ACM-ICPC 2017 Asia Official Regional Rules 

(Revision from 2016 Rules are marked with blue fonts. All rules and resolutions stay the same as those of 2016 except some wording changes. Chinese characters in this blog or in web pages are irrelevant to the rules and may be ignored. )

ICPC Global Programming Tools Sponsor: JetBrains

I.Missions: 

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is an activity of the ACM that provides college students with an opportunity to demonstrate and sharpen their problem solving and computing skills.

The ACM-ICPC Asia Super-Regional Contests invite Asian students to meet, to establish friendships, and to promote fair competition in programming and in application use of algorithms and theory.

II.Fundamentals of the Rules of ICPC Regional Contests:

Rules for the Asia Regional Contests are additions to the rules of ACM -ICPC Regional Programming Contests and ICPC Steering Committee Policies Procedures. Please refer to hyperlink:

                    http://icpc.baylor.edu/

III. 2017 Asia Regional Specific Rules:

​A. Asia Regional Contests, Organization, and Administration

​1. The Asia Region covers all territories and countries in Asia except Arabic speaking countries in the Middle East.

2. Asia Regional Contests do not divide the region by political territories. A team that advances to the Contest World Finals represents the team’s university, not the team’s political boundary.

3. Organization of Asia (Super) Region

          (a) Organization of Asia (Super) Region is organized as one single region Asia Region. The three administrative sub-regions are used for the purpose of World Finals teams selection.

          (b) The Asia Regional Contest is administered under the direction of the "Asia Director, Asia Contests Director or Asia Super-regional Director," who is charged with executing Regional Contests within a set of rules and guidelines that have been approved by the ACM -ICPC Executive Director. The Asia Director selects several contest sites in Asia each year, 25 sites in 2017, to hold the Asia Regional Contests. The Asia Director also appoints one Contest Site Director (RCD) to head each Contest Site Steering Committee. Asia Regional Site Directors (RCD’s) are charged with responsibilities of planning, organizing and executing the Regional Contests according to ACM-ICPC Operational Guidelines. (Note: This represents the semi-autonomous spirit for all Asia Regional Contest Sites, their associated Steering Committees and Site Directors.)

The Asia Director also appoints Local Area Contest Directors for National, Provincial, Multi-provincial and Invitational contests in the Asia (Super) Region.

          (c) Asia Director heads the Asia Council and appoints committee chairs for various committees to assist Asia Director to promote and develop Asia Regional Contests, and to help to recruit new Asia Regional Site Directors in all geographic areas in the entire Asia. The list of members in 2017 Asia Council can be found in Asia blog:

                   http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_b946da100102xkb8.html

          (d) All organizations, activities, announcements, and resolutions bearing the name of ACM-ICPC in Asia must be approved by Asia Director, and information must be posted in the approved web sites only.

          (e) There should be no third party web sites or platforms be used for the Asia Regional Site Contests including on-line contests, and neither for provincial/invitational contests. Asia Regional Contest site steering committees must post contest related information and announcement in their respective local contest web sites under their university network. They must also post rankings and list of staff names in ICPC Baylor headquarter contest web sites. The Asia Regional Site steering committees and the associated RCD’s should not post any information to any website other than the three web sites (ICPC Baylor headquarter web site, Asia blog, and Host university local web site) without Asia Director’s approval.

If requested by Asia Director, all host universities’ RCD’s are required to acknowledge the ICPC Integrity Statement to protect ICPC Academic integrity and RCD’s autonomy and to prevent the third party’s control and involvement of ICPC activities. (Please see item V.A. Appendix One )

          (f) Asia Director may approve any seminars, forums, or training programs sponsored by any individual, or any committee, as long as these activities are beneficial to ACM-ICPC community.

4. Three Administrative Sub-regions

      Each university competing in the Asia Regional Contests is homed in one of three administrative sub-regions based on the following geographical locations:

          (a)   Pacific & Southeast Peninsula (PSP): Universities located in the West Pacific and South East Asia including South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Laos.

          (b)   East Continent (EC): Universities located in Mongolia, North Korea, Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau.

          (c) West Continent (WC): Universities in Central, South and West Asia including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives,  and optionally Central Asian Countries. Universities in Central Asia countries may compete at West Continent Sub-Regional Sites. These countries are Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Teams from Azerbaijan and Armenia are also invited to participate in contest sites in West Continent Sub-regionals. There is no need for pre-approval to register in WC Sub-regions for teams from these Central Asia countries. They are welcome to participate in WC regional contests directly. For the central Asian teams who register in Asia WC sites, their associated home universities shall not have teams register in European contests or in Russian Federation contests in the same year.

