Air Canada did not... :(
The next update is scheduled for 12 January 2024, when we plan to announce the new ICPC World Finals schedule. The World Finals will not be scheduled before April 2024.