NXIST_buster's blog

Corruption, Cheating at ICPC Yinchuan

By NXIST_buster, history, 3 years ago, In English

This blog is about Corruption and Cheating at ICPC YinchuanRegional. ICPC Yinchuan Regional is one of the ICPC regional contests for students competing in the geographic area of Asia East Continent.

I. Background: General Info

Ningxia Institute of Science of Technology, or NXIST is a higher education institute in China. Since 2019, NXIST has held two regional contests. The and both were considered by many participants as jokes, yet until today participants are unaware of the NXIST's extent of evil.

Zhihu is a Chinese website similar to Quora, and I will refer to this website for information.

II. Background: Before 2021

Regional competitions in China consists of two stages: The online selection contest and the onsite regional contest. As there are many contestants in China, the online contest is considered serious and rules are usually strictly enforced, with entire universities where some participant cheats disqualified from attending the onsite regional.

In 2018, NXIST claimed that whoever attends their invitational competition can attend regional contests directly, leading to angry discussions https://www.zhihu.com/question/276204455.

The original information sent to the participants is as follows:

English translation via Google Translate:

Each participating university:
The receipt you sent has been received. In order to encourage more schools and college students to participate in the ACM ICPC competition, it is discussed that the schools participating in this competition can directly get the spot in the Regional (Shenyang, Ningxia, Xuzhou) onsite competition without going through the autumn online qualifiers. The number of places is the number of teams participating in Ningxia, and the competition in Ningxia from June 9th to 10th can be determined on the spot. Schools that have already returned the receipt can also add additional places. The way to increase the number of places can also be to turn three-person teams into a two-person teams. For example, two three-person teams can form three two-person teams, and one team can also add one person (500 yuan) to form two teams. On the basis of the unchanged contest fee, the number of regional onsite spots has been increased, and the chance of winning also has been increased (the entry fee for one team is still 1,500 yuan. The entry fee for two or more teams is 500 yuan per person)
We will extend the receipt time on May 12.

While with great relief the claimed free onsite spot was never realized, in the online qulifier for Yinchuan Regional Contest held by NXIST in 2019, NXIST used exactly the same problems as the 2018 NXIST invitational competition. Leading to countless participants cheating and teams solving (actually copying code of) all problems in under 5 minutes.

After this happens, the online qualifier round was generally condemned by contestants, with more than 220 answers to discuss this in zhihu: https://www.zhihu.com/question/343590565.

After wild condemnations, NXIST attempted to hold another online qualifier where the Online Judge failed during the contest and the qualifier was again announced to be effectless and null.

Dr. C J Hwang, ACM-ICPC Asia Director later ordered NXIST to allow all universities interested in the onsite contest to be given free spots, making Yinchuan regional the largest regional of over 400 teams. With most strong teams unwilling to go to the "Joke" regional, weak teams advanced to WF and regional gold medals were send to much weaker teams than usual, leading to general dismay.

III. Corruption and Cheating: 2021

NXIST again hold an regional in May, 2021 with no qualifier round, leading to 499 teams attending onsite. This time NXIST sent 14 teams as official participant to their own regional, where in tradition universities in China almost never send own teams as official teams, not to say more than 10 teams.

While sending many teams may be somehow "acceptable", the teams sent by NXIST were spotted using three laptops per team to compete during the official onsite regional while all other teams used only one computer assigned by NXIST.

See proof in the following images (Codeforce version suffers low resolution, but you can find original ones on Zhihu if you want):

This is an image taken during the official contest by a spectator. Nothing quite wrong, right?

Well, No. When we zoom in to the upper right area, what do we see:

We see NXIST(宁夏理工学院) teams using their own laptops to compete. You may see stars on their team name, yet NXIST later said that the stars were "Just For Fun" and these teams are official. These teams were later awarded medals from the contest.

See discussion on zhihu: https://www.zhihu.com/question/459857672.

While this is already completly mind-blowing cheating to most contestants, clues of a much worse degree is only announced today.

Yonghui Wu announced today in a Wechat group of 499 people: 

Just now, the judges and testers of ICPC Yinchuan regional reported that "from the contest archive of only 73% of the submissions, we've found that the code NXIST-team-01 submitted in the 263th minite is exactly the same as the UESTC team submitted in 75th minute. (Completely the same, char by char)"

I have reported to Dr. C J Hwang, ICPC Asia Director and ICPC headquarters about this matter.

I have the following suggestions for NXIST:
(1) Disqualify all teams from NXIST
(2) Apologize to all participating universities
(3) Promise to investigate thoroughly and make the results public.

This is mindblowing cheating, as DomJudge users will know that it is only possible to view somebody else's code via the Jury interface with a Jury or Admin account. It is logical result that very likely, some NXIST personnel helped teams (Which used there own laptops) acquire the submitted code of another team.

This could not be a printed code leak because even with the printed code it is impossible to type "char by char" same, moreover teams never print Accepted code.

See discussion on zhihu: https://www.zhihu.com/question/460422916.

