Hi all!
I'm one of the wf 2020 (better to say 2021) participants, according to this link there are two major differences between upcoming WF and last WFs:
- Each team member will be provided with a computer.
- The competition is scheduled to last four hours.
Obviously first rule results second rule because when teams can write codes on three computers they are faster and so time should be reduced.
But the reason mentioned in the link for the first rule is " Individual computers are provided for health safety purposes. " which it looks kinda meaningless.
The reason I say that is all team members which participate WF on-site are fully vaccinated, multiple time PCR tested people, that if they're infected by COVID, they will spread the virus between themselves in the hotel room they have to share or all other places they are in touch together.
The only logical reason for the first rule (in my opinion) is that it tries to synchronize two scoreboards ( ICPC World Finals Championship & ICPC World Finals Invitational which are defined in the link) which doesn't look like a fair trade off for me. And it is good to mention that it won't be satisfying experience for two years waited participants if three team members are separated from each other meanwhile they have three computers. It ain't much different from online participation which was available a year ago.
Which one do you choose? to change ACM ICPC WF procedure for separation of three fully vaccinated, PCR tested people for health safety reasons or experience a normal WF after two years waiting?