There are three tournament series:
Because there is so little activity, none of the tournaments are run on a regular schedule; instead we run them whenever new sides show up. So don't wait for an announcement — send us your sides to enter. Or, since we're often very slow to respond, you could just run the tournament yourself, and send the results to the mailing list.
All of the tournaments use the default rules (100x100 world, ten sides, etc.). The analysis page may be useful for understanding the results.
(20131208) ISI shows that a side with good tactics can win solidly without exploiting either giants or long range. Its fighters are the first active dodgers by anyone but Warren, and they're much simpler than Warren's (over)fancy implementation. They tend to stay in a group, which helps concentrate force, although it causes significant friendly fire. It also gathers food with force fields, showing that's still competitive. I'm not sure why it's so much better than RK and Active.
| Rank | Side | Author | Score | Nonsterile survival | Early death | Late death | Early score | Fraction | Kills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ISI | fmb | 65.0% | 67% | 26% | 9% | 25.1% | 96% | 42% |
| 2 | RK Bertha | Warren | 45.5% | 47% | 34% | 29% | 21.9% | 96% | 32% |
| 3 | Active 9 | Warren | 26.9% | 33% | 28% | 54% | 17.5% | 81% | 24% |
| 4 | Revenge Killer 5 | Warren | 19.6% | 21% | 52% | 56% | 13.3% | 88% | 16% |
| 5 | Faithless | fmb | 13.7% | 15% | 59% | 64% | 10.0% | 91% | 13% |
| 6 | The Lunacy | David/Warren | 13.0% | 15% | 56% | 66% | 12.4% | 84% | 13% |
| 7 | ARG 1.1 | David | 9.3% | 9% | 71% | 70% | 8.8% | 73% | 17% |
| 8 | The Horde | David and Midnight | 8.6% | 14% | 56% | 69% | 11.5% | 63% | 11% |
| 9 | Segregated Eaters 3 | Matt Burkholder | 6.5% | 9% | 59% | 77% | 7.5% | 61% | 8% |
| 10 | Move Zig! | ziggystar | 5.8% | 12% | 51% | 76% | 8.0% | 49% | 6% |
| 11 | Land Grab v4 | Mike Anderson | 5.1% | 10% | 49% | 80% | 12.8% | 48% | 12% |
| 12 | Weird Men D | Matt Burkholder | 4.6% | 9% | 53% | 81% | 8.4% | 49% | 5% |
| 13 | Unproductive 3 | Devon | 3.8% | 14% | 40% | 77% | 9.7% | 26% | 6% |
| 14 | Cyclops | Warren | 3.5% | 11% | 45% | 80% | 11.6% | 31% | 5% |
| 15 | Adaptive 4.0c | Matt Burkholder | 3.1% | 6% | 68% | 80% | 7.6% | 42% | 5% |
| 16 | Productive Plus 5 | DvF and Devon | 3.0% | 6% | 74% | 75% | 6.3% | 46% | 3% |
| 17 | Commune + 2 | Devon/Warren | 2.9% | 6% | 67% | 82% | 7.3% | 44% | 5% |
| 18 | Walled City 2 | Warren | 2.7% | 7% | 62% | 82% | 7.7% | 38% | 5% |
| 19 | Borg (v1) | Borg | 2.5% | 4% | 81% | 79% | 6.0% | 44% | 5% |
| 20 | Shield + Cowards 2g | Alexander (aka nfwu) | 2.3% | 8% | 62% | 79% | 6.6% | 29% | 3% |
| 21 | Move Zig!(nc) | ziggystar | 2.2% | 4% | 67% | 89% | 5.4% | 57% | 4% |
| 22 | Commune 10 | Devon | 1.9% | 5% | 65% | 84% | 7.3% | 31% | 4% |
| 23 | Business Cycle 8 | Matt Burkholder | 1.7% | 4% | 63% | 90% | 6.2% | 40% | 3% |
| 24 | Wild Men 2 | Matt Burkholder | 1.6% | 3% | 67% | 92% | 5.8% | 55% | 4% |
| 25 | Untouchable 4 | Warren | 1.3% | 3% | 73% | 87% | 5.8% | 35% | 2% |
| 26 | Wise Men (without Jose) | Matt Burkholder | 1.2% | 5% | 43% | 91% | 8.2% | 25% | 6% |
| Overall (4000 rounds): | 13% | 57% | 69% | 167% | |||||
(20120815) It's been two and a half years since the last tournament. Partly as a result of the long gap, we got a record fifteen new entries:
The five active dodgers took the top five places.
