Re:How would the A team do? (Score 2, Interesting)

Well, as a completely disinterested bystander in this imbroglio let me offer a few comments. The Duke team was not ill-prepared. The Duke team consists of first-rate people/students, not "second stringers". Lots of teams got crushed (and disproportionally US teams got crushed). If you look at the results you'll see teams from these "elite US institutions": MIT, Cal Tech, Princeton, CMU, Rice, ... Only MIT did well (top 12). Canadian teams have done well for many years and did so again (Waterloo, Alberta). The teams from Harvard, Stanford, ... didn't make it to the finals. Why? As an earlier responder wrote: preparation and interest. I'd still go to these schools (and Duke) to hire people for Google, Microsoft, the next start-up, etc. But the students at these schools, and others, have many and wide-ranging interests. They're not completely dedicated to this contest and that's what is required to do well in addition to knowledge and ability.