The 2022 season of the ACM/ICPC Asian Regional Championship has come to an end, and it’s time for senior old guys to retire as well. In the previous paragraph, I would like to write a small essay to commemorate my tumultuous ACM experience.

take the silver prize and run way

Predestination

  Previously, I was exposed to the code in the high school maker’s laboratory, and the code for controlling the microcontroller was similar to C. Unforgettable at that time, I spent my lunch break with a few like-minded colleagues soaking in the computer room every day, fighting wits and bravery with my homeroom teacher (and all kinds of deceiving the laboratory teacher who only knows VB to negotiate leave approval…)
   At that time, I showed great interest in computers and had always wanted to make games. Therefore, I decisively prioritized his major in the college entrance examination and came to NEU computer major. At that time, the school’s whole game club collapsed, and at the same time, I learned about the ACM competition from a roommate who was practicing new hundred questions in the opposite bed. It feels very interesting, but I didn’t even attend the summer training camp So I worked hard in the library for three days, and my ranking on the school list has also risen rapidly. After joining the group, I harvested a lot of Orz (I also received a lot of basic knowledge of C++, recalled that time when I was a beginner I even troubled by multiple input groups for a few days).

The place where dreams begin

Rankings 4 and 10, the results of the recruitment competition that year

### First year

  After completing the C++ syntax, I successfully entered the ACM club. Afterwards, I mainly followed Luo Gu’s question sheets to learn basic algorithms such as data structures, graph theory, number theory, dynamic programing… In the school program competition, I was just able to compete in the second tier, but later in the GPLT competition, I played in the national third tier, and in the C++ A group of the Blue Bridge Cup, I scored in the national competition (although there was no follow-up). Two teammates were also formed to prepare for the competition team and ICPC afterwards. The freshman year can be said to be the time when I was most invested in algorithm competitions. I put in a lot of time and energy, and I also gained a lot.

GPLT competition

Blue Bridge Cup national competition

### Second year

  Successfully entered the reserve team, followed by the competition team. However, there were some divergences within the team afterwards, with the two teammates GPA grades being first and second respectively When not encountering very easy questions in the team competition, one can only change my code to try his luck, while the other has no effect (she has repeatedly failed to figure the easiest question, and I dare not let her do it. She spends most of her time writing calculations, but when asked what questions and ideas she has, she tells nothing). I want the team to invest more time in practicing and adapting, but whenever I ask, they just don’t have time, and when they come back from vacation, they never touch the algorithm at all.
   Solo is indeed possible, but far from necessary; At that time, the team was already stable, and changing teams was not realistic. So I decided to join them and practice the algorithm a little every day to maintain the feel. Devoted time to Unity game production and added another laboratory - computer graphics and mixed reality, learn about graphics.
   Team competition in Hebei Province won second prize, mainly based on me, that is the minimum level of the competition team. The only breakthrough was the personal Blue Bridge Cup, C++ A Group Country national second prize, which was quite unexpected. After all, I spent litter effort compared with other team’s members. Later on, I directly dispersed from his original team and started to pick two young schoolmates who used to take part in OI. I stumbled upon a semi self funded ICPC Macau halfway through (my young male schoolmate and I each solved one and held a correct solution for another question, but we are trapped by time and detail handling, otherwise we would just go to the silver medal area with solving four questions), unfortunately, we ended up with nothing in the end. My goal is to retire with copper medal, but I can also accept the fact if I retired with nothing.

Original team

### Last Year

  During the summer vacation, when playing multiple schools’ training, suddenly there was a request to join our team, and then The young male schoolmates was persuaded to replace the young female one and formed a new team to ensure copper medal and fight for silver medal. Both of my teammates are quite capable of occupying the computer, so I chose to translate questions (two teammates have not passed CET-6, I passed and even take GRE test), provide a brief idea , and have a mathematical construction (graphics bonus, plus this main idea is not very time-consuming). The previous online competition was fine, and even gave the school an extra ICPC spot. However, the provincial competition was not that good. Although the provincial competition was the first prize, our team’s school ranking was very poor, and eventually only three spots were allocated for our team. Considering to train for a longer time, we selected the following stations, CCPC Mianyang station, ICPC Hangzhou station, and ICPC Nanjing station. The results were quite good, CCPC Mianyang Copper (at the second half of the competition we didn’t solve even one question), ICPC Hangzhou Copper (time penalty difference was too much, it was a technical defeat), ICPC Nanjing Silver (realizing our dream! It’s not a waste of staying at the hotel for more than two weeks and experiencing COVID-19 diretcly).

I haven't realized the problem yet

I still haven't realized the problem yet

### Written behind

  I don’t have much thoughts, I even feel like I’m not a pure ACMer. At the beginning of the year, there may have been some passion, but later on, due to many trivial matters and practical considerations, there was not much investment. ACM is just a competition, and it does have a certain effect on ensuring/taking the postgraduate entrance examination/employment. However, in terms of each item alone, you can find a better choice - if you want to recommend the postgraduate, you need to maintain a high GPA, if you want to take the postgraduate entrance examination, you can excel in your coursework, and if you want to find employment, you can do some project. So, what is the significance of ACM?
   I think it’s exploration. If all choices are the most utilitarian and correct, how boring it would be. University is originally used to explore possibilities, tossing and turning over a question, searching and scratching the stomach; Have friendly conversations with teammates and engage in passionate performances; Finally, let’s have another esports game. Week are the original sin.
   Let’s conclude with a question from your freshman year. Do you have a time when you can throw everything away and pursue things you love?

I also want to know the source

  Looking back, I realized that I had come a long way, and only self-awareness could explain the hardships. Finally, thank my two teammates, one gave me hope and the other convinced me to move through. Unfortunately, we are one position short of attending EC final, which is still a bit regrettable.

AC faster really monster