I am a member of a team that participated in the 2024 ICPC Asia East Continent Online Contest. In the second round, the organizing committee made the decision to cancel the results of all teams from our school due to what was deemed a violation by one team. This decision feels deeply unfair and leaves us with no way to fight back.
One of our school’s teams was flagged because a member input a Chinese translation of the problem’s English text into the code editor, intending to help their teammates better understand the problem. This translation was typed manually and only appeared on their computer—it wasn’t shared across devices or used in any way beyond the functionality of a notepad. While the proctor did not consider this cheating, the committee still chose to invalidate the results of all teams from our school in that round. Such a broad punishment feels disproportionate and unjust.
A Crushing Blow
For us, this contest was more than just another competition. It represented a chance to showcase years of hard work and dedication. My teammates and I have been preparing since our first year of university, working relentlessly to improve our programming skills. We never imagined that a single team’s minor infraction would result in the erasure of all our efforts.
This decision has left us feeling powerless. It’s not simply a matter of following the rules; it’s about fairness and principle. We were not involved in the violation, yet we are suffering the consequences. Our hard work, which had nothing to do with this incident, has been swept aside. It feels like we’re being punished for something we didn’t do.
Years of Effort, Dismissed
This contest was especially significant for one of my teammates, who is now a senior and saw this as his last chance to compete before graduating. Last year, our school came close to qualifying for the onsite finals, but fell just short. This year, we worked even harder, hoping to succeed, only for this sudden decision to wipe away our progress.
The ruling by the committee, canceling our second-round results, has effectively dismissed our effort and preparation. We played by the rules, respected the competition, and gave it our best shot. Now, all of that has been taken from us—not because of our actions, but because of a decision that treats all teams the same, regardless of their involvement.
A Call for Fairness
We are deeply disappointed. It’s incredibly disheartening to see our hard work go unrecognized. We fully understand the need for rules and the importance of punishing those who violate them, but we strongly believe that it’s wrong for innocent teams to pay the price for actions they didn’t commit.
All we ask is for the organizing committee to reconsider this judgment. Don’t let the dedication and passion of honest teams be erased. This collective punishment does not serve justice and only discourages those who have poured their hearts into this competition.
I don’t know what to do anymore. What should we do?
Auto comment: topic has been updated by S1amese (previous revision, new revision, compare).
hope the whole thing will be rejudged and u could get a quota to ICPC！
Thanks!
hope u secceed.This is thing what hit most enthusiam.
So sorry to hear that.
My university experienced a similar situation during the first round: one of our students accidentally opened a template in their editor and immediately closed it. However, the proctor dismissed the team without any warning, and subsequently, all of our university's teams had their first-round scores nullified. While this did not affect our final ranking, it made me wonder: what if my team had achieved a strong score in the first round? Would I have received a fair and just resolution if this had happened to me?
The ICPC is supposed to be a formal, fair competition, yet the current rules raise serious concerns that trouble me:
Subjectivity in Proctoring and Punishment: Whether a violation or cheating is detected, reported, and subsequently punished relies entirely on the individual proctor's opinion. This creates a huge disparity in how different teams are treated. Imagine this: a proctor at University A might deem an action acceptable and not report it, while a proctor at University B might report the same incident, leading to the disqualification of all of University B's teams. This is fundamentally unfair.
The Unfairness of Collective Punishment: Penalizing an entire university for a single, unintentional action by one member of a team is unreasonable. For smaller universities like mine, the online contest is often the only opportunity for non-core members to participate in XCPC. These students may have varying skill levels, and collective punishment could lead to the disqualification of core team scores, impacting the university's overall performance. This puts coaches in a difficult position as they have to choose between safeguarding their core team's scores and allowing other teams to compete. Ultimately, this could discourage participation and stifle the growth of XCPC within the university.
I am disheartened by the committee's lack of response to these concerns and call for a re-evaluation of the current rules. I believe a more equitable and transparent system is crucial for the future of the ICPC.
That is also my concern. The organizing committee has not responded to the key issues and remained silent even when most students questioned them. The fairness of the rules is also open to debate.