LAST CHALLENGE
Summer 2004 GUN-TACTYX Championship (July 4^th-September 4^th 2004)
aka Where bots dare...

FINAL RESULTS: 500 Matches

• Fight matches in the Plaza level among 4 teams of 16 warriors each with a 120 seconds timeout and Terminate Enemy Team goal

  #	Warrior	Author	Victories	Matches	Percentage
  1	i-bot	tobi	128	172	74.4%
  2	gunny	leo	104	177	58.7%
  3	musketeer	Gizmo	49	178	27.5%
  4	rookie	leo	44	167	26.3%
  5	jini	jini	41	169	24.3%
  6	recruit	leo	34	168	20.3%
  7	trooper	leo	27	160	16.9%
  8	move	SmileyMan	25	166	15.1%
  9	platoon	leo	18	145	12.4%
  10	lunch	hats101	11	157	7.0%
  11	blam	SmileyMan	10	179	5.6%
  12	dabomb	nir	9	162	5.6%
  Total			500

  Comments

  (July 21^th 2004) The results of the first 250 matches played see a new entry: musketeer. It got a good fourth place very close to rookie (31.5% against 34.1%). Let's see if it is going to improve its performances in the future. In the meantime, i-bot leads the list with 61.2% against the 60.0% of gunny.

  (September 4^th 2004) The results of the last 250 matches decided the strongest bot in the arena: It is an upgraded version of i-bot! My compliments to tobi, its author, that won against my gunny. We can see also a good third place for musketeer: Well done!

PREVIOUS CHALLENGE
June GUN-TACTYX Championship (May 23^th-30^th 2004) alias When the game becomes hard...

FINAL RESULTS: 1000 Matches

• Fight matches in the Plaza level among 4 teams of 16 warriors each with a 120 seconds timeout and Terminate Enemy Team goal

  #	Warrior	Author	Victories	Matches	Percentage
  1	gunny	leo	246	380	64.7%
  2	i-bot	tobi	215	358	60.1%
  3	rookie	leo	122	384	31.8%
  4	jini	jini	94	365	25.8%
  5	trooper	leo	76	332	22.9%
  6	recruit	leo	78	372	21.0%
  7	move	SmileyMan	62	341	18.2%
  8	platoon	leo	35	359	9.7%
  9	dabomb	nir	31	359	8.6%
  10	blam	SmileyMan	21	376	5.6%
  11	lunch	hats101	20	374	5.3%
  Total			1000

  Comments: This month the results are not so different from the ones of the other challenge. In fact, only dabomb was updated so I decided to accept among the competing teams also the sample bots included in the game.
  As you can see, gunny and i-bot confirm themselves the best bots in the current arena. Then follow rookie, jini, trooper, recruit and move. The list is closed by the weaker platoon, dabomb, blam and lunch.
  The winning tactic is the same of the last challenge: don't move directly towards the nearest enemy is always a good idea. Let's see if the summer will bring new fighting techniques and improved tactics.

  Now you can tune your bots for the Summer GUN-TACTYX Championship (July 4^th - September 4^th 2004) aka Where bots dare...

FIRST CHALLENGE
May (First) GUN-TACTYX Championship (May 23^th-30^th 2004)

PARTIAL RESULTS: First Third of Matches

• Fight matches in the Plaza level among 4 teams of 16 warriors each with a 120 seconds timeout and Terminate Enemy Team goal

  #	Warrior	Author	Victories	Matches	Percentage
  1	gunny	leo	119	176	67.6%
  2	i-bot	tobi	115	188	61.2%
  3	jini	jini	37	199	18.6%
  4	move	SmileyMan	26	205	12.7%
  5	dabomb	nir	16	185	8.6%
  6	blam	SmileyMan	10	189	5.3%
  7	lunch	hats101	10	190	5.3%
  Total			333

  Comments: Just a few lines to explain why the first two teams, gunny and i-bot, gain so much victories in comparison with the other teams. Both use a simple but effective tactic: They don't move directly towards the nearest enemy firing at him. At this stage of development such a behavior is a winning one, since very few bots use aim correction techniques or adjust the shot direction according to the speed of the target. In the future I'm sure that this simple tactic will be less useful... maybe even in this championship, if the other authors find the time to improve their algorithms.
  Comments on the other teams will appear at the end of the contest.

