June 1, 2016 TCO Update and T-Shirts for a Survey!

It is June 1! That means the 2016 Topcoder Open online stages for Development, UI Design, First2Finish, and Prototype are complete! Many of you have been competing for almost a year to qualify for the TCO Finals and congratulations to those of you who did! I’m looking forward to announcing final stage winners in the coming weeks.

Typically after the online stages of one TCO end, another one begins. That is true again this year and we’ll be kicking off TCO17 at some time in August. Every year we strive to make the TCO better for the community and this year is no different. We’ll be spending the next few weeks pounding pavement to improve TCO and evolve the tournament to be the best it can be.

Do you want to help? Can you fill out this very quick survey about your challenge preferences? Five Topcoder t-shirts will be sent out at random to folks who have completed this survey by Wednesday, June 8.

Use the next couple months to refine your skills or learn something new so when TCO kicks off again, you’ll be in a great place to become a finalist. Why you ask?

TCO is the ultimate incentive. Earning TCO points and being a finalist gives you a chance to be a TCO champion, a trip to the USA, and meet many other members who you only know virtually. Learn all about TCO here.

In the meantime, we’re in the thick of the TCO16 Algorithm Competition and have one round to go for the Marathon Competition. TCO16 Finals will be here before you know it.

Congratulations again to all our finalists so far and those yet to be announced!