5. Structure of Asia Regional Site Contests and At most two sites participation by a Contestant: 

          (a) The World ICPC contest is a 2- tiered competition (Regional On-site and World Finals) among teams of students representing institutions of higher education. The ACM- ICPC Asia Regional Contest, however, is a one-three tiered competitions. Please see item (III.A.6) for detail.

          (b) The recommended organization of the Asia Regional Contest Site Steering Committee for each Host University site usually consists of the following members:

Honorary Chairs (Optional)

​Chair (Regional Contest Site Director or Contest Site RCD)

Co-Chairs (Asia Director, by default, is one of the Co-chairs)

Committee Coordinator and/or Associate Site Director (optional)

Chief Judge, Judging Team and Contest Problem Setter/Creator Committee

System (Hardware/Software) Chair(s)

Registration Chair and Publicity Chair

Activities/Operation Chair

The Steering Committee for each contest site may implement additional rules and a different committee organization pertaining to that contest site. But the Asia Rules must be followed.

          (c)    Each University or college in Asia may organize teams to participate in the Regional contests at any Asia site. However, a contestant can participate in, at most, two (2) Asian contest sites during a contest year. A contestant may not compete in Asia Regional Contests for more than five (5) years. A contestant may not compete in World Finals for more than two (2) years. A team may participate in the Asia Regional Contest, bypassing the School, Provincial, Invitational, and National levels. Please observe that a team can only be advanced to World Finals from Asia Regional On-Site Contests from the team's home sub-region. 

6. Three levels of Asia Programming Contests:

          (a) The Asia Contests' Tree Structure.

The entire Asia Super-region is a tree with a root that we call it tier-1 node. Under this root node there are 25 child nodes in 2017. Each child node is an Asia Regional On-site Contest that we call tier-2 node. Under the Asia On-site contest (tier-2), we have First Round Online Sub-contest that we call it tier-3. An Asia Regional Contest Site includes both the On-site Regional contest (tier-2) and the (tier 3) First Round Online Regional Sub-Contest(s). The registration limit of two sites per year per student applies to the union of both Asia Regional On-Site CONTEST and their associated Online Regional Sub-contest. The tier-2 and the tier-3, two together form one Asia regional site.

          (b) Local Area Contests

All National, Provincial and Invitational contests (these contests are together called Local Area contests) will be all grouped together in an independent contest site in ACM-ICPC Asia Region titled “Asia Provincial-National contests”. The local Area contest may be independent,  or may be a sub-contest or a part of the Asia Regional Contest if the Local Area contest is hosted by the same Asia Regional host university.

          (c) Applications for hosting Asia Regional On-site Contests, and First Round Online Contests.

The ACM-ICPC Asia Regional Contest must be hosted by a faculty member. The faculty member must apply directly to Asia Director. The Contest Site Director must be an associate professor or above, or equivalent in a university. The Student Chapter members or student leaders can be volunteers in helping or working for the contest. A faculty member must write an e-mail application using his/her university e-mail account. Once approved, the university faculty applicant will be placed in a wait list to be a future host for Asia Regional. The faculty applicant  may be the Site Director (RCD) , or may work for the RCD. Some financial support may be provided from ACM-ICPC and/or from global sponsor for Asia Regionals.

The host university must obtain additional funding locally and from registration fee. The host university is also required to host Provincial/National contest and to register the contest and teams in ICPC website before they are qualified for Asia Regional contest host. (Application procedure for hosting any level of contests in Asia can be found at the link:

                     http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_b946da100102w8ic.html

Once application for hosting is approved, Asia Regional Site Directors or their representatives are required to participate the World Finals RCD (Regional Contest Site Directors) Symposium scheduled during the World Finals Contest earlier in the same calendar year for training purpose. If a new Regional Site Director or his/her representative does not participate in the World Finals RCD Symposium and the World Final Contest, the Asia Director may cancel his/her hosting authorization in the same calendar year.

            (d) On-site contest.

Asia Regional Site Contest final round must be an on-site contest. If the registration for on-site Asia Regional is too large, first round online Asia Regional sub-contest(s) must be held before the on-site Asia Regional contest. The contest dates of both On-site Asia Regionals and the associated online sub-contests should be after May 1 and before December 31 of each year. The Asia Regional On-site contests are to be scheduled between September 1 and December 31. Winning team of each Asia Regional On-site Contest is selected to World Finals. Additional teams may be selected to World Finals (WF) according to the formula described in item (III.E.3).

