TL;DR: IOI 2021 was planned to held on-site with strong safety measures. Today, IC announced to turn it into an on-line contest (I guess due to travel difficulties). The IC is exploring the possibility of an optional on-site contest.
https://www.facebook.com/ioinformatics.org/posts/458218468862628
Dear Friends of IOI,
I hope you are doing well as COVID-19 is still rampaging all over the world. But as vaccines are becoming available, I hope we can all soon get back to our normal life before the pandemic.
The IC held the Winter meeting in late February. We have the following important information regarding IOI 2021 to share with the community.
First, IOI 2021, organized by Singapore, will still be an online competition much like the previous year. The competition week will fall between mid to late June.
Second, competition aside, in an effort to bring back some normalcy, IOI business will be conducted as usual. This includes collection of registration fees and election of new committee members.
Third, the host and the IC are still exploring possibilities to socially host some teams who can and are willing to travel to Singapore, subject to various Air Travel requirements and COVID-19 safe management measures. Such teams would still sit the contest online from within Singapore, using their own computers. Detailed plans will be announced by the host as they become available.
I hope this information will allow you to start making plans for selecting teams to participate in IOI 2021. The IC and the host team will continue to held online meetings leading up to the IOI in June. We will keep you all updated as things develop further. If you have any questions, please contact the IOI Secretariat at secretary.ioinformatics@gmail.com.
Stay safe and best wishes, Greg Lee IOI President
:'(
;(
fuckin pussies
Come on... at least everyone gets to participate. Perhaps that's what they are afraid of — countries forbidding people to leave the country.
While I can't speak for the entire IC, here is my reasoning on the matter, which would hopefully provide some context behind the choice.
Glad to hear that Croatia is interested in travelling to Singapore should an onsite event happen in the end!
Most countries are interested in an onsite contest.
This is not a conclusion that was surfaced to IC from the surveying of team and deputy leaders shortly before IC meeting.
Well, I believe most students are indeed interested in traveling, but the same can't be said about most deputy leaders or leaders.
Yeah, I'm not interested in traveling. In my country, schools and universities are closed and it would not be possible to even organize an onsite national contest in June, so traveling to Singapore would be an absurd idea.
I wouldn't be summarising this as an "onsite contest". While more details would be released by the host when they become available, the intention is that should anything develop further from this proposal, there would still be only one contest and it will be online, as outlined by "such teams would still sit the contest online from within Singapore, using their own computers".
Come on, why is this downvoted? It's just explaining the situation, it's not someone's personal opinion or anything like that.
:(
Is there a possibility of the online IOI being postponed to the later months of the summer? Are participants getting the worst of both worlds(close to exams & online)?
In last month's message from the hosts it was stated:
I'm afraid that this argument is still in-play for the online competition as it still requires a large team from the host committee to host a successful online IOI. So the fact that the competition has moved online does not necessarily mean that it's any easier to change the dates unfortunately.
I will keep your point in mind and will try to inquire the hosts about this given the opportunity. But, personally, I would not expect the possibility of changing the date announced last year to gain any serious traction unless there are significant reasons behind it (for example, if a lot of teams would be unable to hold their selections for IOI in June).
Online ICPC 2020 next please?
When you are an ICPC 2020 finalist:
Literally me
And also online IPSC 2020 while we're at it, please.
guess I'll never visit universal studios :(
:(
An update from the host was posted to ioi-announce@. The text is provided in the spoiler below.
Hi IOI community,
Greetings from Singapore.
IOI President Greg Lee made an announcement yesterday regarding IOI 2021. Even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect most of us, we are looking forward to another exciting IOI season and to host you, at least online. On this note, the Singapore Host wants to follow-up on three key points.
First, we will finalise and announce the IOI 2021 online competition dates and time schedules no later than 15 April 2021, then we will issue official invitation letters to IOI 2021 and open the registration portal. We are planning to follow the originally announced dates of 20 to 27 June 2021, though there may be some small changes. We also expect to follow a similar schedule to that of IOI 2020, which has two rest days between practice/contest days, and time schedules that best suit as many teams as possible.
Secondly, there will be updates from the IOI Treasurer or the Singapore Host on how the IOI registration fees will be collected via an online payment system. There will also be further updates on how the election of IOI committee members will be conducted online securely and anonymously.
The final item is on the matter of how the Singapore Host can still welcome some teams onsite, if they can and are willing to travel to Singapore. This "Travelling to Singapore" page of Singapore's Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) page outlines the current information on our present border control measures. Please understand that the situation continues to be fluid and evolving, since the pandemic situation in different countries develop in different ways. Based on the IOI 2021 survey conducted in February 2021, within the next 24 hours after this email, we will reach out to about 30+ teams who had indicated their preference to have an onsite IOI 2021; if others who had indicated an online competition preference but now want to consider onsite social, please let us know. In either case, please note that the competition itself will be conducted in an online format.
Regards,
Singapore Host Organising Committee
The IOI website now says that it will be fully online: https://ioi2021.sg/covid-19/