We participated in the ICPC EUC last weekend in Prague, where we competed against the top 13 teams from each European region. dETHroners(Teo, Paula, Michal), finished 11th out of 52 teams. While this event offered teams a chance to qualify for the ICPC World Finals 2024 in Kazakhstan, dETHroners got their spot by smashing the SWERC in Paris earlier this year.
On Friday morning, Teo, Michal, and Ahmet were so eager that they hit Zurich airport super early. Meanwhile, Paula arrived just in time, having timed her arrival two minutes before boarding perfectly. Once in Prague, we hopped on trams that seemed to have witnessed the invention of the wheel. Further, we did an extensive sightseeing thanks to Michal’s guiding skills. Almost geting lost in a train station? But hey, we did not get stuck in the train station this time 🙂
The opening ceremony was a blast, filled with Czech humor and a Soviet Theremin Concert. And who could forget the surprise guests: Boston Dynamics Robots… most of them managed to walk, at least.
The Czech Technical University was like a fantasy world: elevators called “paternosters” and doors straight out of a hobbit’s dream. Of course, snapping pics by those hobbit doors was important—memories to show after 20 years?
During the contest, the coaches had to listen to a one-hour answer by the ICPC Executive Director explaining why ACM stopped sponsoring ICPC. Fortunately, Ahmet was preoccupied with the mirror contest alongside the Coach of Universität des Saarlandes.
Overall, everyone was impressed by the Prague organizers, who managed to avoid any major issues this time, unlike the two-hour power outage during the last contest in Prague. Some attendees were puzzled by the decision to hold the contest under a glass ceiling though!
