Hi Codeforces,

I am writing to vent about my experiences in Malaysia IOI selection.

As per the MIPS website, Contestants will be ranked by the sum of their APIO and SEATST scores, with the top 4 selected for the IOI team. I am $$$4^{th}$$$ by this criteria.

However, MIPS ultimately chose Isaac over me. Medical emergencies are unfortunate, and my concern is not with Isaac personally. Rather, it is to bring attention to MIPS' lack of transparency and honour to their own selection criteria.

There are no grounds to claim his IOI spot "was achievable by solving easy subtasks on Day 2."

My argument is that, there is no threshold for "easy" subtasks. Regardless of one's performance on any contest, and regardless of the $$$4^{th}$$$ spot's score, the $$$12$$$ points can be changed out with any value $$$0 \lt X \le 300$$$ and MIPS would still "think this justifies an exception to include him in the team."

Malaysians should deserve clear and consistent selection procedures. If such exceptions are possible, such conditions should be clearly communicated in advance, and should not be made after selecting the teams.

I believe similar concessions would not be made for me if I had the same misfortunes.

I am posting this publicly

1. because I believe transparency and accountability are important for maintaining trust in the selection process.
2. in hopes of a outcome more aligned with fairness.

MIPS did not respond to my request for comment, and did not contact me with regards to this decision.