June 1, 2019 Tales Of Excitement: All You Need To Know About The TCO India Regional – Topcoder Nation Ep.02

Missed opportunities feel like a well-targeted taekwondo kick in between the legs, very painful, at least for a guy

By mahestro (I have to copyright this very original piece of art before some thief comes with bad intentions).

Last year I had the opportunity to travel to India. I was planning it carefully, in fact I was almost there, but right before buying my flight tickets I noticed something quite terrible. My French documentation was about to expire and I couldn’t leave the country – I was locked in! Since India is a country with such a rich history, culture and food it makes it a Luis-magnet attraction. I wanted to go so much and this small frustration led me to lose the chance to witness my first TCO regional event. I missed the unique opportunity because of another typical Luis episode ??‍♂️ – missing and losing things.

Fortunately, life gives you second chances. From this very desktop I write these lines from the largest city in Rajasthan, freaking Jaipur baby! I have the immense pleasure to be at my first TCO Regional event ever! Being in India itself has been a dream come true to me. Combine this with the fact I’ll get to witness a TCO related event and this couldn’t be more perfect. I have to close my eyes, shut my mouth and tie my legs to avoid running with excitement through the Pink City roads screaming out loud “Topcoder rocks!!!”

WHAT’S GOING ON?

The event starts on June 2nd but I must confess I arrived a few days earlier to the “Paris of India” alongside other honorable members of the Butter Chicken Squad (three idiots from Topcoder Nation Ep.01), handsome Ravijune and incredible PereViki. We have already seen the arena setup and hung out with other members, PMs and Challenge Architects who came earlier as well. Translation: while the India Topcoder team works hard to set up the arena for the event we’ve just been walking around and enjoying the cold AC the hotels and restaurants have to offer. Not even sorry.

GLADIATORS NEED AN ARENA

Personally, I’m feeling very excited going to a global TCO.  The adrenaline rushes, and there is this acute excitement to meet folks I’ve been working with for years and never had the chance to meet before in the US. It is about time! On the other side of the coin, there are hard working people making this beautiful event happen, full of expectations and positive vibes for the attendees, competitors and shameless pointless visitors like me to enjoy a lovely full day of Topcoder community love.

Believe me, the amount of effort, planning, and love these folks bring to the table is HUGE! This event planning started in February, and even though it’s a single day event, it’s quite important for the community. India is known to hold the second largest pool of engineers and scientists on this pale blue dot called planet Earth. The amount of Topcoder members we have representing India is 449,365, the largest amount in the whole community. It isn’t surprising to know they feel very excited to hold this event in the country, where they have the opportunity to compete onsite for prizes and priceless recognition as a regional champion.

WHAT TO EXPECT

• Onsite competition: yes, like a TCO! Including an Algorithm SRM, UI Design, and Development. This is the first time ever that a regional event holds several tracks.
• Adam Morehead on stage: the one and only all-time design figure in the community, mentor to many and inspiration to thousands!
• Games: they claim to have the most fun interactive games for members, let’s see how they compare to TCO’s! Considering chess was invented in India I think it will be interesting to discover.
• Fraternity: yeah baby, let’s meet and talk!

A WISE WORD FROM A JOYFUL ADMIN

When I hear words like joy, happy, humble and friendly, it’s impossible not to think of one young man. His unique personality can make your day in one single second after feeling his incredible, endless, positive energy. He was crowned Butter Chicken Squad CEO last year due to his infinite knowledge about Indian cuisine. I suspect this year he will likely be crowned happiest admin of the year!

I talked to Harshit [hmehta] about this event, which I have absolutely no experience with. I was trying to get a rough idea about what happens in this event since he has been around since the first edition. Gladly, it’s not that difficult to make this peppy dude talk, after a butter chicken dinner he spilled it all out.

For the team in Jaipur, the event is certainly the best time of the year. Every year whenever we see a member competing or mailing to support or interacting with the community team, we hope that he or she will come to the event and that we can make it special for him/her. It’s an amazing feeling getting to meet all the members.

And then, after some sweet lassies and gulab jamun – if you Google those you drool – you get him feeling more sensitive and he will give you even more meaningful words from the endless bottom of his heart:

“If I had to wrap up the event in three words they would be community, fun, and gala. I am personally very attached to the event. I get to meet most of these members in the university tours and other conferences and this event becomes one in which I get to meet them all again. All the fun, talking about the platform, getting to know them better, everything is all here. It all starts 3-4 months before the event when we start looking for a venue and it goes down to last-minute printing and rushed errands such as getting the problems ready, making the contest exciting, planning the setup, the goodies,  the t-shirt color – we love doing it all!”

HOW TO STALK THE EVENT

• Live streaming from Topcoder Facebook Page.
• Topcoder Twitter account: https://twitter.com/topcoder
• Topcoder Nation Group with stories and photos from assistant members.

That’s all folks. See you next time for another episode of this series. Peace out!