A universal week

Last week, the main round was the 3rd Universal Cup Semifinals (problems, results, top 5 on the left, analysis, contest stream, closing ceremony stream). For those not familiar with the Universal Cup, this announcement has some links for more information, but in short, it is a competition with many online stages throughout the year (40 in the 3rd season, but the organizers plan to reduce the number significantly for the 4th season to reduce the pressure on the teams trying to qualify for the Finals), each stage being a 5-hour contest with ICPC rules, usually with the problems from a regional or another previous non-public contest. The results over all stages are then aggregated into a rating (the formula will also be changed for the 4th season), and the top teams from this rating are invited into the Finals, which took place onsite in China for the 2nd season, and it's not yet clear if it will be onsite or online for the 3rd season that just finished. Recognizing the fact that some strong teams do not have the time to participate regularly, the organizers also host a Semifinals competition online, where every team can enter, and a few more spots for the Finals are won.

Team USA1 has continued their domination of the Universal Cup — congratulations! Since they and a few other teams at the top have already qualified for the Finals by the virtue of their regular season result (also 1st), the first team who advanced to the Finals from this round was team arvin and errogame, and maybe even more importantly, the last team who advanced to the Finals from this round (future cancellations notwithstanding) was team Dvoe protiv vetra. Well done to all finalists!

I and my team were also looking forward to participating in this round, but unfortunately a last-minute conflict interfered with my plans. Now I think we need to do at least one and hopefully more stages of the 4th season instead!

This week Codeforces Round 1046 led the way (problems, results, top 5 on the left, analysis). Each problem was solved by at least 4 contestants, but only jiangly managed to put all of them together, with just 3 minutes remaining in the round. Congratulations on the convincing victory!

And next week, it's all about #ICPCBaku. I will be there as well and try to share some tidbits in this blog, so check back soon!