The Land Down Under comes out On Top!
by MaryBeth Biondi, TopCoder Staff
Saturday, November 23, 2002

Due to an inaccuracy in one of the problem specifications, the four finalists were asked to compete twice today as we sought to crown the 2002 TopCoder Invitational champion. John Dethridge became TopCoder's new highest rated member, defeating SnapDragon, dgarthur, and moira in the Championship round.

The contest started out with everyone except dgarthur opening the 300-point problem first. dgarthur, however, opted for the 550-pointer. Six minutes into the contest, SnapDragon submitted his 300-point problem for 286.24 points. He then moved on to the 550-pointer. John Dethridge was next to submit, earning 261.45 points for his 300-point problem. After coding for fifteen minutes, dgarthur submitted his 550-point solution for 438.79 points. moira, in a showing much better than in the first final, submitted her solution to the 300-point problem for 221.34 points.

Only a minute later, SnapDragon submitted his 550-pointer for 460.80 points. However, immediately after submitting, he began retesting his solution and ended up resubmitting after 2 1/2 minutes for a final total of 380 points. Ultimately, those lost 80.80 points would prove to be SnapDragon's defeat. After working on his 550-point problem for nearly 14 minutes, John Dethridge submitted his solution for 455.08 points. Shortly thereafter, dgarthur submitted the solution to his 300-point problem for 264.03 points. With four minutes left in the contest, moira was able to submit her solution to the 550-point problem for 230.24 points. One-upping John Dethridge's last second submission yesterday, SnapDragon submitted his 1000-point solution with two seconds remaining for 417.55 points. After an exciting coding phase, the point totals were as follows:

SnapDragon - 1083.79
John Dethridge - 716.53
dgarthur - 702.82
moira - 451.58

Excitement further abounded in the challenge phase as John Dethridge successfully challenged moira's 300-point problem, adding 50 points to his total. Shortly thereafter, SnapDragon successfully challenged dgarthur's 550-point problem for an additional 50 points. The system test found a bug in SnapDragon's code that none of the other competitors could find, taking his 417.55 points away and leaving John Dethridge in first place with 766.53 points.

Australian flag in tow, John Dethridge graciously accepted the $50,000 big check and all the accolades members were throwing his way. He tipped his hat to the other three competitors by saying that the value of the prize is only as good as the quality of the competition defeated. Indeed, his prize is well deserved, as he was the best of the best today.

Congratulations to all 16 finalists, and a large congratulatory applause to our new #1 rated coder and 2002 TopCoder Invitational Champion - John Dethridge!