| Rank | Side | Author | Score | Nonsterile survival | Early death | Late death | Early score | Fraction | Kills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RK Bertha | Warren | 58.9% | 61% | 30% | 13% | 24.7% | 96% | 38% |
| 2 | Blaster Bertha | Warren | 47.7% | 52% | 26% | 29% | 22.0% | 91% | 39% |
| 3 | Big Bertha 2 | Warren | 35.6% | 41% | 37% | 35% | 16.9% | 87% | 29% |
| 4 | Active 9 | Warren | 33.9% | 41% | 29% | 43% | 18.5% | 81% | 28% |
| 5 | Revenge Killer 5 | Warren | 31.7% | 35% | 48% | 33% | 15.2% | 88% | 21% |
| 6 | The Lunacy | David/Warren | 17.8% | 22% | 52% | 53% | 13.8% | 79% | 16% |
| 7 | ARG 1.1 | David | 13.6% | 13% | 65% | 64% | 11.0% | 78% | 21% |
| 8 | The Horde | David and Midnight | 10.8% | 17% | 50% | 66% | 13.6% | 64% | 13% |
| 9 | Land Grab v4 | Mike Anderson | 9.5% | 19% | 43% | 67% | 15.9% | 47% | 15% |
| 10 | Segregated Eaters 3 | Matt Burkholder | 8.2% | 12% | 57% | 72% | 8.8% | 62% | 10% |
| 11 | Move Zig! 3 | ziggystar | 7.6% | 17% | 49% | 68% | 9.0% | 46% | 7% |
| 12 | Weird Men D | Matt Burkholder | 5.9% | 12% | 49% | 77% | 10.0% | 49% | 7% |
| 13 | Unproductive 3 | Devon | 5.9% | 18% | 41% | 69% | 10.2% | 32% | 8% |
| 14 | Adaptive 4.0c | Matt Burkholder | 5.8% | 11% | 65% | 69% | 8.6% | 50% | 7% |
| 15 | Borg (v1) | Borg | 5.4% | 7% | 77% | 68% | 7.1% | 56% | 7% |
| 16 | Walled City 2 | Warren | 5.2% | 13% | 59% | 69% | 8.6% | 40% | 8% |
| 17 | Cyclops | Warren | 5.0% | 16% | 36% | 74% | 15.2% | 30% | 6% |
| 18 | Commune + 2 | Devon/Warren | 4.6% | 10% | 67% | 70% | 7.4% | 44% | 5% |
| 19 | Productive Plus 5 | DvF and Devon | 4.1% | 8% | 72% | 70% | 7.1% | 47% | 4% |
| 20 | Shield + Cowards 2g | Alexander (aka nfwu) | 3.9% | 14% | 59% | 66% | 7.2% | 29% | 3% |
| 21 | Not Quite Harmless 3 | Warren | 3.8% | 13% | 45% | 76% | 10.8% | 16% | 3% |
| 22 | Move Zig! (no corner) | ziggystar | 3.6% | 5% | 66% | 85% | 6.3% | 72% | 5% |
| 23 | Commune 10 | Devon | 3.1% | 8% | 61% | 79% | 8.5% | 33% | 5% |
| 24 | Wise Men (without José) | Matt Burkholder | 3.0% | 10% | 41% | 84% | 9.3% | 29% | 8% |
| 25 | Business Cycle 8 | Matt Burkholder | 2.7% | 6% | 59% | 84% | 7.4% | 40% | 4% |
| 26 | Untouchable 4 | Warren | 2.6% | 7% | 68% | 79% | 7.1% | 37% | 4% |
| 27 | Wild Men 2 | Matt Burkholder | 2.5% | 4% | 68% | 86% | 6.3% | 48% | 5% |
| 28 | Artillery 5 | Devon | 2.1% | 5% | 65% | 87% | 7.8% | 30% | 2% |
| 29 | Bloopers-4 | Gigatron | 1.9% | 7% | 54% | 84% | 6.6% | 26% | 4% |
| 30 | Single bot v1.1 | David | 1.8% | 6% | 62% | 85% | 6.5% | 30% | 8% |
| 31 | Ring of Fire 4 | Devon | 1.7% | 3% | 69% | 89% | 6.8% | 35% | 2% |
| 32 | balun | elel | 0.7% | 1% | 86% | 93% | 2.3% | 72% | 5% |
| 33 | Focus | Daan | 0.7% | 3% | 61% | 92% | 5.5% | 13% | 1% |
| 34 | nom nom 1.2 | elel | 0.4% | 4% | 65% | 90% | 5.1% | 6% | 1% |
| 35 | Baronator 1.2 | Hector | 0.1% | 1% | 77% | 95% | 2.8% | 7% | 4% |
| Overall (3000 rounds): | 15% | 56% | 66% | 157% | |||||
Because these sides include three variants of Big Bertha and three of Massive Beast, I also ran a tournament without the duplicates, keeping only RK Bertha and ARG:
| Rank | Side | Author | Score | Nonsterile survival | Early death | Late death | Early score | Fraction | Kills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RK Bertha | Warren | 66.4% | 70% | 21% | 11% | 25.6% | 94% | 43% |
| 2 | Active 9 | Warren | 41.3% | 50% | 21% | 36% | 19.4% | 81% | 32% |
| 3 | Revenge Killer 5 | Warren | 34.1% | 39% | 41% | 35% | 15.6% | 87% | 23% |
| 4 | ARG 1.1 | David | 25.0% | 24% | 52% | 49% | 13.8% | 80% | 29% |
| 5 | Land Grab v4 | Mike Anderson | 13.0% | 28% | 34% | 57% | 17.8% | 43% | 18% |
| 6 | Move Zig! 3 | ziggystar | 10.5% | 24% | 43% | 58% | 9.8% | 44% | 9% |
| 7 | Segregated Eaters 3 | Matt Burkholder | 10.3% | 15% | 52% | 68% | 8.9% | 60% | 11% |
| 8 | Weird Men D | Matt Burkholder | 10.2% | 18% | 40% | 70% | 11.7% | 56% | 8% |
