The first edition of Deadline24 was organized in 2009 in Gliwice, Poland, and it was the unique event of that kind in Poland. Back then, it was a small meeting for the fans of algorithmics. The idea was originated by Tomasz Łakota and Mateusz Brzeszcz – graduates of the Silesian University of Technology.
Today, Deadline24 is an international contest, attended by the participants from all over the world. In 2017, a record number of competitors registered for the first stage of the competition - 1950. In the qualifying round the contestants were from such countries as Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, Ukraine, the United States, Great Britain, South Africa, Belarus, China, Switzerland, India, and Brazil.
During the contest, the participants have to face unusual creatures called beetlejumpers (Polish: żukoskoczki).
In 2009, we found out that these outstanding creatures from Universum are extremely useful as they can neutralize the negative energy carriers and thus contribute to saving the world. Beetlejumpers can walk, jump (and consequently smash one another), harden the surface, commit seppuku and breed. They can also transmit what they have just seen. Unfortunately, they are extremely lazy and they need a lot of motivation to work. The participants’ task was to tame these wild but interesting creatures.
A year later, we learnt more about beetlejumpers, who had been travelling to different planets by intergalactic car. The research on how to raise the population of these useful creatures was carried out as beetlejumpers didn’t breed in their natural environment (because of their laziness and lack of motivation).
They continued conquering the Universe afterwards, developing transport base in their extensive colonies on the adjacent planets. They use cars called Żuk, a model that used to be produced on the Once Blue Planet. They also fought against bloodthirsty Coors and mined some precious materials.