Winning certificates are to be signed by ACM-ICPC Executive Director, Asia Director, and Contest Site Director for Asia Regional Contests.

          (e) Application for Hosting Provincial/Multi-provincial/Invitational/ National Contests.

The application for a Provincial/National contest by a faculty member is required. A student organization may host the contest. But a faculty supervisor must supervise the contest. This faculty supervisor must be responsible for the fairness of the contest and the integrity of the entire contest operation. The faculty supervisor must send Asia Provincial Coordinator or Provincial Contests Coordinator an e-mail application using his university e-mail account to confirm this before the application can be approved. No financial support will be provided for provincial/invitational /national contests from ACM-ICPC or from global sponsor. ACM-ICPC certificates will be signed by faculty supervisor and be issued for winners.

Team registration for provincial and national contests must be done in ICPC web site. The Provincial/Multi-provincial/Invitational/National contests are independent of Asia Regional Contests. No team will be selected and advanced to World Finals from these Contests. The contest date of Provincial/National must be after February 1 and before Oct 31 of each year. 

          (f) Campus Contest. 

Hosting campus contest by a faculty member is preferred. A student organization may host the contest. But a faculty supervisor must supervise the contest. No financial support will be provided for campus contest. ACM-ICPC certificates will NOT be issued for winners. Host universities may issue their own certificates. Registration must be done outside of ICPC web site.

          (g) Team registration for all levels of contests must be of 3 contestants in a team.

7. Contest Registration and Advancing of First Round Online Sub-contest to Asia On-Site Contest:

          (a) ACM - ICPC Asia Region has grown substantially in recent years. On-Site Regional Contest usually cannot accommodate large numbers of teams. It is also mandatory that each site accommodates all of qualified registrations. To accomplish such goal, it is required that each regional site conducts two cycles of regional contests– Asia First Round Online sub-contest and Asia On-Site Regional Contest. Each site should conduct Asia First Round Online Sub-Contest in advance to select an appropriate number of teams for the On-Site Regional Contest. All teams solving at least one problem in the first round online sub-contest and in the Asia on-site regional contest must be all ranked in ICPC contest web site. Each Contest Site Director may set up its own fair selection formula for teams to be advanced to On Site Regional Contest. Contest Site Director may also modify contest rules for the First Round Online Sub-contest within ICPC guidelines while On-Site Regional Contest must follow Asia Rules and ICPC Regional Contest Rules. It is also recommended that foreign teams may be exempted from First Round Online Sub-Contest.

All additional policies and rules used by a contest site committee must be posted in contest host local web site, and must not post in any third party web site.

Under the system enforcing limit of 2 Asia registrations, Asia region allows teams advanced to or registered in on-site contest from any ONE of the following combinations. (Contest Site Directors are autonomous in making such decision.)

- Team may be copied (promoted) from on-line contest or re-register to on-site contest;

-Team may be a brand new set of team members with approval by Contest Site Director;

Please note that the winning team members from Asia on-site contest advancing to WF can not be changed for any reason. (This is a strict rule.)

          (b) If the total registration is low and all teams can be accommodated by On-Site Regional Contest, the First Round Online Sub-contest may be skipped. If the first round sub-contest is skipped, all teams in the sub-contest should be moved to Asia On-site Regional Contest by Contest Site Steering Committee.

          (c) Repeat: A contestant can register in at most two (2) Asia Regional Sites. Each regional site consists of  the On-site contest and the first round Online sub-contest. The number of online sub-contests a contestant can participate is still limited to two (2) Asia sites. A contestant participates in on-line , but not in on-site contest is also counted as one site participation.

          (d) Each Asia RCD may cancel on-line contest with approval by Asia Director even with a large registration in on-line contest for special reasons. If the on-line contest is cancelled, RCD is required to post a selection criterion to select teams to actually participate the on-site contest.

          (e) National Online Contest and Provincial level Online Contest hosted by Asia Regional host university are considered as Asia First Round Online Sub-contest if these contests are used to select teams for Asia On-Site Regional Contest. These Contests will be treated as the Asia Regional First Round Online Sub-contest and not be grouped together with “Asia Provincial/National Contests”.

8. Organization of Asia Council and Committees.

          (a) Asia Council memberships consist of voting members and non-voting members. The members are appointed by Asia Director in a yearly basis, and are ACM volunteers.