| 9 | Adaptive 4.0c | Matt Burkholder | 9.6% | 17% | 58% | 60% | 10.5% | 56% | 10% |
| 10 | Cyclops | Warren | 8.2% | 25% | 27% | 66% | 15.4% | 33% | 7% |
| 11 | Walled City 2 | Warren | 7.2% | 19% | 53% | 60% | 9.7% | 37% | 9% |
| 12 | Commune + 2 | Devon/Warren | 7.0% | 15% | 54% | 67% | 9.8% | 44% | 8% |
| 13 | Unproductive 3 | Devon | 6.6% | 23% | 37% | 64% | 10.0% | 29% | 9% |
| 14 | Borg (v1) | Borg | 6.4% | 9% | 72% | 68% | 8.1% | 53% | 9% |
| 15 | Productive Plus 5 | DvF and Devon | 5.5% | 11% | 72% | 61% | 6.7% | 49% | 4% |
| 16 | Commune 10 | Devon | 5.2% | 15% | 53% | 68% | 9.4% | 35% | 7% |
| 17 | Shield + Cowards 2g | Alexander (aka nfwu) | 5.2% | 20% | 50% | 61% | 8.3% | 26% | 4% |
| 18 | Business Cycle 8 | Matt Burkholder | 4.7% | 11% | 55% | 75% | 7.9% | 39% | 5% |
| 19 | Move Zig!(nc) | ziggystar | 4.6% | 8% | 59% | 80% | 6.7% | 55% | 6% |
| 20 | Untouchable 4 | Warren | 4.3% | 12% | 58% | 71% | 8.4% | 34% | 5% |
| 21 | Wise Men (without José) | Matt Burkholder | 4.2% | 13% | 36% | 80% | 10.0% | 33% | 10% |
| 22 | Single bot v1.1 | David | 3.7% | 10% | 50% | 79% | 7.8% | 35% | 11% |
| 23 | Wild Men 2 | Matt Burkholder | 3.5% | 8% | 56% | 83% | 8.1% | 43% | 6% |
| 24 | Not Quite Harmless 3 | Warren | 3.1% | 11% | 42% | 82% | 10.8% | 10% | 2% |
| 25 | Bloopers-4 | Gigatron | 2.1% | 9% | 47% | 83% | 6.5% | 24% | 4% |
| 26 | Artillery 5 | Devon | 1.8% | 5% | 58% | 87% | 7.9% | 21% | 2% |
| 27 | balun | elel | 1.8% | 3% | 82% | 85% | 2.9% | 67% | 6% |
| 28 | Ring of Fire 4 | Devon | 1.6% | 4% | 66% | 88% | 6.8% | 28% | 2% |
| 29 | Focus | Daan | 0.9% | 4% | 56% | 91% | 5.2% | 14% | 1% |
| 30 | nom nom 1.2 | elel | 0.3% | 3% | 59% | 93% | 4.9% | 3% | 1% |
| 31 | Baronator 1.2 | Hector | 0.1% | 1% | 69% | 95% | 3.6% | 7% | 5% |
| Overall (2200 rounds): | 17% | 51% | 66% | 153% | |||||
(24 Nov 2009, but not posted until 25 Dec - and I thought I was slow about the last one?) David Shellard wrote a lot of aggressive giants, and got five of the top six places. First place goes to The Lunacy, which he describes as an "exploit".
(Devon 20100105) It's not an exploit. The success of the five Massive Beast-based sides is largely because they have heavy long-range weapons, and there are currently no sides that handle that well. While most good sides have fighters that follow the shots back to their source, there are none that dodge well enough to avoid dying before they get there. So until the Massive Beast encounters a large enough force to kill it after suffering losses, it can attack with impunity. Fortunately there is a counter to this. Dodging the shots greatly reduces the damage taken, enabling even a small force to kill a Massive Beast. Warren has demonstrated this with active dodging (in an unreleased variant of Active 6), and it's probably possible to do nearly as well with passive dodging, by simply zigzagging slightly when chasing shots.
| Rank | Side | Author | Score | Nonsterile survival | Early death | Late death | Early score | Fraction | Kills | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Lunacy | David/Warren | 39.4% | 46% | 39% | 26% | 19.7% | 85% | 25% | |
| 2 | ARG 1.1 | David | 24.3% | 23% | 53% | 51% | 14.5% | 75% | 30% | |
| 3 | The Horde | David/Midnight | 21.7% | 33% | 40% | 46% | 17.9% | 66% | 16% | |
| 4 | Revenge Killer 4 | Warren | 19.0% | 27% | 42% | 54% | 14.0% | 69% | 11% | |
| 5 | Massive Beast 2 + Nanos | David and Midnight | 18.5% | 30% | 41% | 49% | 15.7% | 61% | 23% | |
| 6 | Massive Beast 2 Copia | David | 16.1% | 22% | 44% | 60% | 15.9% | 63% | 24% | |
| 7 | Weird Men D | Matt Burkholder | 12.8% | 22% | 46% | 59% | 10.1% | 56% | 9% | |
| 8 | Segregated Eaters 3 | Matt Burkholder | 11.5% | 17% | 57% | 61% | 8.4% | 61% | 11% | |
| 9 | Cyclops | Warren | 10.6% | 29% | 35% | 55% | 15.0% | 36% | 9% | |
| 10 | Move Zig! 3 | ziggystar | 10.3% | 22% | 48% | 58% | 8.9% | 46% | 8% | |
