Are we registering? We are out of practice!
What should be the team name? Should we register for two regions?
We should register for Amritapuri, right? A Kerala trip would be awesome!
It's 4th September, India vs Pakistan, we’ll have a tab open for the scoreboard too right?
Now that I have mentioned most of the questions we had in mind before the prelims, let’s start with a brief introduction. Our team's called That’s what C said and we are – Ashutosh Shaw(BT Senior), Ayush Tiwari(ECE Senior) and Aashish Illa(ECE Senior).
This was the first offline regionals which was being conducted. It has been a long time since we participated in a contest. We weren't sure how we would perform, but we won't know, if we don't contest. So we registered for Amritapuri and Gwalior-Pune regionals.
Didn't sweat much for the team name. Being The Office nerds we came with it really fast, That's what C said.
Preliminary Round:
The day for the prelims had arrived. With the trust in our instincts we sat for the contest. We had decided not to look for the leaderboard as honestly we didn't care. 3 problems down, we saw the leaderboard. We were doing well. This boosted our confidence and we jumped to the 4th problem. After a lot of brainstorming, we thought of an approach. The implementation seemed a little drag, but at the same time we craved that challenge. Cool, we implemented it. There were just 5 mins left for the contest to end. We hit submit, and it's the wrong answer. Hmmm don't panic, let's scan the code. Luckily we found the bug in a minute, changed the code and hit submit again and this time we got a green.
Out of Amritapuri and Bengaluru campus of Amrita Vishwa Vidyepeeth, the former was allotted to us randomly. For the other region, preferences were taken among Gwalior and Pune campuses, we chose the latter.
Pune Regionals - IIIT Pune:
We departed from our college but unfortunately we missed our train to Pune. We hopped on the very next train and made a 2000 kms journey in the general coach. We reached Pune the very day we had the practice contest. The day we had the main contest, we managed to make room for a small trip, like an hour or two. It was worth it: the weather, the people and the destinations.
The contest was supposed to start at 10:00 AM, but eventually it got delayed by an hour due to some technical issues, which persisted even after the contest had begun. Quite irritating when you can't just view the problems. Now this big city has a lot of cafes(hundreds just around the college). Post contest, we went out and had loads of tummy fillers. We packed our bags as soon as the closing ceremony ended, and left for the station.
Amritapuri Regionals - Amritapuri Vishwa Vidyapeetham:
After a 35 hrs journey(didn’t miss the train this time :p), we reached Amritapuri early in the morning. They had sent volunteers and buses for all the teams arriving at railway stations and airports. Hence, began the hospitality of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham! Student guides were allocated to every team. Going to Amritapuri for ICPC should be on every students' bucket list. It's just a whole new world there. We went to the beaches in Amritapuri as our hostel was at the beachside, and just beyond a beautiful river was the college.
Practice contest was fun. Got to see the main campus. Decorations were still on the run for the main day. Post practice-contest we spent a lot of time on the beach, went to see the celebration of Irupathattam Onam as well. Around the evening, we received a message from our team guide student, to attend the banquet dinner wearing party casuals. It was a surprise lol. We went to our rooms as soon as we could, got ready and went for the Grand Contest Night Dinner! Good food, good music, no booze unfortunately, we had an amazing time, interacting with teams across colleges. All the teams danced together along with the volunteers after the dinner. It was stupendous.
The next day, we had our contest. Amritapuri is the region where you get balloons for every problem you get a green for. The problem set was fun, we did not perform as well as we were expecting, but we had fun going through that set and solving problems.
Now, there are some things which you must keep in mind, before you go for the regionals. Get an office order, or else it'll be a drag to claim the attendance for while you are out. Submit your funding proposal before going for the regionals.
Team GlitchPlease already wrote some metamorphosis level sh*t. You may read it here.
If you have any queries, feel free to reach any of us out @ Aashish, Ayush, AshutoshPosted by: ashnove on Dec. 9, 2022, 6:04 p.m. Last updated on Feb. 6, 2023, 11:11 p.m.
