09 October 2013

Participants in the Q3 2013 PL/SQL Championship


The following players will be invited to participate in the Q3 2013 championship playoff. The number in parentheses after their names are the number of playoffs in which they have already participated.

Congratulations to all listed below on their accomplishment and best of luck in the upcoming competition!

We currently plan to hold the championship on 7 November (again, at a single time world-wide), and are waiting for confirmation from players.

See the FAQ for an explanation of the three ways a player can qualify for the playoff.

Name Rank Qualification Country
swart260 (5)1Top 25Netherlands
Rakesh Dadhich (3)2Top 25India
Oleksiy Varchyn (0)3Top 25Norway
Stelios Vlasopoulos (8)4Top 25Belgium
Ajaykumar Gupta (2)5Top 25Singapore
Janis Baiza (7)6Top 25Latvia
mentzel.iudith (11)7Top 25Israel
Jerry Bull (9)8Top 25United States
Niels Hecker (12)9Top 25Germany
Frank Puechl (2)10Top 25Germany
Siim Kask (11)11Top 25Estonia
Viacheslav Stepanov (10)12Top 25Russia
Justin Cave (9)13Top 25United States
dannyg64 (2)14Top 25United States
Peter Schmidt (4)15Top 25Germany
Andrey Zaytsev (0)16Top 25Russia
Hamid Talebian (0)17Top 25Netherlands
Jeroen Rutte (5)18Top 25Netherlands
Michal Cvan (9)19Top 25Slovakia
Milibor Jovanovic (3)20Top 25Serbia
Zoltan Fulop (5)21Top 25Hungary
Pavel Vorontsov (0)22Top 25Russia
Frank Schmitt (6)23Top 25Germany
_tiki_4_ (4)24Top 25Germany
Ivan Blanarik (6)25Top 25Slovakia
Tony Winn (3)32WildcardAustralia
Giedrius Deveikis (3)38CorrectnessLithuania
Denis Ivin (0)42CorrectnessRussia
Tobias Stark (2)56CorrectnessGermany
Martin_Scholz_Berlin_Berlin (0)57CorrectnessGermany
james su (6)84WildcardCanada
Ingimundur Gudmundsson (1)87CorrectnessNorway
Thierry Poels (5)92CorrectnessBelgium
richb (0)133CorrectnessUnited States
Dan Kiser (4)223CorrectnessUnited States
Telmoc (0)224CorrectnessPortugal
Upendra Motamarri (0)316CorrectnessIndia


07 October 2013

How One Team Enjoys the PL/SQL Challenge

A very nice thing about my announcement over the weekend regarding cheaters is that it prompted several players to write to me about how much they have enjoyed the PL/SQL Challenge.

Here's the best story I got - it really made my day!

Thank you very much for this great project. I love the challenge and learn (almost every day) new aspects of PL/SQL.

I thought you might like to hear how we "celebrate" the PL/SQL Challenge at our company.
 
We are currently 6 developers using PL/SQL and playing the PL/SQL Challenge.
 
We made our own trophies:
  • Bronze for the leader in the previous week
  • Silver for highest ranking player in the last month
  • And gold for the best player in last quarter
Here's a picture of our quarterly trophy:

 
It's always a fun and funny moment when the previous owner of the trophy presents it to the new winner. 
 
How wonderful and entertaining! Thanks so much, Peter,for sharing this with me.
 
Do you have a fun story about the PL/SQL Challenge in your life and/or your job? Please let us know and we will post it on the blog!
 
Steven