| 11 | Adaptive 4.0c | Matt Burkholder | 6.9% | 12% | 67% | 63% | 7.8% | 52% | 7% | |
| 12 | Shield + Cowards 2g | Alexander (aka nfwu) | 6.7% | 21% | 55% | 53% | 8.0% | 32% | 4% | |
| 13 | Borg (v1) | Borg | 6.5% | 8% | 78% | 61% | 7.4% | 51% | 8% | |
| 14 | Not Quite Harmless 3 | Warren | 5.8% | 15% | 47% | 72% | 10.5% | 17% | 3% | |
| 15 | Commune Plus 2 | Devon/Warren | 5.5% | 11% | 66% | 68% | 7.5% | 49% | 6% | |
| 16 | Productive Plus 4 | DvF/Devon | 5.0% | 8% | 76% | 65% | 6.0% | 55% | 4% | |
| 17 | Unproductive 2 | Devon | 5.0% | 15% | 53% | 67% | 8.5% | 30% | 7% | |
| 18 | Walled City 2 | Warren | 4.8% | 12% | 63% | 67% | 7.4% | 38% | 7% | |
| 19 | Business Cycle 8 | Matt Burkholder | 4.3% | 10% | 60% | 75% | 7.3% | 40% | 5% | |
| 20 | Wild Men 2 | Matt Burkholder | 4.0% | 8% | 63% | 79% | 6.8% | 51% | 6% | |
| 21 | Wise Men (without José) | Matt Burkholder | 4.0% | 12% | 40% | 79% | 9.4% | 30% | 9% | |
| 22 | Move Zig! (no corner) | ziggystar | 4.0% | 6% | 69% | 80% | 5.5% | 62% | 4% | |
| 23 | Untouchable 4 | Warren | 3.8% | 11% | 68% | 67% | 6.8% | 33% | 4% | |
| 24 | Commune 10 | Devon | 3.6% | 9% | 65% | 74% | 7.3% | 37% | 5% | |
| 25 | Single bot | David | 3.4% | 8% | 62% | 78% | 6.4% | 41% | 11% | |
| 26 | Bomberz | Alexander | 2.5% | 12% | 62% | 68% | 6.9% | 21% | 4% | |
| Overall (4849 rounds): | 17% | 55% | 61% | |||||||
(21 Aug 2008) People have sent me several sides this year, and I've forgotten to run a tournament until now (and I still forgot to include Adaptive 1.3.) Here are the results.
| Rank | Side | Author | Score | Nonsterile survival | Early death | Late death | Early score | Fraction | Kills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Revenge Killer 4 | Warren | 29.3% | 45% | 19% | 44% | 17.4% | 64% | 20% |
| 2 | Weird Men D | Matt Burkholder | 20.5% | 40% | 22% | 49% | 13.6% | 50% | 15% |
| 3 | Segregated Eaters 3 | Matt Burkholder | 20.4% | 32% | 36% | 50% | 9.8% | 59% | 18% |
| 4 | Move Zig! 3 | ziggystar | 20.1% | 43% | 31% | 38% | 10.8% | 46% | 14% |
| 5 | Cyclops | Warren | 14.7% | 55% | 15% | 36% | 16.2% | 27% | 12% |
| 6 | Walled City 2 | Warren | 11.1% | 33% | 35% | 50% | 11.2% | 33% | 14% |
| 7 | Unproductive 2 | Devon | 10.7% | 32% | 30% | 54% | 10.9% | 30% | 13% |
| 8 | Shield + Cowards 2f | Alexander | 10.5% | 34% | 51% | 30% | 7.2% | 30% | 5% |
| 9 | Commune Plus 2 | Devon/Warren | 9.1% | 21% | 42% | 63% | 9.9% | 39% | 9% |
| 10 | Business Cycle 8 | Matt Burkholder | 8.7% | 22% | 38% | 64% | 9.4% | 36% | 8% |
| 11 | Move Zig! (no corner) | ziggystar | 8.0% | 15% | 38% | 75% | 9.6% | 50% | 9% |
| 12 | Weird Men C | Matt Burkholder | 6.9% | 27% | 21% | 66% | 11.2% | 24% | 10% |
| 13 | Productive Plus 4 | DvF/Devon | 6.8% | 15% | 69% | 51% | 6.0% | 43% | 5% |
| 14 | Commune 10 | Devon | 6.6% | 21% | 40% | 65% | 10.1% | 29% | 8% |
| 15 | Untouchable 4 | Warren | 6.3% | 20% | 44% | 64% | 9.4% | 30% | 7% |
| 16 | Wise Men (without José) | Matt Burkholder | 6.2% | 24% | 20% | 70% | 11.0% | 25% | 14% |
| 17 | Wild Men 2 | Matt Burkholder | 6.2% | 15% | 44% | 74% | 8.6% | 41% | 9% |
| 18 | Bomberz | Alexander | 5.1% | 27% | 45% | 51% | 7.7% | 19% | 6% |
| 19 | Eventually... 14 | Devon | 3.8% | 11% | 49% | 77% | 6.3% | 32% | 6% |
| 20 | Productive 5f | Daniel von Fange | 3.0% | 8% | 71% | 74% | 5.4% | 36% | 2% |
| 21 | Virtue | Devon | 2.9% | 13% | 39% | 78% | 8.0% | 17% | 6% |
| 22 | Wise Men 2 | Matt Burkholder | 2.7% | 16% | 22% | 79% | 10.1% | 15% | 9% |
| Overall (2345 rounds): | 26% | 37% | 59% | 148% | |||||
The top five are all well-armed gatherers. I suspect they're ascendant because both their growth rates have been improving (all the top three now have some form of food-sharing), so they exploit territory better than before. The colonial sides are also somewhat lagging in technology - few have food-sharing or dodging, and none know how to hit dodgers. Once they catch up, the performance of the gatherers will probably drop.
