Get 1/4 is one of the flagship events conducted by the Young Software Engineers Society (YSES) where students' analytical and collaborative skills are tested through manually solving programming problems with only a pen and paper.

Twelve (12) teams geared up for the eleventh iteration of the Get 1/4! The Pen && Paper Programming Challenge held at the CEM Function Hall on May 16, 2023. This eleventh iteration, with the theme "Ready Player Code", marked a significant milestone as the organization's first face-to-face coding event since the onset of the pandemic

The competition is open to all UPLB students who are familiar with the programming languages C, JavaScript, and Python.

The event's theme was inspired by the film “Ready Player One" and introduced unique game mechanics per round. In Round 1, teams could use their earned points to purchase power-ups called "artifacts" that could impact the progress of their own or opposing teams when activated. A race to collect the Copper, Jade, and Crystal keys was then introduced in Round 2, where the first three teams to collect the keys would be crowned the winners.

Among the 12 competing teams, the “INCOGNITO NINJAS" emerged as the Champion Clan (1st place) closely followed by “SADBOIZ” (2nd place) and “LECHE CLAN” (3rd place). The winning teams each received Php 5000, Php 3000, and Php 1500 respectively. All participants also received gift envelopes and the chance to win various raffle prizes.

The awards were presented to the winners and participants by Mr. Benjamin Gallero (Overall Activity Head) and Mr. Kirby Leopardas (YSES’ Chief Executive Officer) together with the esteemed judges from the Institute of Computer Science (ICS) faculty: Prof. Fermin Roberto Lapitan, Prof. Perico Dan Dionisio, and Prof. Elijah Nicolas Isungga.

"Our favorite part of the event was the first round due to the power-ups. Power-ups really changed the game as teams are able to hinder or freeze other teams. We were affected by the power-ups twice, and it made the competition more fun and exciting," said Andreu Aranton, a member of the INCOGNITO NINJAS team. "We initially joined just to have fun but our teamwork and hard work really paid off. All the other teams also did really well so we would also like to congratulate them."

The preparation and execution of the eleventh Get 1/4! iteration were directed by Jose Benjamin Gallero (Overall Activity Head), Ramil Benitez and Adrian Neil Tullo (Programs Committee Heads), Ma. Alexandra Siocon and Uzziel Josh Abiday (Visuals Committee Heads), Sophia Mae San Agustin and Lea Marie Somoson (Technical Committee Heads), and Frank Stephen Maddela (Financial Committee Head).