Harvard dropout from Louisiana wins OpenBracket 2017

There really couldn’t be a better place the The Queen for OpenBracket, the top-flight coding competition that brought coders from all over the country to Wilmington for a weekend of competitive problem solving.

As a spectator sport, coding involves a lot of silence and watching people on laptops — but The Queen gives it all a cool, clubby atmosphere (well, it is a music venue). This year, The Queen was the sole venue for the competition (last year, The Grand was also utilized), and it was every coder for themselves, in contrast to last year’s team coding.

Competitors were given coding problems to solve within a time limit, similar to the challenges on HackerRank.com, the platform used for the live competition.

Coming out on top and taking the $10,000 prize was Scott Wu from Louisiana. Last year, Wu was a Harvard student — he’s an ex-Harvard student now — who was on the team that came in second, Recommendations Event Discovery Tool.

We have crowned a winner! Harvard dropout Scott Wu (Louisiana) takes home the $10k #OpenBracket top prize! 🎉 🎈 pic.twitter.com/TqbM7eyW8g

— OpenBracket (@openbracketDE) October 22, 2017

The corporate award went to Barclaycard. Douglas Pierce, the company’s Enterprise Architect, took home the hardware:

More highlights from Twitter:

Did I say ambiance?

Excited for the kickoff of the @openbracketDE 2017 competition! pic.twitter.com/wEJ5dfra4p

— Jonathan Meade (@Jonathan_HTIC) October 20, 2017

@openbracketDE @christianacare Getting ready for the kickoff of OpenBracket 2017! pic.twitter.com/ydoThyHk6D

— John DiGiovanni (@John_HTIC) October 20, 2017

Gov. John Carney kicked things off and stayed on-brand, using the opportunity to woo out-of-town coders with #OptionsInDelaware.

Delaware has a vibrant tech business ecosystem: @JohnCarneyDE says #OpenBracket attendees would be surprised at #delawareoptions pic.twitter.com/RnycvlyGap

— OpenBracket (@openbracketDE) October 21, 2017

Honored to have @JohnCarneyDE help us kick off @openbracketDE at @QueenWilmington #netde pic.twitter.com/gV4Yc8qVON

— Ben duPont (@BenjaminduPont) October 21, 2017

#openBracket2017 is even more amazing this year then last year! @openbracketDE @zipcodewilm pic.twitter.com/yoMrOLKkLG

— Open Data Delaware (@opendatade) October 21, 2017

Next round of head to head coding competition #OpenBracket is about to begin pic.twitter.com/MaFjoUSnAq

— OpenBracket (@openbracketDE) October 21, 2017

It wasn’t all quiet and coding — after Saturday’s competition for the finals, there was networking, drinks and entertainment from Will Wood & The Tapeworms.

Closing out #OpenBracket today with @tapewormsmusic pic.twitter.com/MVrjw6QEr4

— OpenBracket (@openbracketDE) October 22, 2017

Sunday morning was intense, with the final round.

Final round of @openbracketDE just ended. 8 finalists worked through 6 coding problem sets in 30 minutes. Winner announced shortly #netde pic.twitter.com/G7X9w9k1v9

— Ben duPont (@BenjaminduPont) October 22, 2017

Emcee Tariq Hook of Zip Code Delaware announcing the winners:

Special thanks to our emcee for the #OpenBracket weekend @code_rhino @zipcodewilm — he put so much pride and effort into this event pic.twitter.com/FhvdIDmfUM

— OpenBracket (@openbracketDE) October 22, 2017