I should probably leave the last four sides out of the next tournament, which will be a milestone: finally, Productive and Eventually will be gone.
(18 Dec 2007) Smaller tournament this time - it's just the top 20 from the previous tournament, plus new sides. I kept the old versions of SegE and Revenge Killer to verify that the new ones are better, but only kept the latest version of Weird Men. You could make a case for dropping Productive 5f and Wise Men 2 as well, since they have better derivatives.
| Rank | Side | Author | Score | Nonsterile survival | Early death | Late death | Early score | Fraction | Kills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Segregated Eaters 3 | Matt Burkholder | 27.4% | 42% | 31% | 39% | 11.6% | 62% | 22% |
| 2 | Segregated Eaters 2 | Matt Burkholder | 22.6% | 46% | 24% | 40% | 11.3% | 48% | 19% |
| 3 | Move Zig! 3 | ziggystar | 20.0% | 44% | 29% | 38% | 10.8% | 45% | 13% |
| 4 | Revenge Killer 3 | Warren | 18.9% | 34% | 20% | 57% | 15.5% | 54% | 14% |
| 5 | Cyclops | Warren | 16.8% | 57% | 13% | 34% | 16.9% | 29% | 13% |
| 6 | Walled City 2 | Warren | 12.0% | 32% | 34% | 51% | 11.6% | 36% | 14% |
| 7 | Unproductive 2 | Devon | 11.8% | 34% | 27% | 54% | 11.1% | 35% | 12% |
| 8 | Weird Men c | Matt Burkholder | 10.8% | 35% | 17% | 58% | 12.6% | 29% | 13% |
| Shield + Cowards 2f | Alexander | 10.8% | 34% | 52% | 30% | 7.0% | 32% | 5% | |
| 10 | Commune Plus 2 | Devon/Warren | 10.0% | 23% | 39% | 63% | 10.2% | 42% | 10% |
| 11 | Untouchable 4 | Warren | 7.5% | 23% | 42% | 60% | 9.8% | 32% | 7% |
| 12 | Move Zig! (no corner) | ziggystar | 7.1% | 13% | 39% | 79% | 9.2% | 53% | 8% |
| 13 | Productive Plus 4 | DvF/Devon | 6.8% | 16% | 69% | 50% | 5.7% | 42% | 5% |
| 14 | Commune 10 | Devon | 6.3% | 20% | 41% | 66% | 9.8% | 30% | 8% |
| 15 | Wise Men (without José) | Matt Burkholder | 5.9% | 23% | 19% | 71% | 10.9% | 25% | 14% |
| 16 | Bomberz | Alexander | 5.5% | 26% | 49% | 48% | 7.2% | 21% | 6% |
| 17 | Business Cycle 7 | Matt Burkholder | 4.6% | 19% | 51% | 61% | 8.2% | 22% | 8% |
| 18 | Revenge Killer 2 | Warren | 4.4% | 16% | 34% | 76% | 10.0% | 27% | 6% |
| 19 | Virtue | Devon | 3.4% | 14% | 38% | 78% | 8.2% | 19% | 6% |
| 20 | Eventually 14 | Devon | 2.8% | 8% | 48% | 84% | 6.4% | 28% | 5% |
| 21 | Wise Men 2 | Matt Burkholder | 2.6% | 15% | 18% | 82% | 10.6% | 16% | 9% |
| 22 | Productive 5f | Daniel von Fange | 2.5% | 6% | 72% | 78% | 5.1% | 37% | 2% |
| Overall (1761 rounds): | 26% | 37% | 59% | ||||||
Notice the low survival. The top five sides all have a wandering-gatherer component, and fight for territory to gether in. Such sides have very volatile scores - they either win a lot of territory or starve. Competition with the top five means the less well-armed ones scored very badly. Sides which don't need territory (i.e. ones with more solar cells) aren't affected as much.
Shield + Cowards is the opposite extreme - it ignores the world and hides. Its 30% late death rate is remarkable with so many aggressors around. Evidently hiding is more effective when you have better defenses than Productive. But it still has the horrible early-death problem associated with corner-hiding, and it's getting worse as more and more sides do this. Can anyone fix this? Cyclops takes corners reliably by starting with a large (and sophisticated) army, but it must grow very fast to recover. A more cautious approach (like Unproductive, but actively seeking corners) might help, if someone can pull it off.
(1 Jan 2007) My new machine runs at 500-1000 fps, so I ran 2007 rounds - more rounds per side than most tournaments have had total. I think I won't include quite as many sides in the next tournament, though - the last eight or so are pretty helpless by modern standards.