          (b) The voting membership consists of all current year RCD’s and standing committee members. Asia Director is the chair of standing committees for all three sub-regions (sub-councils).  All RCD’s and standing committees report to Asia Director directly. Standing committee members may overlap with RCD’s. If requested by Asia Director, all RCD’s must protect the integrity and autonomous nature of ICPC contests by acknowledging the Integrity Form and Sponsorship Form. (Please see item V.A.)

          (c) Asia Council voting members vote on the Asia Rules and other associated resolutions.

Voting members (RCD’s and Standing committee members) from the sub-council of each of three sub-regions vote on matters related to their sub-region.

          (d) Under the Asia Council, there may be some committees appointed to assist Asia Director and to provide volunteer service to ICPC community. All committee chairs also report to Asia Director. Committee chairs are not in any supervisory or management responsibilities over any RCD. These committee members or committee chairs are non-voting members in Asia Council. They may suggest proposals and submit opinions to Asia Director. (Note that any member of ICPC community may also submit proposal to Asia Director directly.) The list of members in 2017 Asia Council may be found in the Asia blog at the following link:  

                       http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_b946da100102xkb8.html

          (e) One important committee in Asia Council is the “Promotion and Consultation (PC) Committee”. Members (advisors) in this committee are to help to recruit new RCD’s, to promote ICPC activities, and provide support and consultation to new RCD’s for Asia Regionals and for provincial and invitational contests in their respective, selected, or appointed area.

          (f) Non-voting members of Asia Council are invited to voice their opinions to Asia Director as reference for important issues. 

          (g) RCD’s are required to attend WF activities with hotel and activities meals paid by ICPC WF. Upon request to Asia Director, non-RCD members of Asia Council will be invited to attend WF activities with hotel expense self paid and activities with meals paid by ICPC WF.  This is subject to the availabilty of the hotel room and with the ICPC WF budget constraints. The Transportation expenses for all members of Asia Council to WF are self paid.

B. Rules on Eligibility of Team Member, the Team, and Registration

1. Rule of Contestants’ Eligibility Decision Tree 

          (a) A team consists of exactly three contestants.

All contestants are urged to study the Regional Rules of the Eligibility Decision Tree in ACM - ICPC Headquarter web site for the eligibility of all contestants throughout the world.

               http://icpc.baylor.edu/regionals/rules

          (b) Remarks on eligibility rule:

Technically, it is possible that a team may consist of three first year graduate students if each of them meets the rule qualification in a four-year program or university. Students from two years colleges are also qualified to participate in Asia Regional Contests.

          (c) Participation of two Asia sites for the same year in Asia Regional Contests is considered as one-time competition in Asia under the eligibility rule.

2. A student can represent only one university. There will be at most one team advancing to WF from the same university.

3. A student may compete in at most two(2) Asia Regional Site Contests, home or non-home administrative sub-region. If there are more than one online first round sub-contests under a Regional site, a student may compete in all sub-contests under the same one Asia Regional Site.

4. The coach of a team must be a faculty or a designated staff member of the team’s university. A coach from outside of the team’s university will disqualify the team.

5. Because of the problem of ‘no-shows’ by teams who register and confirm participation in an on-site contest but do not actually participate in the contest, it was decided that:  If such team do not cancel their registration at least ten (10) days before the contest date, and do not show up in the contest, this team's contestants will be disqualified for all other contest sites in the same contest year.

6. Registration:

            (a)The university name of a team must be already in the ICPC registration database before a team can register. The team coach should request the Contest Site Director to ask ICPC manager to enter the Team’s university name in the database if needed. This registration prerequisite applies to Asia Regional Contests, Asia Regional Sub-contests, and Local Area Contests.

             (b) Then go to ICPC web site to create an account for each team member if not done previously:

                    http://icpc.baylor.edu

             (c) Then register the team in a selected contest in ICPC web site with three team members.

7. A team must register in the sub-contests:

In most cases, teams are promoted (copied) from sub-contests to Asia Regional On-site Contest by contest steering committee RCD. Direct registration to Asia Regional On-site contests must be approved by Asia Regional Contest Site Directors (RCD) and by Asia Director for special situations or for foreign teams.

8. Registration Fee: The Steering Committee of each contest site determines the registration fee of each team. In previous years, the regional registration fee ranged from US$0 to US$300 around the world.

9. Verification of Registration for the Asia On-Site Regional Contest:

The coach of each team is required to verify and complete the personal information of all contestants before the Asia On-Site Regional (or Final Round Regional) contest. Without such verification, the team will not be accepted for Asia On-Site or Asia Final Round contest and therefore be disqualified.

