Entry Category Review

There were 75 entries in the ENTRY category.

This is a new level set up to encourage many people to take part in the contest and become familiar with KLIC, after receiving the following responses from the previous two contests: "It looks a little too formidable for beginners of KLIC" and "The theme looks rather hard." In response to these opinions, we redesigned the contest themes and application procedures to make them easier for beginners.

These ENTRY category works were accepted as being outstanding "if their programs function." No ranking (first place, second place and so on) was made.
As we could not accept all the entries as winning works, we had to limit the number to 50 (chosen based on past experience)--if there are more than 50 entries of outstanding quality, then the winners are determined by lot.
Those applicants whose works were not selected were each given a token for their participation.

>From our past experience, we assumed at first that we would not receive applications until just before the deadline, so it was a nice surprise to receive the first application the day after we publicly putting out the invitations, thus raising our expectations for many entries for the contest this year. Things slowed down somewhat thereafter, but there was a rush of applications as the deadline drew near. This application pattern was similar to that of the previous contests. The total number of entries was well over 50. Our goal was to encourage as many people as possible to take part in the contest--we feel we cleared this goal by a wide margin.

As soon as the entries were received, we checked the programs to see if they worked. Most of them were O.K., but some failed. The main objective of this category is to make as many people as possible familiar with KLIC. In line with this policy, and when there were still a few days left before the deadline, we asked those whose works did not function properly to make necessary corrections and resubmit them in time.

After this adjustment, only one out of the 75 did not function properly. Of the remaining 74 entries:
- Six were entered by those who had previously won some awards.
- Two were entered by those who had also applied for the other categories.

As the number of acceptable works exceeded 50, we had to choose winning entries by lot, which was done after examining the entries in the other two categories.

The screening committee met on Wednesday, December 2 to examine the programs submitted. Those two applicants who had also applied for the SPEED and IDEA categories were also accepted at these two levels. We therefore removed these two works and also those of the six applicants who had won other awards in the past from the 74 entries, and drew lots for the remaining 66.

As mentioned above, this lot-drawing took place after examining the works for the SPEED category and IDEA category. A total of 50 entries were chosen as a result. As a consolation, I would like to emphasize here that 16 works were unsuccessful not because of their programs, but because they were unlucky in the draw.

I hope everyone enjoyed the Lights Out.