Match Editorial

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The first six submissions came rather close together at around the eight minute mark. derkuci, Yarin, John Dethridge, bigg_nate, SnapDragon, and DjinnKahn all submitted a solution for the Level 1 problem for approximately 180-190 points each. malpt and jonmac followed not too far behind with their Level 1 submissions shortly thereafter.

Almost immediately after jonmac's Level 1 submission, Yarin and bigg_nate each submitted a Level 2 submission, giving Yarin the lead. Four more submissions followed closely behind, within a span of thirty seconds: malpt, derkuci, DjinnKahn, and SnapDragon. Four minutes followed before jonmac submitted his Level 2 submission.

Things were quiet for the next eight minutes, until John Dethridge became the first to submit a solution for the Level 3 problem. A minute later and dmwright finally submitted his first submission (he had not started until nearly 18 minutes into the contest, however). SnapDragon was next to finish the Level 3 problem, managing to get over 40 more points than John Dethridge on his Level 3 submission. As SnapDragon was the first coder to complete all three problems, he immediately took over the lead. John Dethridge responded by quickly submitting a solution to the Level 2 problem faster than SnapDragon had earlier, but this was not sufficient to recover the lead.

Ten minutes followed before bigg_nate, the next coder to complete the problem set, submitted his solution to the Level 3 problem. This was shortly followed by dmwright's second submission of the match, which was also for the Level 3 problem. At this point, John Dethridge found a mistake in his Level 3 submission, and was forced to resubmit it, knocking a devastating 441 points off of his score.

malpt was fourth to finish the problem set, followed by Yarin and dmwright five minutes later. However, malpt was unsatisfied with his solution to the Level 1 problem and resubmitted it, earning only 60 points for that problem. At the end of the contest, jonmac was the only coder to not complete the entire problem set.

At the end of the Coding Phase, the scores were:

1. SnapDragon - 1398.97
2. dmwright - 1285.84
3. bigg_nate - 1204.10
4. Yarin - 1056.25
5. DjinnKahn - 1027.53
6. malpt - 977.47
7. John Dethridge - 973.70
8. derkuci - 946.24
9. jonmac - 599.39

malpt challenged SnapDragon's Level 1 submission approximately one minute into the Challenge Phase. SnapDragon made the common mistake of simulating contestants challenging themselves. derkuci challenged jonmac's Level 1 submission approximately five minutes into the Challenge Phase, for the exact same mistake. A few minutes later SnapDragon spotted the same error in DjinnKahn's Level 1 submission, earning back some of the points he lost earlier.

The first challenge of a Level 3 submission came from bigg_nate, against DjinnKahn's submission. John Dethridge was next, successfully challenging Yarin's Level 3 submission. bigg_nate then attempted to challenge derkuci's Level 3 submission to close the Challenge Phase, but was unsuccessful, thus losing the 50 points he had earned from the previous challenge.

At the end of the Challenge Phase, the scores were:

1. dmwright - 1285.84
2. SnapDragon - 1269.13
3. bigg_nate - 1204.10
4. malpt - 1027.47
5. John Dethridge - 1023.70
6. derkuci - 996.24
7. Yarin - 621.58
8. DjinnKahn - 428.39
9. jonmac - 423.50

Who would win money in this match was still very much in question as the challenge ended. dmwright lead with 1285.84 points, but was followed very closely by SnapDragon with 1269.13 points and bigg_nate with 1204.10 points. malpt and John Dethridge each also had a chance, with scores of 1027.47 and 1023.70 respectively. It would come down to who had made the fewest mistakes that had not been caught in the Challenge Phase.

dmwright, the apparent leader, was hit hardest by the system tests, failing the Level 3 problem which had made up the majority of his points. derkuci lost two submissions, his Level 1 and Level 3, but still lost fewer points than dmwright. malpt also lost his Level 3 submission, which made up nearly half his points. And John Dethridge, despite his care in resubmitting his solution to the Level 3 problem, still failed, losing a little over a third of his points.

After it was all over, bigg_nate remained the only coder in Room 1 to get all three problems correct. However, his excellent performance was not sufficient to win first place. Because he was overall the fastest coder, and was able to successfully challenge a problem, SnapDragon was able to maintain a high enough score to win the room, despite losing his Level 1 submission. This performance propelled SnapDragon beyond the 3000 point rating barrier. John Dethridge came in a distant third, beating Yarin by a challenge and a 0.13 points.

1. SnapDragon - 1269.13
2. bigg_nate - 1204.10
3. John Dethridge - 671.65
4. Yarin - 621.58
5. dmwright - 590.65
6. malpt - 545.84
7. derkuci - 468.63
8. DjinnKahn - 428.39
9. jonmac - 423.50