Hello everyone!

I have a question. Have you ever participated in a worldwide onsite contest without a US layout keyboard? I've never, but I will!

The upcoming ICPC WF 2019 provides keyboards with Portuguese layout. (source)

Ok, it can happen that US keyboards are not available. For example, in IOI 2016 in Russia, provided keyboards have a Russian layout. However, at that time, participants were able to bring their own keyboards and I was comfortably taking part in the contest.

But in the next ICPC WF, we are not allowed to do that. All we can do is to bring stickers!

I wonder why the organizers made such a decision. I think it's disastrous. Our team practiced very hard with a keyboard with US layout. I'm sure that our (and most of other teams') performance will be affected by this issue. I believe that the organizers should let us bring our own keyboards if they fail to provide US layout keyboards.

How do you think about this issue? I want to hear the community members' opinions (and, if possible, the organizers' opinions).

Thank you in advance.