IV. Thoughts

I would like to post this on my main account, but then I am not looking for trouble directed at me.

I know that maybe things isn't getting better after all these years of NXIST making fun of ICPC, but I believe cheating and corruption of such degree calls for words to be spread.

Let's hope for things to get better.

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Comments Comments (82)
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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +310 Vote: I do not like it

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +20 Vote: I do not like it

    It should be "Yinchuan" instead of "Yinchuang"(

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +55 Vote: I do not like it

      "Yinchuang" is an intended typo.

      In 2019, there are 2 typos in ICPC region finder, which is "Aisa Nanchang Regional" and "Asia Yinchuang Regional".

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 4   Vote: I like it +116 Vote: I do not like it

      About IUPC and Ningxia Railway Station: Collegiate = University, Ningxia Site = Ningxia Railway Station

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        3 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +28 Vote: I do not like it

        ICPC = IUPC = “international university programming competition”

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +34 Vote: I do not like it

    "办赛站" means "to host a regional competition."

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    It should be 'AUPC' instead of 'IUPC', which is the combination of 'ACPC' and 'IUPC' during the contest 2019 and 2020.

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3 years ago, # |
← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +128 Vote: I do not like it

Funny

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +65 Vote: I do not like it

    Translate: Chief jury, secondary jury, organizer, co-organizer, all these people, they stand with me. How can you fight me?

    NOTE that this words are lines from a movie.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +33 Vote: I do not like it

Interesting

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

Funny

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3 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +47 Vote: I do not like it

As a previous ICPC competitors in China, I am ashamed of such cheating. People participating in such event should be banned from ICPC. However, possibly there are only apologizes (if exist) and not punishment, and those who are responsible for this cheating can just move to another university to continue their cheating behaviours.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

Shame

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

Ahh... Why do they dare to do this

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +16 Vote: I do not like it

Funny

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

I think you left out the rules that Dr. C. J. Hwang posted that are favorable for NXIST's appearance in the World Finals.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    By this rule, in the worst case, NXIST (and possibly only this university) can be automatically qualified for WF regardless of their ranks in the East Asia reginal contest, as soon as they organize ICPC in East Asia every year.

    However, noone knows who has the right to decide which university will organize ICPC, possibly just depending on the someone's personal will. So it is reasonable to doubt whether this rule is just set up for NXIST.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 15   Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

    Translate: ICPC's goal is not only to help outstanding teams show themselves, but also to encourage teams in isolated districts. Schools in these districts can get in WF without being top 10 in regionals contest.
    Consequently, NXIST, located in Ninxia Province, which is on the list above, can get a ticket to the 2020 WF automatically. It could be the most shameful thing that happeded in the history of ICPC.

    (PS: Sorry for re-editing this comment so many times. You don't need to check what I have said before. The multiple times of re-editing is due to my poor network and multiple clicks on the 'Save' Button)

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +164 Vote: I do not like it

It is heartbreaking that this hilarious thing happened in an official ICPC regional that many contestants devoted their college life to. A kindly remark is that there may be dirtier deeds than what is shown here. This cheating team was planning to go to the upcoming Shenyang Regional Contest(which was delayed due to the pandemic), where they may be eligible for ICPC World Finals 2021 if some similar cheating happens again. This may be a signal that ICPC in East Asia is somehow severely corrupted.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +88 Vote: I do not like it

    Dirty deeds done dirt cheap. I believe this post calls for a fair amount of attention in the ICPC community.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

    Can you show any evidences or signals of the dirtier deeds mentioned above？I’m just curious

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +71 Vote: I do not like it

      Just my wild guess. If this evidence of cheating in Yinchuan Regional is not found, then what's the intention for the NXIST to go to another regional, as they already got a gold medal? If they don't cheat again, wouldn't it be extremely suspicious to be found to behave very differently in two regionals, conditioned on they are already suspected in Yinchuan Regional?

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +36 Vote: I do not like it

I hope icpc foundation can intervene in this, PLEASEEEEEEEE， Every players in china wanna a fair ICPC!

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

interesting

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +26 Vote: I do not like it

Type "char by char" same? How do they get the code when the competition is in progress?

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

    The team members haven't made any clarifications yet.

    I guess, either jury password or team (whose code is copied) password is leaked via some unknown ways (volunteers? juries? or just hacked the server? I think this is serious).

    And this thing may not be figured out after getting DOMjudge database. I have opened an issue on GitHub suggesting DOMjudge putting the login actions into the audit logs in the system.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

全部下课吧，麻了

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3 years ago, # |
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Welcome to IUPC Railway Station :)

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3 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +52 Vote: I do not like it

AUPC

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3 years ago, # |
← Rev. 4   Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

I felt that the fraud is obviously premeditated. Cuz 1. You wouldn't imagine all their teams were completely separated from other teams if they are not cheating. No one else could influence this except some official figures. 2. The *s on ALL of the team title if they are not hiding . 3. Unusual increase in the number of medals and prizes. They are using this as the distractions and bribe for other contestants to divide their interests. Who can influence the seating assignment? Who told all NXIST teams to place * s on the team title? And who can make the decision to increase the number of the award? There must be some sort of agreement made by both contestants from outside and some unknown admins from inside and is in the high place.
Shame on NXIST

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

It's even an offline competition...

