The world finals trip this year started early for the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) team with a visit to Saratov. As I'm typing this, the three contestants Nathaniel Barshay (nbarshay), Yan Gu (henryy), and Jonathan Paulson (jonathanpaulson) are happily stress testing the SGU contest server with WAs, TLEs, RTEs, and of course the occasional AC :-).

CMU1, from closer to farther: Nathaniel Barshay, Yan Gu, and Jon Paulson

In my experiences as a contestant and as a coach, the North American -> Europe time difference is one of the harder ones to adjust to. To avoid repeating what Harvard did during the dress rehearsal at WF`12 (taking a nap), the CMU head coach Danny Sleator (Darooha) looked into traveling a few days earlier. We were very fortunate to have gotten into contact with Mike Mirzayanov (MikeMirzayanov, no introduction needed), who made arrangements for us to train with the teams from Saratov State University for about a week.

Mike in the coach's lair at the SGU programming contest training center.

After a few days of contests, problem discussions, and excursions around Saratov, the jet lag slowly went away and everyone started enjoying themselves more. I feel that the CMU team is also now in a much better position to deal with the challenges of the upcoming World Finals. The regular practice and group discussion afterwards allowed us to train at a pace that's quite rare back home. Of course, trying for a medal at WF is always an uphill battle.

Group discussion of problems

Solution presentation by Ivan Fefer (Fefer_Ivan)

Competing against teams in the same room proves to be a very different experience than practicing using virtual scoreboards. On the other hand, talking with other contestants right after the contest was immensely useful for understanding the solutions quickly, and seeing what could have been done differently. So far, I'm glad to report that CMU1 has been able to hold their own against SGU1 and SGU2. The students from SGU have also proven to be formidable opponents both on the ping-pong table and in the water.

Nate Barshay (nbarshay) vs. Edvard Davtyan (Edvard)

CMU1 and SGU2 on the Saratov bridge walking back from Engels.
Downtown Saratov is directly ahead, and Saratov beach is on the right.

On Saturday we will begin our travel towards St. Petersburg. This means that I only have a little more than a day left in Saratov. As usual, before the contest one always wishes that they had more time to train. This is especially the case this time since we have only explored a few places in the city. However, I have a feel that future travels will take me back to Saratov, and I look forward to visiting again.