Hello,
I’ve submitted a few contributions to Clash of Code in the past months. I’ve also played a lot of Clashes myself.
As a result, it has happened a few times that I found myself playing a Clash of Code that I had designed myself.
I actually enjoyed testing my own puzzle in “real” Clash circumstances (as opposed to testing it calmly in the IDE while it was a pending contribution). However, it’s unfair to the other players in the Clash. As soon as I’ve read the first sentence of the statement, I recognise that it’s my own puzzle and I remember how to solve it. This gives me a near-unbeatable time advantage, especially in Fastest or Reverse mode.
The name of the Clash’s author is also visible, which means if any of the other Clash players is paying attention, they are going to notice that I was playing in my own Clash and they are probably going to feel a strong feeling of unfairness.
As I said, I actually enjoy testing my own Clash in real Clash circumstances, and it’s possible that other players enjoy the chance to compare themselves to the Clash’s author.
Is there a way the author of a Clash could be “authorised to participate, but disqualified from the Clash’s results”? That is, they could participate, but on the results report page, they would be marked explicitly as the author, and if they win, this win would not be counted and the second-ranked player would be counted as winning instead.