Hi yall,
Lately SI/AI has been super strong. I've been thinking about the rules regarding live streaming/broadcast during rated rounds. I'm curious about the opinions of our cf community.
Context
- AI: Under the AI rule, we can't use any LLM help to write solution during a rated round. the tools are still there, but it targets the people.
- Streaming: AFAIK, streaming (including discussing solutions, sharing your thoughs) during a rated round counts as leaking solutions, so the rule is broken by the streamer. CMIIW.
The two rules take different approaches(?) One targets whoever uses the help, the other targets whoever provides it.
Arguments for allowing live streaming
- The streamer solves the problems honestly. The person breaking the rules is whoever trying to submit their solution during the rated rounds.
- AI already gives cheaters more help than a stream does...
- Everyone who copies from a stream will get caught anyway :/
- And my main argument: Live streams are valuable to people outside the contest: seeing how a strong coder thinks, learning from it, and discussing the problems together -- Or just cheering like one of those brainrot tiktok or youtube streams.
Arguments for keeping the ban
- Codeforces can't separate spectators from contestants...
- A stream shows code that has already been Accepted.. (and strong coders might still be way faster and smarter than AI)
- The streamer is public and easy to hold accountable, while viewers are anonymous. Restricting the source may be the only part that can be enforced... (Can't be helped)
- If live streaming is fine, the same logic would allow posting accepted code in a public group mid-round, which most people probably wouldn't want.. (and we're still fighting with this anyway)
Possible middle grounds
- Allow streaming with a delay. The hard part is the length. Anything shorter than the round still leaks solutions, and anything longer isn't really live.
- Allow streaming that hides the code. Viewers see the streamer's face and hear their thinking, but the code stays hidden until the round ends -- But this takes away the fun part.
- But anyway, competitive programming is like a sport anyway nowadays, those who cheats are basically just doing some performative showoff grandiose slopper yippie yappa thing that ruins the whole point of cp.
Thanks for reading. I'm interested to hear different perspectives.




