Grobots - Tournaments - Newbie Tournaments

The Newbie Tournaments are intended to allow new players to compete with each other without the demoralizing effect of losing to the best sides over and over. They are open to players who have not yet had a side place in the top ten or so of the regular tournaments.

Newbie Tournament 4

(10 September 2007) This time the tournament was actually scheduled in advance, and we got five new sides. 222 rounds:

RankSideAuthor ScoreSurvivalEarly
death
Late
death
Early
score
FractionKills
1Flower 2Tilendor 43.2%83%7%10%15.1%51%22%
2Solar->Gatherer->KillerIds Braam 33.1%87%3%11%12.8%37%38%
3MicroAlgaeTilendor 16.0%63%5%34%11.5%25%0%
4StatSpawnmcmadhatter 6.4%63%1%37%12.4%9%24%
5MangeursSzeety 6.1%34%18%58%12.0%18%0%
6Simple 1James Austin 6.0%43%7%54%14.6%14%0%
7NovaTyson & Ryan 5.8%46%24%40%9.5%11%11%
8T2-base-basedmcmadhatter 1.2%39%8%58%7.8%3%14%
9Smarter EaterAnalog Kid 0.7%27%9%70%8.9%3%0%
10My AlgaeAnalog Kid 0.4%9%43%84%7.5%5%0%
11Diagonal ExplorerMarcos Coelho Marín 0.1%9%9%90%5.7%1%6%
12mini-eatersIds Braam 0.0%7%9%92%2.3%1%2%
Overall:43%12%52%

Two notes on tournament rules. First, some sides include a good deal of modified code from the tutorial. I think this is okay, because it's hard to build anything out of parts without understanding the parts well enough to write them yourself. In any case the useful parts of the tutorial are not very exotic - an experienced player can recreate them from memory.

Second, I removed Alexander's sides, because his Shield + Cowards is in the Top Nine. If you prefer to leave his other sides in, the results are (also 222 rounds):

RankSideAuthor ScoreSurvivalEarly
death
Late
death
Early
score
FractionKills
1Forest FightersAlexander 41.6%76%1%23%20.2%55%41%
2Solar->Gatherer->KillerIds Braam 31.9%61%16%27%12.8%50%23%
3Flower 2Tilendor 24.7%46%29%36%12.9%49%15%
4BomberzAlexander 20.5%84%7%10%13.4%24%19%
5MicroAlgaeTilendor 9.5%33%23%56%10.6%29%0%
6StatSpawnmcmadhatter 9.0%56%9%38%11.4%16%19%
7NovaTyson & Ryan 5.4%29%45%48%8.6%17%7%
8Dark Forest [0.2]Alexander 4.8%45%13%48%9.2%10%12%
9MangeursSzeety 4.5%17%32%75%10.4%26%0%
10Simple 1James Austin 3.9%24%27%67%12.9%16%0%
11Flaming ForestAlexander 3.1%36%10%60%9.6%8%12%
12My AlgaeAnalog Kid 1.3%8%51%84%9.4%17%0%
13T2-base-basedmcmadhatter 0.8%24%28%67%6.1%3%8%
14Smarter EaterAnalog Kid 0.4%19%26%75%6.5%2%0%
15mini-eatersIds Braam 0.1%9%14%90%2.4%1%2%
16Diagonal ExplorerMarcos Coelho Marín 0.0%4%25%94%3.7%0%3%
Overall:36%22%54%

I think I prefer removing sides, because it creates more turnover. If we didn't remove sides when the author (not the side) graduated to the main tournament, sides like Forest Fighters would accumulate. They might not be good enough for the top ten, but they're good enough to intimidate beginners. That's what the Newbie Tournaments are supposed to avoid.

Newbie Tournament 3

(23 July 2006) Added five sides by Alexander. Removed Move Zig! because it's now champion, and the filler sides (Lunatic, Sunflower, and Neorabbit) because we have more than ten newbie sides now. Forest Fighters kills most everything, which makes the tournament run much faster. (230 rounds.)

RankSideAuthor ScoreSurvivalDeath rate Early ScoreFractionKills
EarlyLate
1Forest FightersAlexander 40%85%1%15%20.8%47%43%
2Shield + Cowards 2fAlexander 25%79%16%6%11.0%32%11%
3BomberzAlexander 19%88%10%3%11.6%22%25%
4Flower 2Tilendor 15%31%27%58%12.6%41%12%
5MicroalgaeTilendor 7.0%22%23%71%11.0%31%0%
8NovaTilendor & Ryan 5.0%24%36%62%8.9%18%6%
6Dark ForestAlexander 4.1%39%20%52%8.0%10%11%
7Simple 1James Austin 3.0%16%31%77%10.8%19%0%
9Flaming ForestAlexander 1.3%25%16%70%7.9%5%9%
10My AlgaeAnthony Kozar 0.8%6.9%59%83%7.5%12%0%
11Smarter EaterAnthony Kozar 0.3%9.7%24%87%6.8%4%0%
12Diagonal ExplorerMarcos Coelho Marín 0.0%4.0%27%94%3.4%1%3%
Overall:36%24%53%

Newbie Tournament 2

(13 June 2006) I added Flower 2 and Move Zig!. Both are much better armed than the previous batch of sides.

RankSideAuthorScoreSurvivalEarly ScoreKillsComment
1Move Zig!ziggystar 38%96%8.2%50%Good fighters. Slow growth.
2Flower 2Tilendor 33%76%11.5%32%Pretty and tough, but sometimes self-destructs.
3MicroalgaeTilendor 18%79%10.3%0%Hard to kill off.
4FlowerTilendor 9.0%51%8.1%15%Doing better with fewer tiny gatherers consuming missiles.
5Simple 1James Austin 8.3%65%16.2%0%Good growth. Needs a weapon.
6NeoRabbitDevon 3.6%66%15.7%0%
7SunflowerMatt Burkholder 3.4%38%6.6%7%
8Lunatic 2Devon 2.5%37%6.0%0%
9My AlgaeAnthony Kozar 1.7%19%11.2%0%Destroys itself.
10NovaTilendor & Ryan 1.5%14%8.0%9%Serious friendly fire problem.
11Smarter EaterAnthony Kozar 0.7%39%10.0%0%
12Diagonal ExplorerMarcos Coelho Marín 0.1%24%8.2%5%Grows early, but starves later. Buggy fighters.
Overall:50%Only 105 rounds, because they're still a bit slow. Error <= 5.1%.

Newbie Tournament 1

(15 March 2006) The release of the Windows version brought a bunch of new users (okay, two of them). There are now enough users who have never won a tournament that Tilendor organized a tournament for them. There are seven sides from four and a half authors, plus three old sides to pad the roster to ten.

Because none of these sides are well-armed, the population increases greatly and slows down the simulation. Therefore no one has run enough rounds to have reliable results. The scores given here are based on only 20 rounds. Survival was nearly 100%, except for My Algae.

RankSideAuthorScoreComment
1MicroalgaeTilendor37%Skittish algae.
2Simple 1James Austin28%
3My AlgaeAnthony Kozar16%Destroys itself.
NeoRabbitDevon8%
Smarter EaterAnthony Kozar< 3%
Diagonal ExplorerMarcos Coelho MarínBuggy.
FlowerTilendor
NovaTilendor & RyanBuggy.
SunflowerMatt Burkholder
Lunatic 2Devon

Newbies: send in more sides, and updated versions of these, so we can continue this tournament!

Grobots by Devon Schudy and Warren Schudy