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A look at the Component Design finals - 06.28.07 2:00 AM EDT By Petr TopCoder Member Wednesday was also the appeal day for the first component in Software Design and Development. I will focus on the design competition, as I've managed to get some amusing information about it from argolite. The component that the designers were battling around today was File Delivery, which was a particularly big and difficult one. The competitors were given little time (an hour and a half) to appeal their scoreboards, and it was surprising for me to meet argolite walking around and doing nothing. Why didn't he join the contest? The answer is that Michael didn't even submit this component! As the wagers make it possible for one component to constitute only a tenth of the final score, he has chosen not to spend his time and energy on this tedious component. He was easily notable on the scoreboard because of his unique zero score, however, four other contestants followed in his steps by submitting incomplete designs and scoring between 50 and 60. The only three who really fought for the win today were oldbam, kyky and sql_lall (listed in the order of decreasing score before appeals). Before the start of the appeals, they were all within a couple of points, so anything could happen. And a big change didn't time out, as kyky has overtaken oldbam for the win by finally appealing his first mark from Luca from 3 to 4 (they've agreed that added authorization is a good enhancement). argolite has confirmed that not trying to be the best in all three components is a common practice for this TCO. With the components being really tough, and the ongoing DR and development support duties added to them, it was hard to keep up. As we see, the competitors in three out of four tracks were thrown into the action today. To give them a chance to relax, TopCoder has booked the entire "Spain" seat block at the Tournament of Kings show in the Excalibur. The show itself might or might not be enjoyable for the contestants, but still the idea of changing the atmosphere was very good. The competitions continue tomorrow, as the algorithmists get to compete in the third semifinal (see live text coverage at petr.mitrichev.ru/r3.html tomorrow) and in the wildcard round, the component designers and developers appeal their second component, and the Studio contestants start their fight. Such a tough schedule will be again smoothed by an evening performance, the Blue Man Group at the Venetian. Good night! |