| Rank | Side | Author | Score | Nonsterile survival | Early death | Late death | Early score | Fraction | Kills | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Segregated Eaters 2 | Matt Burkholder | 35.1% | 58% | 20% | 27% | 12.8% | 58% | 27% | wandering |
| 2 | Move Zig! 3 | ziggystar | 29.9% | 59% | 22% | 24% | 12.5% | 50% | 18% | corner + wandering |
| 3 | Weird Men c | Matt Burkholder | 18.2% | 54% | 11% | 40% | 14.1% | 33% | 19% | wandering |
| 4 | Walled City 2 | Warren | 17.2% | 46% | 27% | 38% | 12.7% | 36% | 19% | mobile group |
| 5 | Wise Men (without José) | Matt Burkholder | 16.2% | 43% | 10% | 52% | 13.2% | 37% | 23% | wandering |
| 6 | Commune Plus 2 | Devon/Warren | 15.8% | 33% | 34% | 50% | 11.4% | 45% | 13% | stationary |
| 7 | Unproductive 2 | Devon | 15.5% | 44% | 22% | 44% | 11.8% | 34% | 16% | hiding/fleeing nongroup |
| 8 | Untouchable 4 | Warren | 15.2% | 41% | 30% | 42% | 12.1% | 36% | 12% | stationary |
| 9 | Shield + Cowards 2f | Alexander | 14.2% | 45% | 43% | 21% | 8.0% | 32% | 5% | corner |
| 10 | Move Zig! (no corner) | ziggystar | 14.2% | 23% | 36% | 65% | 10.7% | 62% | 13% | wandering |
| 11 | Commune 10 | Devon | 10.9% | 32% | 30% | 54% | 11.8% | 32% | 11% | stationary |
| 12 | Business Cycle 7 | Matt Burkholder | 10.2% | 37% | 35% | 43% | 11.5% | 26% | 14% | fancy group |
| 13 | Productive Plus 4 | DvF/Devon | 10.0% | 22% | 62% | 41% | 6.8% | 44% | 8% | corner |
| 14 | Revenge Killer 2 | Warren | 9.7% | 29% | 22% | 63% | 13.5% | 33% | 10% | wandering |
| 15 | Eventually 14 | Devon | 9.7% | 26% | 33% | 61% | 8.2% | 35% | 9% | stationary |
| 16 | Wise Men 2 | Matt Burkholder | 8.4% | 34% | 10% | 62% | 13.1% | 23% | 15% | wandering |
| 17 | Bomberz | Alexander | 7.7% | 39% | 39% | 36% | 8.4% | 19% | 7% | corner |
| 18 | Weird Men | Matt Burkholder | 6.3% | 30% | 15% | 64% | 10.9% | 20% | 7% | wandering |
| 19 | Virtue | Devon | 4.9% | 20% | 28% | 72% | 9.3% | 18% | 8% | wandering |
| 20 | Productive 5f | Daniel von Fange | 4.9% | 11% | 63% | 70% | 6.6% | 41% | 3% | corner |
| 21 | Not Quite Harmless 3 | Warren | 4.8% | 26% | 23% | 67% | 12.7% | 7% | 3% | wandering |
| 22 | Wild Men | Matt Burkholder | 4.6% | 24% | 19% | 70% | 10.3% | 18% | 11% | wandering |
| 23 | C&C Adaptive 1.2 | Matt Burkholder | 4.4% | 15% | 54% | 68% | 7.0% | 24% | 8% | stationary |
| 24 | Ocean Front | Matt Burkholder | 3.9% | 34% | 32% | 50% | 7.5% | 11% | 6% | corner |
| 25 | Gunner 4 | Warren | 3.8% | 14% | 53% | 69% | 5.8% | 27% | 5% | stationary |
| 26 | Active 6 | Warren | 3.7% | 16% | 45% | 71% | 9.3% | 18% | 8% | wandering |
| 27 | Shepherds | Devon | 3.7% | 12% | 49% | 76% | 7.4% | 30% | 0% | mobile group |
| 28 | Noffee 4 | Warren/Devon | 3.6% | 17% | 27% | 76% | 10.0% | 14% | 5% | wandering |
| 29 | Grudge 4 | Devon | 3.1% | 11% | 55% | 76% | 5.8% | 29% | 3% | stationary |
| 30 | Frog Celestial 2 | Devon | 3.0% | 19% | 20% | 76% | 9.4% | 15% | 6% | wandering |
| 31 | Bacteria 4 | Devon | 2.7% | 15% | 21% | 81% | 8.6% | 17% | 3% | wandering |
| 32 | Flower 2 | Tilendor | 1.8% | 5% | 59% | 89% | 7.0% | 20% | 2% | stationary |
| Overall: | 29% | 33% | 56% | |||||||
(18 June 2006, but not uploaded until October) 790 rounds. Errors up to 5.2% (SegE), most under 2.5%.