10. Team Members Substitution in World Finals and in Asia Regional Contest:

The team members for the team advanced to World Finals must be identical to the members participated in the Asia On-Site Regional Contest. No substitution or reserves will be allowed in the World Finals. Any alteration on the team will disqualify the team to the World Finals. However, Asia Regional Contest may allow reserve team member registration and may allow the substitution of the team member in the Asia regional contest provided that the team composition change is entered in the ICPC registration system web site before the Regional On-site Contest. Any change to the team after that regional contest is not allowed.

C. Rules on Organization of Judges/Problem Setters Committees

1. The Chief Judge and Site Director of each contest site are responsible for organizing the judging team. No member of the judging/problem setter committee should be the coach of any contest team. It is highly recommended that the judging team consist of faculty from other universities and/or industry professionals. The use of an international judging team is also encouraged, if possible. The size of the judging team is recommended to be equal to the number of contest problems in the contest

2. The Chief Judge and the Contest Site Director make a final decision in selecting the contest problems, in modifying the submitted contest problems, or in adding additional contest problems.

3. The Chief Judge is encouraged to take care that there is one or two problems in the set that is fairly easy, and at least one or two problems are of medium difficulty since the WF slots distribution formula will count only the accepted teams that have solved at least one problem.

4. All contest problems in Asia Sites must be written in English only. No multiple languages are allowed in creating contest problems. Exception must be approved by Asia Director

5. Contest Site Directors must enter the names and their affiliated universities of all problem setters and all judges in the Staff List of their respected contest sites within one week after each Asia On-Site Regional Contest.

6. Judging Committee and Options: 

​Asia Contest Site Directors at his/her own choice are required to adopt one of the following two options for the organization of judges and problem setters committee. If it is difficult for some sites to adopt any option, care of fairness should be taken care of when organizing the judges/problem setters committee. Reasons for no-adoption requires approval from Asia Director.

          Option (a): The problem setters/judges of the host site should be a committee of at least 5 members. If any problem setter/judge committee member expects his/her university team may advance to WF from a contest site, that member of that university may not contribute more than one contest problem.

          Option (b): No host team can be advanced to WF from the host university site. But the host team may get some preference from other contest sites under its home sub region. Further restriction: A team cannot be advanced to WF, if the problem setter/judge is from the same university of that team.

 D. Some Rules on Conduct During Contests, and Team number Assignment Recommendation.

1. No personally owned diskettes, mobile phone or calculators are allowed during the contest. Electronic dictionaries are not allowed. Paper dictionaries, however, may be allowed. Contest Site Director may alter this rule. The World Finals rule on reference materials may be different from this rule and the rules used by Contest Site Director.

2. Notification of accepted runs from judges during the contest may be suspended at the appropriate time (normally one hour before the end) to keep the final results confidential for the purpose of suspension. Notification of rejected runs may continue until the end of the contest.

3. A very good method of assigning team numbers to teams so that judges would not know the team name and the team university name. This method is described below for your reference.

The team numbers are assigned randomly before the contest. Team numbers should be used in PC^2 or any judging system. University names should not be used in the PC^2 or any judging system and should not be revealed to the judging team during the contest. The Contest Site Director is responsible for posting the matching list of team numbers and university names in the audience area within 60 minutes after the contest starts.

E. Rules on Team Rankings, Regional Contest Site Scoring, and World Finals Slots

1. Team Rankings:

The official ranking for each contest site is school ranking or “University ranking” for the contest site. 

RCD’s may at their discretion rank teams according to their local requirements and needs and is called “RCD rankings.” Typically, RCD rankings are the ranking for all teams. University rankings are the rankings of the first team of each university. Other teams of the same university will be ranked as a tie with next ranked university.  The University rankings may be used for WF slots allocation. If local resolutions have additional constraints to the university rankings such as WF medal awards or preference teams, the university ranking will be further refined to “WF-Slots Rankings" by not counting the medal award teams and the preference teams. For this case, teams will be awarded WF slots by using "WF-Slots rankings".

          (a)   It is mandatory that each Contest Site Director must rank the teams who solve at least one problem. The rankings must be done in both the first round online sub-contest and the Asia Regional On-site contest and must be posted in ICPC web site. Without such ranking result in ICPC web site, the Regional contest site score will be defaulted to zero score.

          (b) Official standings (University Rankings) will first be ranked from the top team of each university/college. Other teams from the same college will then be ranked as ties with that of the next ranked team of another university. Each Contest Site Director may select the first 6 or more universities to award special prizes or may apply some good criteria to award teams. If the first round online sub-contest is skipped due to low registration or cancellation, the sub-contest will not be ranked.

