1899 is no joke. I once lost a dear friend to 1899. He was so close to the fabled Candidate Master rank on Codeforces. "Just one more contest," he said. Codeforces Round 1108 (Div. 2) rolled around, and he just... disappeared.

He never made it.

And those were the last four words I ever heard from him. I cherish him daily. He's my reminder that the true hell doesn't burn red. It burns blue.

They say his spirit lives on in other Experts. Every time a new Expert reaches 1899, he is reignited within them. He takes control, hoping to promote this time. He solves A, then B, and then C, and eventually a slow D. But the E solve never comes. Wrong answer on pretest 2. Wrong answer on pretest 2. Wrong answer on pretest 2. He relives the tragedy of 1899 again, and again, and again. He tells himself it was just variance, but the gods have written it as his fate.

He is the modern-day Sisyphus. In some ways it's comforting. In other ways, tragic. Maybe for eternity, and one can only hope otherwise, somewhere in the cold blue depths of Codeforces, my friend's promotion is still waiting.