| Rank | Side | Author | Score | Nonsterile survival | Early death | Late death | Early score | Fraction | Kills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Move Zig! 3 | ziggystar | 31.5% | 62% | 19% | 22% | 12.6% | 50% | 19% |
| 2 | Segregated Eaters 1.1 | Matt Burkholder | 30.4% | 50% | 31% | 27% | 12.4% | 55% | 24% |
| 3 | Wise Men (without José) | Matt Burkholder | 20.6% | 50% | 9% | 45% | 14.5% | 39% | 27% |
| 4 | Productive Plus 4 | DvF/Devon | 18.9% | 33% | 55% | 26% | 8.8% | 57% | 12% |
| 5 | Commune Plus 2 | Devon/Warren | 18.5% | 38% | 34% | 43% | 11.2% | 47% | 15% |
| 6 | Walled City | Warren | 17.6% | 42% | 21% | 47% | 13.9% | 40% | 20% |
| 7 | Unproductive | Devon | 16.5% | 43% | 31% | 37% | 11.0% | 37% | 15% |
| 8 | Untouchable 4 | Warren | 15.8% | 43% | 29% | 39% | 12.7% | 35% | 14% |
| 9 | Commune 10 | Devon | 14.9% | 39% | 26% | 47% | 13.4% | 36% | 14% |
| 10 | Business Cycle 7 | Matt Burkholder | 13.7% | 43% | 34% | 35% | 13.0% | 30% | 16% |
| 11 | Revenge Killer 2 | Warren | 11.8% | 25% | 25% | 67% | 12.2% | 45% | 10% |
| 12 | Move Zig! (no corner) | ziggystar | 11.0% | 20% | 31% | 70% | 10.7% | 52% | 12% |
| 13 | Wise Men 2 | Matt Burkholder | 8.9% | 35% | 13% | 60% | 13.4% | 24% | 17% |
| 14 | Wild Men | Matt Burkholder | 8.7% | 35% | 12% | 61% | 12.6% | 24% | 15% |
| 15 | Eventually 14 | Devon | 8.5% | 25% | 31% | 64% | 9.0% | 32% | 9% |
| 16 | Weird Men | Matt Burkholder | 7.2% | 32% | 20% | 59% | 11.4% | 21% | 7% |
| 17 | C&C Adaptive 1.2 | Matt Burkholder | 5.9% | 19% | 54% | 59% | 7.7% | 23% | 9% |
| 18 | Shepherds | Devon | 5.6% | 14% | 46% | 75% | 8.3% | 41% | 0% |
| 19 | Not Quite Harmless 3 | Warren | 5.2% | 24% | 24% | 69% | 13.1% | 7% | 3% |
| 20 | Productive 5f | Daniel von Fange | 5.0% | 14% | 61% | 65% | 7.7% | 34% | 4% |
| 21 | Grudge 4 | Devon | 4.8% | 17% | 45% | 69% | 7.4% | 29% | 4% |
| 22 | Ocean Front | Matt Burkholder | 4.6% | 39% | 29% | 45% | 8.0% | 11% | 7% |
| 23 | Frog Celestial 2 | Devon | 4.6% | 29% | 16% | 66% | 10.1% | 16% | 6% |
| 24 | Virtue | Devon | 4.5% | 16% | 30% | 76% | 9.3% | 19% | 8% |
| 25 | Gunner 4 | Warren | 4.4% | 18% | 47% | 66% | 7.0% | 24% | 5% |
| 26 | Noffee 4 | Warren/Devon | 4.1% | 18% | 32% | 74% | 10.0% | 15% | 5% |
| 27 | Bacteria 4 | Devon | 3.9% | 20% | 21% | 74% | 9.2% | 19% | 4% |
| 28 | Flower 2 | Tilendor | 2.2% | 7% | 59% | 84% | 7.2% | 22% | 2% |
| 29 | Dark Forest 0.2 | Alexander | 0.4% | 4% | 58% | 91% | 4.1% | 9% | 1% |
| 30 | Flaming Forest | Alexander | 0.3% | 4% | 66% | 87% | 4.1% | 5% | 2% |
| 31 | Forest Fighters | Alexander | 0.0% | 3% | 41% | 96% | 3.9% | 2% | 4% |
| Overall: | 28% | 34% | 58% | ||||||
Hiding matters - compare the two Move Zigs.
(5 June 2006) 550 rounds. Errors 0.9-5.2%.
| Rank | Side | Author | Score | Nonsterile survival | Early death | Late death | Early score | Fraction | Kills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Segregated Eaters | Matt Burkholder | 23.7% | 46% | 27% | 37% | 11.0% | 49% | 18% |
| 2 | Commune Plus 2 | Devon/Warren | 19.9% | 42% | 28% | 41% | 12.3% | 44% | 16% |
| 3 | Walled City | Warren | 19.7% | 49% | 23% | 37% | 12.9% | 40% | 21% |
| 4 | Untouchable 4 | Warren | 18.5% | 47% | 25% | 38% | 12.5% | 39% | 14% |
| 5 | Wise Men (without José) | Matt Burkholder | 16.7% | 52% | 9% | 42% | 13.5% | 31% | 26% |
| 6 | Business Cycle 7 | Matt Burkholder | 15.3% | 50% | 30% | 29% | 12.7% | 29% | 17% |
| 7 | Unproductive | Devon | 15.0% | 42% | 28% | 41% | 10.2% | 35% | 16% |
| 8 | Productive Plus 4 | DvF/Devon | 14.2% | 28% | 51% | 43% | 8.7% | 51% | 10% |
| 9 | Wise Men 2 | Matt Burkholder | 13.4% | 47% | 12% | 47% | 13.9% | 27% | 19% |
| 10 | Revenge Killer 2 | Warren | 12.0% | 36% | 16% | 57% | 13.4% | 31% | 11% |
| 11 | Commune 10 | Devon | 11.6% | 37% | 32% | 45% | 11.0% | 30% | 12% |
| 12 | Weird Men | Matt Burkholder | 8.5% | 34% | 17% | 59% | 11.0% | 23% | 7% |
| 13 | Wild Men | Matt Burkholder | 7.2% | 29% | 19% | 65% | 10.5% | 23% | 12% |
| 14 | Eventually 14 | Devon | 6.4% | 22% | 39% | 64% | 7.7% | 27% | 7% |
| Productive 5f | Daniel von Fange | 6.4% | 15% | 58% | 64% | 7.3% | 40% | 4% | |
| 16 | Virtue | Devon | 5.5% | 24% | 25% | 69% | 8.9% | 18% | 8% |
| 17 | Grudge 4 | Devon | 4.7% | 16% | 47% | 70% | 6.8% | 30% | 3% |
| 18 | Noffee 4 | Warren/Devon | 4.5% | 22% | 29% | 69% | 9.6% | 17% | 4% |
| Bacteria 4 | Devon | 4.5% | 20% | 20% | 75% | 8.8% | 20% | 5% | |
| 20 | Not Quite Harmless 3 | Warren | 4.3% | 24% | 26% | 67% | 11.8% | 5% | 2% |
| Gunner 4 | Warren | 4.3% | 18% | 52% | 63% | 5.6% | 24% | 4% | |
| 22 | Shepherds | Devon | 3.9% | 13% | 46% | 75% | 7.4% | 29% | 0% |
| 23 | Ocean Front | Matt Burkholder | 3.8% | 35% | 27% | 52% | 7.3% | 10% | 6% |
| 24 | Frog Celestial 2 | Devon | 3.6% | 30% | 21% | 63% | 9.0% | 12% | 6% |
| 25 | MicroAlgae | Tilendor | 1.9% | 9% | 46% | 83% | 6.0% | 20% | 0% |
| Overall: | 32% | 30% | 55% | ||||||
Grudge's early score is better than Gunner's. Significantly so. This means provoking enemies is now a bigger problem than ignoring them, at least in the beginning. It doesn't do so well later.