          (c) Teams (host teams) from host universities of Asia Regional sites do not have preference for world final slots. If the host team’s score is very high and is very close to the WF qualifying line, and if there is slot available, Asia Director may at his discretion provides preferences to these host teams.

          (d)   Some contest sites may have special constraints embedded in university rankings. After removing the special constraints of a contest site such as medal award teams and preference teams, etc. from university rankings, the resulting “WF-Slots Rankings” will be used for allocating WF teams.

          (e) Special teams:

Teams with one or two members or high school teams are considered as special teams. RCD may allow their competition in the contest. These special teams are not allowed to be ranked, and are not allowed to be advanced to next level of contests. The high school teams are not allowed to register in ICPC registration system.

2. The following defines the Contest Site Participation Scores of the year:

 The final Contest Site participation scores of the year are the weighted average of  80% for the on-site participation score and 20% for the  online participation scores. The calculation of both participation scores (tier 2 and tier 3) will be using the same formula and be calculated separately as in the following items (a) - (e).

        (a)   The contest site initial participation scores for both on-site and online: 

Counting for site participation initial scores will only count teams accepted and solving at least one problem in the first round online sub-contests and in Asia Regional On-site contests separately. The counting will count only those ranked teams who solves at least one problem in ICPC contest sites.

The fake teams will be removed by applying “accepted team solving at least one problem”. 

          (b) The Site Reduction Factors:

Applying reduction factor will remove the double counting on double contest sites’ registrations to achieve fairness for all sites.

The example of Site Reduction Factor for double registration: ​If the number of students with double registration is 40% in Mainland China or in India, for example, then the reduction factor for all China sites (or India sites) will be 0.8 = (0.6 + 0.6+ 0.4) / 2.The site or sub-site participation score is the result of initial score multiplied by the reduction factor.

           (c) To avoid the WF teams from being clustered in a few contest sites, the number of schools will be reduced to 0.5 point in counting for all teams beyond the first 200 schools in a contest site. And the number of second plus teams will be reduced to 0.25 point for all second plus teams beyond the first 400 teams.

          (d) Contest Site Participation Scores for both on-site and online:

The 70-25-5 weighed formula will be applied to the site participation score calculation:

70% for the Total number of distinct universities/schools from item (c) above;

25% for the total number of distinct teams beyond the first team from item (c);

and 5% for the total number of teams in the provincial and national (non-Asia host) contests.

The contest site participation score will be the sum of 70-25-5 formula for both the the on-site and the online scores separately.

          (e) The final Contest Site participation scores of the year are the weighted average of  80% for the on-site participation score and 20% for the online participation scores of the same year. For 2017 contest year, WF slots allocation will be based on the even average of 2017 participation final score and 2016 participation final score using the same calculation as in the above items (a) -  (d). 

           (f) The teams advanced to WF are based on the Asia Regional university ranking or the Asia WF-Slots ranking of the 2017 Asia on-site Regionals. 

3. WF slots allocation and Administrative sub-regions

       (a) Each university fielding a team that wins a Site Contest will advance the team to the World Finals if the Contest Site is in the team’s home administrative Sub-region. In the event that a university qualifies for more than one Site Contest in the home sub-region, the university must decide only one team to represent the university to the World Finals. In any situation, a university can send only one qualified team to the WF.

          (b) These WF slots for Asia were determined by ICPC headquarter consisting of participation (basic) and bonus slots. For example 2016 WF, the participation/basic slots for Asia for 2016 WF were 36, a fixed number. (Note that the distribution of these slots in the 2016 WF was 30:30:36 in the world. Asian students and coaches should appreciate the recognition from Headquarter for Asia ICPC development with the highest number 36.)  Asia Director in turn used the guidelines in next several items to allocate WF slots to each Asia sub-region and to each Asia contest site. (Please refer to the posting about WF slots allocation formula from ICPC headquarter:)

                   http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_b946da100101pu86.html

          (c) The medal award bonus slots for 2018 WF will be assigned to universities whose teams had received medal awards in 2017 WF, provided that these universities earned a university ranking of 10 or better in any 2017 Asia Regional . For example, please refer to 2017 WF  teams allocation:

                    http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_b946da100102x87h.html

          (d)    There may be additional bonus slots for Asia Region for 2018 WF.  For example, in 2017 WF, These slots included bonus slots designated by ICPC Executive Director (2 slots) , by ICPC Deputy Executive Director (1) , and by Asia Director (2).  (Note that: 2 WF slots designated by ICPC Executive Director were for WF host university , host country and /or WF Host City or Province.)

