StackLeague Monthly Playoff - April 30, 2022
Seventeen (17) challengers competed in this month's (April) qualifier round. The top qualifier for March took the top spot again in this month's StackLeague Playoff. Meanwhile, two new challengers won a spot in the April qualifier pool.
What is StackLeague Playoffs?
StackLeague is the first year-round programming tournament in the Philippines. Joining the tournament is free and open to all programming students, enthusiasts, and professionals. Participants solve various coding challenges to gain ranking and earn prizes. Every month there is a qualifier round open only to the weekly top 10 challengers for the month.
Why join the StackLeague tournament?
There are many prizes and opportunities to network and find career opportunities. For starters, there are three (3) challenge levels -- Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Completing a level for the first time will earn you a corresponding prize:
- Completing Bronze level will earn you ₱ 100 prize.
- Completing Silver level will earn you another ₱ 100 prize.
- Completing Gold level will earn you ₱ 300 prize.
Additionally, being in the weekly top 10 on the leaderboard earns you an exclusive invitation to the monthly playoffs. There you can compete for a spot in the qualifying pool, and earn prizes:
- Top 1 winner: ₱ 5,000 prize.
- Top 2 winner: ₱ 3,000 prize.
Results of the April Playoffs
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The StackLeague playoffs Zoom meeting was by-invitation only. But portions of the program were streamed live on YouTube:
The official competition timer started at 10:30am. Challengers had to solve four (4) challenges of varying difficulties in the alloted 5-hour period. But it seems the high-performing players didn't need that much time, as many of them quickly climbed the leaderboard within minutes. Here is a rough timeline of how the leaderboard changed during the competition:
- 10:30am - everybody starts with 0 score
- 10:34am - 4 minutes into the game, Clyde and Lance grab the top 2 spots, with 10pts each.
- 10:39am - after 5 more minutes, John Eric Estrada already overtook Clyde at top place, while John, Arvin, and Deniece snatch the 3rd, 4th, and 5th spots respectively, leaving Lance at 6th place.
- 10:42am - 11 of the 17 participants have already submitted at least one challenge solution. Lance grabs the 3rd place from John. Meanwhile, I just finished my first challenge, securing myself at 12th place.
- 10:44am - Eric Ramirez and Cyril Paolo Quitevis suddenly grab 4th and 5th place respectively.
- 10:52am - it's a tight race among the top 10 players, as these are the same top performers in the weekly leaderboards. Cyril rises to 2nd place, with only 4 points separating him and John Eric.
- 11:04am - while John Eric Estrada is still in 1st place, he's taking a bit longer to submit his next challenge. Meanwhile, Eric Ramirez climbs back to 3rd place, having previously dropped to 7th place.
- 11:11am - Eric Ramirez steals the top spot from John Eric Estrada. By this time I decided to focus on my next submission, so I wasn't able to watch the leaderboard for a few minutes.
- 11:38am - John Eric Estrada locks in his win for the day by achieving 100 points.
- 12:06pm - the people at 5th place and below are slowly and quietly trying to regain their ranks, as by this time everyone is working on the more difficult challenges.
- 12:12pm - Eric Ramirez surprisingly rises back to 2nd place from 5th, and locks in his win with 100 points. Cyril Paolo Quitevis gets a breakthrough as he rises from 7th to 3rd place.
- 12:46pm - by this time, the 1st to 4th places were pretty much locked in, each of them having gained 100 points already. The 5th place was also very close at 92.5. (Wow, do these beasts even eat lunch? 😅 )
- 12:53pm - while others were presumably taking a break (as there were no changes in their score), Arvin Tan sneaks in and secures 5th place with 100 points.
Recognition of the Winners of the StackLeague April Playoffs
John Eric Estrada won last month's playoffs, and he won again this April. Since he is already in the qualifier pool, the person next in line will get the spot. Eric Ramirez is automatically qualified, having finished at 2nd place. The qualifying spot was given to 3rd placer, Cyril Paolo Quitevis. When interviewed, Cyril shared that he found the final challenge very tricky. He had difficulty in solving it until he had a light bulb moment and finally understood the context of the problem. Looking back at the timeline, it seems that this Eureka moment occurred at around the 12:12pm mark.
Cyril also shared that the playoffs were a lot of fun, and adviced his fellow challengers: "tiwala lang" (have faith that you can do it). This was Cyril's first time to earn a spot in the qualifier pool, yet he already scored 100 points.
Better Luck / Practice Next Time
While some luck may be involved, for example in terms of the time factor (fastest to submit wins), winning StackLeague challenges depends more heavily on preparation and practice.
StackLeague itself provides helpful resources so that challengers can improve their skills.
- The website has training courses to help prepare contestants to earn the most prizes.
- Just this April, mentorship sessions were also conducted, where Gold-level challengers helped beginners on how to level up.
- StackLeague also offers practice tests to help prepare for the actual challenges.
- Once you have unlocked at least Bronze level, you can take and retake challenges as many times as you want. Don't worry about not appearing on the leaderboard for now. Just be consistent in practicing, failing, and learning, and you will be in the top ranks soon.