All the gatherers, except Segregated Eaters, have a late death rate more than three times their early death rate. This is partly because their early death rates overstate their early performance, and partly because they're unable to concentrate enough force to win battles in the late game. A wandering gatherer might be improved by deliberately keeping its army in a group.
(20 Nov 2005) This was a bit bigger than usual - 28 sides for 600 rounds (10626346 frames in 41296 s = 257 fps). Error is still pretty big. This table is modified from the output of headless mode. The survival score includes the sterile case, so Not Quite Harmless scores very high.
| Rank | Side | Score | Error | Survival | Early death | Late death | Early score | Fraction | Kill rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Untouchable 3 | 27.0% | 2.6% | 80% | 8% | 16% | 14.8% | 34% | 69% |
| 2 | Business Cycle 7 | 24.3% | 3.2% | 69% | 18% | 16% | 14.9% | 35% | 168% |
| 3 | Wise Men (without Jose) | 23.6% | 4.2% | 65% | 5% | 34% | 14.2% | 36% | 255% |
| 4 | Segregated Eaters | 21.4% | 4.6% | 49% | 28% | 42% | 10.6% | 44% | 166% |
| 5 | Shepherds | 20.4% | 3.7% | 50% | 12% | 43% | 14.6% | 41% | 0% |
| 6 | Productive Plus 4 | 16.6% | 4.1% | 29% | 55% | 35% | 7.6% | 58% | 101% |
| 7 | Commune Plus | 16.2% | 3.3% | 42% | 29% | 45% | 10.7% | 39% | 84% |
| 8 | Wise Men 2 | 15.1% | 3.4% | 50% | 7% | 47% | 13.6% | 30% | 271% |
| 9 | Eventually... 14 | 14.5% | 2.9% | 43% | 22% | 48% | 9.4% | 34% | 115% |
| 10 | Revenge Killer 2 | 12.7% | 3.6% | 32% | 19% | 62% | 11.2% | 40% | 141% |
| 11 | Weird Men | 12.3% | 2.7% | 50% | 6% | 49% | 12.2% | 24% | 114% |
| 12 | Commune 9 | 10.1% | 2.3% | 33% | 31% | 52% | 10.1% | 30% | 120% |
| 13 | Wild Men | 8.3% | 2.7% | 36% | 13% | 59% | 10.9% | 23% | 303% |
| 14 | Gunner 4 | 6.8% | 1.9% | 24% | 33% | 65% | 8.0% | 29% | 114% |
| 15 | Virtue | 6.4% | 2.0% | 29% | 23% | 68% | 9.5% | 22% | 210% |
| 16 | Not Quite Harmless 3 | 5.8% | 1.3% | 82% | 19% | 64% | 12.5% | 7% | 97% |
| 17 | Noffee 4 | 5.0% | 1.6% | 37% | 19% | 69% | 10.5% | 14% | 157% |
| 18 | Grudge 4 | 5.0% | 1.8% | 19% | 47% | 63% | 6.6% | 26% | 74% |
| 19 | Ocean Front | 4.8% | 1.2% | 41% | 24% | 48% | 7.9% | 12% | 200% |
| 20 | Frog Celestial 2 | 3.7% | 1.4% | 29% | 19% | 65% | 8.8% | 13% | 219% |
| 21 | Bacteria 4 | 3.5% | 1.5% | 19% | 15% | 79% | 8.5% | 18% | 155% |
| 22 | Productive 5f | 3.2% | 1.6% | 9% | 62% | 79% | 6.2% | 37% | 74% |
| 23 | Feudal 3 | 3.0% | 1.2% | 15% | 39% | 77% | 6.9% | 20% | 281% |
| 24 | Noffee 3 | 2.7% | 1.1% | 28% | 20% | 79% | 9.7% | 10% | 243% |
| 25 | Revenge Garden | 2.4% | 1.1% | 13% | 46% | 79% | 6.9% | 18% | 174% |
| 26 | Not Quite Wise | 1.9% | 0.7% | 17% | 32% | 76% | 8.0% | 11% | 179% |
| 27 | Missile Bacteria 2 | 1.9% | 1.0% | 19% | 13% | 80% | 8.7% | 10% | 156% |
| 28 | Ants 4f | 1.8% | 0.7% | 21% | 19% | 78% | 6.9% | 9% | 148% |
| Total | 37% | 24% | 57% | 128% | |||||
Notice how well late death predicts score?
[old tournaments from 2002, 2003 and 2004]
Grobots by Devon Schudy and Warren Schudy