          (e) Distribution of other remaining participation slots for 2017 WF: 

 Asia Director may elect to have Asia Associate Directors for each sub-region to make recommendation of teams to be advanced to WF 2018 according to the following guidelines used in WF 2017 allocation and the new resolutions been adopted and posted . 

For example, in 2017 WF, Asia has 38 participation slots available, they are divided into two parts:

                  (1) 35 participation slots:

These slots were distributed to three administrative sub-regions according to the contest site participation scores formula specified in item (III.E.2) The rounding off of participation scores might end up to 32 or 34 slots. The one less or one more slot would be applied to the next item of the “Other Remaining 3 Slots.”

                   (2) The other remaining 3 participation slots:

These 3 (or 2-4) slots were Asia Performance slots and were distributed to three sub-regions. The 3 sub-regions would be ranked by the average of the total number of problems solved in 2017 WF excluding the medal award team, but including the honorable mentioned teams.

The allocation of the remaining 3 or 2-4 slots to the three sub-regions by ranking from top to bottom was one of the following: 1:1:0, 2:1:0, or 2:2:0. 

          (f) Once the number of slots to each sub-region is decided, the slots will be distributed to contest sites in the sub-region. The following guidelines will be observed when distributing slots to each contest site in the sub-region:

                    (1)  The East Continent sub-region will use the Site participation score and the China resolution posted in the Asia Blog and using the 2017 Asia Regionals rankings. The China resolution can be found at: 

                    http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_b946da100102wsfh.html 

                    (2)  The Pacific and Southeast Peninsula sub-region had adopted a new resolution to promote teams to WF from each site in PSP. The Resolution can be browsed at

                           http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_b946da100102wyn0.html 

which includes the PSP Under-representation Resolutions and a specil formula.

                   (3)  West Continent  Sub-region Revised Site Scores resolutions:

The revised contest site score of each site in WC is calculated as the weighted average of the following two items: 65% of 2017 combined Asia Regional site scores and 35% of 2017 WF average of numbers of problems solved by each site or each country. 

WF slots allocation in India is then using the formula specified by India Resolutions which can be browsed at:

                      http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_b946da100102wvei.html

          (g) Preference Teams awarded by RCD’s or by Asia Director:

                    (1) All China sites will award 2017 China hosting universities WF slots if the host team can win a ranking of 10 or better in other contest sites in China. (Please refer to China resolution in the Asia blog.)

                    (2) PSP adopts preference team for the under-represented country (Please see item III.E.3.f.(2). ) 

                    (3) No preference team resolutions adopted in WC  sub-region.

                    (4) There may be additional bonus or preference slots designated by ICPC Executive Director, by ICPC Deputy Director, and by Asia Director. If the additional bonus slots are available from Headquarter, Asia Director may award those slots to those universities with great contribution to Asia ICPC development providing the team from those universities win a university ranking of 15 or better in any Asia Regional contest. If the available slots can not accommodate all preference teams, the number of times in hosting Asia Regional contests, the year the university was in the WF last time, and etc. will be used for deciding the university preference to win the WF slots. Other factors such as geographic balance may also be put into consideration for selecting Asia Director's preference teams.

          (h) The WF slot shares of any sub-region can not be used by teams from another sub-region without advance approval for preference teams by the contest site steering committee and by Asia Director.

4. Absence in WF by an advancing team

It is the team’s obligation to do everything to attend World Finals once the team has accepted the WF invitation. If the advancing team can not participate the WF for any reasons including visa issue, examination schedule conflict, financial difficulty or student job status, the team must inform ICPC headquarter manager and Asia Director at least two months before the WF. Failing to do so, the team’s home university will be penalized that the university will be prohibited from sending team to WF for the next two years. This allows Asia Director to have enough time to obtain a replacement team. (No team member replacement can be accepted.) It is very important for all team members to take care of the passport, visa, school issue, job situation, and travel problem as early as possible. This rule will be strictly enforced.

5. Postponing the Asia Regional contest

The postponement of any Asia Regional Contest must be approved by Asia Director. This rule is applicable to any reason of postponement.

If the approved new contest date is set after Dec 31 and before Jan 15 of the following year, the postponed site will receive only one WF team slot. The only one selected WF team from this site will be the first team from this site ranking after removing all universities who already have teams being advanced to WF from other Asia sites. If the postponed date is scheduled after Jan 15, the contest will be cancelled or no WF team will be allocated for this site. 