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    This is also the only offline Asian Regional Competition in China this year(except ECFinal)... Due to COVID-19, Shenyang site may become online:(

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

Such a shame

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

Such ridiculous cheating... I hope NXIST can stay away from ICPC and never see you again.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +47 Vote: I do not like it

ICPC is moving away from competitive spirits, wisdom, fairness, and glory in China. Instead, profits, transactions, bureaucracy, and corruption prevail. We'll lose our favorite esports soon. Coding will be just about dumb work.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    Believe it or not,almost everything in China goes that way,including professional football,scientific competitions,real estates,cryptocurrency,and all things which can make lots of money

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +16 Vote: I do not like it

shame

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +36 Vote: I do not like it

Shame on NXIST.

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3 years ago, # |
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Shame on NXIST.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

Due to the number of teams sent out by the organizers, the stadium venue could not accommodate all the teams and some teams were seated in the stands.

NXIST teams with their own laptops were placed in the stands of the stadium and next to each other, no one knew what these teams were doing in the corners

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

what a shame

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

I wonder why can a school that has never participated (or got a high rank) in ICPC been granted to host a regional competition. I think that NXIST can hold a regional competition is itself wrong.

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3 years ago, # |
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I am ashamed of such cheating.The gold medal should be won by one's own strength, not by this shameful method.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +66 Vote: I do not like it

    Cheaters should be banned from every single competitive programming contest, both online and offline. They ruin the efforts of organizers, problem providers, and other honest competitors.

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
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      It is very likely that some of the organizers are part of the scheme.

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3 years ago, # |
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Shame on NXIST.

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3 years ago, # |
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唉

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3 years ago, # |
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GB out

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3 years ago, # |
← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +61 Vote: I do not like it

QQ图片20210520123044.jpg QQ图片20210520123057.jpg QQ图片20210520123054.jpg -1ca9b6a4eac0a347.jpg

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +54 Vote: I do not like it

    Translate

    from NXIST

    "Do you think we really need three computers?"

    "Just some people only can get Honorable Mention arguing here"

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +106 Vote: I do not like it

NXIST needs to be banned from organizing any contest! Do not make ICPC regionals a joke.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +34 Vote: I do not like it

Shame on NXIST.

PLEASE DON'T BREAK OUR CPER'S HEART.

NXIST should be banned for holding any contests of this kind any more.

SHAME ON YOU

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3 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +119 Vote: I do not like it

New update: NXIST just post a SHAMELESS announcement, which claimed they have NO CHEATING, NO FAULT and all teams FOLLOWED the rules. picture

You can see their announcement here: https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4639051301260249

And now I wanna as many people as we can to join this boycott.

  1. NXIST's all team on the 2020 Yinchuan Site should be banned from any ICPC contest for a lifetime.
  2. NXIST should be banned to host any computer programming contest for a lifetime.
  3. C. J. Hwang should change the role of RCD's and the rule of world final slots.
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3 years ago, # |
← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +92 Vote: I do not like it

https://weibo.com/u/7535856183?is_all=1#_rnd1621520698220

Here's the response from the committee of NXIST.

Translation:

  1. Our teams didn't cheat.

  2. We didn't give any data to anyone, including our committee, judges and problem setters.

  3. After investigation, we noticed that some unidentified people restarted the server after the contest and tried to copy data from it. We caught them while copying and we stopped them.

  4. We reserve our right to call the police.

I just wonder whether there is a way to report this shit to someone and ban this school forever.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

Interesting

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +21 Vote: I do not like it

You know，this is kls behavior.But obviously,kls doesn't give the cat out of the bag by copying CHAR BY CHAR!

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +63 Vote: I do not like it

When south India suffered from flood and the Chennai regional is postponed, Dr. C J Hwang: "Chennai must hold the regional immediately or I will cancel the WF slot."

When Yingchuan made online contests like a joke, Dr. C J Hwang: "As punishment, Yingchuan must hold a 400-teams contest."

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Shame on NXIST!

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +84 Vote: I do not like it

Every once a while, I wonder why I can't convince any friends from Chinese IOI teams who are now CS faculty at US universities to help with ICPC/OI organization in this part of the world.

Now I have a link to remind myself why ... at least things haven't gotten much worse over the past 10 years...

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

What a shame.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

They can learn something from Akssh5307(doge

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

shame on NXIST

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3 years ago, # |
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Shame on NXIST

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +2 Vote: I do not like it

Finally someone non-Indian.

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3 years ago, # |
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Shame on NXIST. These people are losing the face of the Chinese people. I can't bear their actions. I think NXIST should be banned to hold any of this kind of competition again and the team of NXIST should not be allowed to participate future competitions in next few years.

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