Rules for SWERC 2006

The following rules apply to the 2006 edition of the South Western European Regional Contest that is being held from 17 to 19 November, in Lisbon, at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. They complement the general Rules of the 2006 ICPC Regional Contests, available at https://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/Regionals/About.htm.

Team composition:

All teams who want to participate have to check-in at the registration desk. A team cannot compete in the South Western European Regional Contest if the participation fee is not paid by the start of the actual contest. The location of the registration desk and the office hours will be announced to the participants in advance.

A student may compete if he fulfils the following requirements tree, available at http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/regionals/EligibilityDecisionTree.pdf.

A certain educational institution can send up to three teams to the South Western European Regional Contest. Team places (two per institution) are assigned on a first-come first-served basis, upon verification of eligibility. If all requests for first and second teams are satisfied, third teams may be accepted based on past performance and on a first-come first-served basis. As an exception to this rule, institutions that have made an early pre-registration, as announced in the contest website, are guaranteed three places.

The Regional Contest Director is responsible for accepting or rejecting teams.

The educational institutions must be from Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, western part of Austria and Germany (Baden-Wurttemberg, Bayern, Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt and Thuringen). By special request teams from other countries may be allowed to participate in this region.

The South Western European Regional Contest organisers are absolutely not responsible for the accommodation or other expenses of the teams.

Appropriate insurance (e.g. against accidents or diseases) is in the responsibility of each team.

Environment:

See our computer environment page.

 Conduct of the contest:

All team members must attend all contest activities as specified by the Contest Director. 

Failure to attend any of the designated Contest events will result in automatic disqualification and forfeiture of any prizes and final berths.

Nine problems will be posed, all in English.

While the contest is scheduled to last exactly five hours, the Regional Contest Director has the authority to lengthen the contest in the event of unforeseen difficulties. Should the Contest duration be altered, every attempt will be made to notify contestants in a timely and uniform manner.

A team may be disqualified by the Regional Contest Director for any activity that jeopardises the regional contest. The disqualification may occur immediately upon detection or up to 72 hours after the end of the Contest.

The South Western European Regional Contest Director is solely responsible for ruling on unforeseen situations and interpreting these rules.

Scoring of the contest:

The Regional Contest Judges are solely responsible for determining the correctness of submitted runs. In consultation with the judges, the Regional Contest Chief Judge is responsible for determining the winners of the regional contest. The judging staff is empowered to adjust for or adjudicate unforeseen events and conditions. Their decisions are final and may not be appealed.

The South Western European Region is granted one initial berth in the Contest Finals. The team on the first rank can advance to the finals. If that team can not or does not want to participate in the Contest Finals, the next team on the ranking list is given the berth.

Should the overall Contest Director award a second berth in the Contest Finals to the South Western European Region, the two best teams can advance to the finals. They must represent different educational institutions.

Materials in the Contest area:

Each team is allowed to bring to the Contest area one notebook consisting of no more than 25 printed A4 pages (note that this is different from 25 A4 sheets printed in both sides, which would correspond to 50 pages), font size greater or equal to 9. Each team member may use an exact copy of the notebook. No other support materials are allowed, whatsoever, with the exception of online reference documents, which will be available as described in our computer environment page, and an English dictionary. 

The team notebooks will be handed in to the judges during team registration, for verification, and will be returned to the teams as they enter the competition rooms.

The organization will provide unlimited A4 white paper sheets, and pens. Contestants are allowed to bring in their own rulers and compasses to draw circles, but no pens. 

Appeals:

Only rule violations and misconduct by teams may be appealed. Only coaches may file an appeal.

The decisions of judges in accepting or rejecting submissions are final - they are not grounds for appeal.

No appeal will result in additional World Finals positions.

Medals and prizes:

Teams ranking 1 to 4 will receive a gold medal; teams ranking 5 to 8 will receive a silver medal; teams ranking 9 to 12 will receive a bronze medal.

There will be prizes to teams ranking 1 to 4.

The highest scoring team is the SWERC 2006 Champion.