6. Unforseen Situations

There may be some unforeseen situations or cases not included in these rules of ACM-ICPC 2017 Specific Asia Regional Rules. If the situation does occur, Asia Director will use his best judgment and professional practice to make the fairest decisions for the solutions.

F.Rules on Contest Environment

Some contest judging software (e,g, PC Square or other judging software) will be provided from ACM-ICPC website http://www.ecs.csus.edu/pc2/pc2code.html

Other judging software may be used. But the advance announcement by the Site Director is required.

IV.Other Administrative Items

A. Submitting documents.

At the end of the contest, each Regional Site Director is required to submit the following items to ICPC web site within one week after the contest:

1. Contest Ranking: University names, problems solved, and time consumed.

2. Contest Problems set.

3. Each Regional Site Director is required to enter the names of RCD, Coordinator, Judges, Contest Problems creators/setters and other contest staff to ICPC Staff list in ICPC web site.

4. Required documents to be submitted for provincials, nationals, and Invitationals are same.

B. Funding, Industrial Sponsorships, ICPC Integrity and Acknowledgement.

1. JetBrains is the ICPC Global Programming Toll sponsor

          (a) JetBrains has provided via ICPC Foundation to support part of the regional contest activities for each Asia Regional site.

          (b) The Asia Regional Contests are self supporting for each contest site. Each Regional Contest Site Director is responsible for obtaining financial support from local industries, government entities, and universities in addition to ICPC Foundation-Jetbrains.

          (c) As an ACM ICPC leader, RCD’s are responsible for compliance with the ACM-ICPC sponsorship requirements. Jetbrains is the primary global Programming Toll sponsor. All printed materials must clearly display that fact. All printed goods, such as T-shirts, bags, and signage, and all contest materials must clearly display that fact, listing  ICPC Foundation-Jetbrains first. 

2. ICPC Integrity

          (a) ICPC autonomy requires keeping the ACM -ICPC Policies and Procedures and the ICPC Rules in spirit and well as in word. The ACM -ICPC must control the integrity of all ICPC contests. Asia Director cannot approve any ACM-ICPC Asia contests from becoming the external Third Party (ETP) contests. Individuals are welcome in helping the contest in the committee under RCD’s management. RCD must manage the committees and individual volunteers, not in other opposite direction. Individuals help RCD as individuals. RCD’s manage the committees and individual volunteers. Volunteers do not manage RCD’s.

          (b) In order to protect ICPC academic integrity and ICPC Semi-autonomous nature, most RCD’s and all new RCD’s (if requested by Asia Director), are required to sign the “ICPC Integrity Acknowledge Statement”to prevent any external third party (ETP) from running ICPC activities, controlling and interrupting the RCD’s in executing the ICPC Asia Regional hosting functions. (See Appendix One for Integrity Statement.)

V. Appendices

A. Appendix One: ICPC Academic Integrity and Autonomy Statement:

        ACM-ICPC Asia Sites Academic Integrity and Autonomy Confirmation

    All RCD’s especially new RCD’s must understand and preserve the ICPC Integrity and Autonomous Spirit and sign the“ICPC Integrity and Autonomy Confirmation Statement" :

(Please review the two paragraphs in item (IV.B.1.a) and item (IV.B.1.b) above for integrity and autonomy.​)

1. ____________ (RCD signature 1 for the following statements :)

     I guarantee that any link in the local web pages to a non-ICPC entity or organization must be approved by Asia Director. I will mantain the integrity of the ACM-ICPC contest.  I guarantee my contest will be 100% ACM-ICPC activities. If I receive an Industrial support fund, I understand I will allow a link to Industry Support and I will allow their advertisement for their services, activities and recruiting. The fund must come to us directly from industries and can not thru any external Third Part (ETP).  I will not allow any external Third Party (ETP) to run or control our own contest activities.

I guarantee that the contest problems setter/creator or volunteers must be organized under my contest committee and under my management. If paying them is necessary, they will be paid thru our contest budget, not through any external Third Party (ETP).

I understand that, if I violate the integrity of the ACM-ICPC contests listed above, my contest site will be cancelled or my contest site will not advance teams to the World Finals.

2.  If RCD is not in charge of contest operation and coordination, please add the second person who is in charge of operation and coordination and put his/her signature here:

Additional Second person’s Signature 2: _____________________ Date: ___________

Supervisor’s (Dean or Associate Dean) Signature 3: _____________Date: ___________

(Please send in Adobe pdf format with your (and possibly 2nd and 3rd  person’s) signature to Asia Director.  Do not send in iphone like jpg format.)

(The End)