The ICPC maintains the official rules that apply by default to all regional contests. Individual regions may clarify and/or extend these rules as they see fit. Most of the clarifications and extensions for the Mid-Central USA regional contest are defined in the following two documents, which are provided to each team on the day of the contest.

1. Error Messages
2. Notes to Teams (includes tie-breaking rules)

Additional rules are described below.

• Electronic Devices
• Late Registration
• Machine-Readable Media
• Number of Problems
• Reference Materials
• Registration Priority

Electronic Devices

Except for simple watches, teams may not have any electronic devices in their possession during the contest. This includes, but is not limited to, phones and other communication devices, calculators, calculator watches, PDAs, electronic translators or dictionaries, e-books, audio players/recorders, video players/recorders, scanners, and printers. Mere possession of such a device will result in immediate disqualification, regardless of whether or not it was used.

Late Registration

There is no late registration. If you do not register via the ICPC web site by the posted deadline, you cannot participate.

Machine-Readable Media

Teams may not possess any machine-readable electronic or magnetic media during the contest unless provided by the site explicitly for contest use. Violation of this rule will result in immediate disqualification, regardless of intent or whether the media were actually used.

Number of Problems

We are required to have at least six problems, and we will never have more than nine. The exact number will be posted on the home page a few days before the contest.

Reference Materials

The World Finals only allow teams to have 25 pages of reference material in PDF format, which is verified and printed out for the team for its use during the contest. For the Mid-Central USA contest, teams may bring any amount of printed reference material, including printouts of source code. If you have a book that includes a CD, be sure to leave the CD at home; see above.

Registration Priority

Our primary goal is to maximize the number of teams that participate in the contest; our secondary goal is to maximize the number of schools.

(1) Schools may register as many teams as they like before the registration deadline. The ICPC web site automatically time-stamps each registration and marks it "pending". (2) No registrations will be allowed after the deadline, period. (3) Until the deadline, teams will be "accepted" in the order that they registered, up to a maximum of two teams per school, as long as space is available. (4) Third, fourth, and higher teams from a school will always be left "pending" until after the deadline. (5) After the deadline, if any space is available, third teams will be accepted in the order that they registered, then fourth teams will be accepted in the order that they registered, and so on.

There is no limit on the number of teams that may compete from a single institution assuming that sufficient space is available. However, a school's teams may only compete at a single site.