[EricH]

Originally Posted by ajd

Why is this a programming challenge? It seems like creating the specification is the hard part, not the actual coding.

Well...

You have variable numbers of teams.
You have a number of different parameters that the user needs to input. (Match cycle time, number of matches per team, break times--and all of those will vary slightly.)
You have the 7 items in the challenge statement, which will have different weightings.
You need to make it user-friendly.

Your program needs to handle every one of those items, and handle it cleanly and effectively.

That's why it's a programming problem (aside from the standard "Everything's a programming problem" jokes.)

The other thing is that the challenge was a 12-hour time duration, which greatly adds to the challenge.