• Soccer matches in the Field level among 4 teams of 8 warriors each with a 180 seconds timeout and Terminate Enemy Chief goal

  #	Warrior	Author	Victories	Matches	Percentage
  1	lunch	hats101	143	200	71.5%
  2	blam	SmileyMan	67	193	34.7%
  3	gunny	leo	38	190	20.0%
  4	i-bot	tobi	38	192	19.8%
  5	dabomb	nir	22	170	12.9%
  6	jini	jini	22	199	11.1%
  7	move	SmileyMan	3	188	0.0%
  Total			333

  Comments: The Soccer category was not very interesting for the players and the current results show a bad balancing in the conditions of victory. In fact, the first two bots, lunch and blam, win a lot of matches only because they stay in their goal areas without moving a muscle! One may ask why lunch wins more than blam and the reason is simple: some of the blam warriors crouch from time to time and in that attitude the energy of the warrior does not increase. So all the matches that end without any goals are won by these two bots, if they are in the arena, because of their higher energy, while lunch has the advantage to reach the maximum energy faster than blam.
  More interesting teams are gunny and i-bot, but they use more or less the same algorithms of rookie and friends, the bots included in the game.
  Finally, dabomb, jini and move, the last one especially, seems to completely ignore the ball and they win only because other teams score goals for mistake in their own areas.
  In conclusion, this one is not an interesting soccer challenge, but I hope that someone is going to find effective tactics in the future.

FINAL RESULTS: 1000 Matches

• Fight matches in the Plaza level among 4 teams of 16 warriors each with a 120 seconds timeout and Terminate Enemy Team goal

  #	Warrior	Author	Victories	Matches	Percentage
  1	gunny	leo	378	553	68.4%
  2	i-bot	tobi	317	574	55.2%
  3	jini	jini	107	603	17.7%
  4	move	SmileyMan	83	597	13.9%
  5	dabomb	nir	47	566	8.3%
  6	blam	SmileyMan	41	542	7.6%
  7	lunch	hats101	27	565	4.8%
  Total			1000

  Comments: The placing list doesn't show differences in comparison with the first third of matches because the players haven't find the time to upload significant changes to the algorithms of their teams, so, during the next competition, a full week will be available to players to improve their bots.
  The winner, as you can see, is my gunny, but I think that the real winner is the second placed, i-bot, because I gain too advantage in developing the simulator. I'm sure that very soon I will no more able to create a bot that could compete, but in the meantime I'm satisfied with these results. Both gunny and i-bot use an effective tactic not moving directly towards their targets, but they differ in their initial movements since gunny keeps the starting formation dividing it in two, while i-bot avoids flocking.
  Other interesting bots are jini and dabomb: I'm sure to see improvements in their behaviour during the next challenge. Even move is promising with its unpredictable movement. Now that tactic don't pay much, but in a future of very precise aiming techniques may become really effective. Its author is the first player to develop improved aiming, as his other bot, blam, testifies, in fact blam doesn't move at all, but in particular circumstances the fire of those sitting bots is deadly.
  Finally, lunch shows a movement with a very compact formation. It's beautiful to see, but not very effective because of the high fire rate of guns that causes a great number of losses in a very short time.

• Soccer matches in the Field level among 4 teams of 8 warriors each with a 180 seconds timeout and Terminate Enemy Chief goal

  #	Warrior	Author	Victories	Matches	Percentage
  1	lunch	hats101	387	579	66.8%
  2	blam	SmileyMan	192	563	34.1%
  3	gunny	leo	125	561	22.3%
  4	i-bot	tobi	113	586	19.3%
  5	dabomb	nir	92	562	16.4%
  6	jini	jini	78	579	13.4%
  7	move	SmileyMan	13	570	2.3%
  Total			1000

  Comments: Even the Soccer category does not show changes in the placing list. The winners are lunch and blam, the sitting-ducks of the soccer competition, but, if we consider draws the matches won by those two teams, the real winners should be gunny and i-bot again. Next time the teams will be made of only four warriors that are going to play for 300 seconds. This may help players in finding effective soccer techniques and make more goals.

  Now you can tune your bots for the June GUN-TACTYX Championship (June 20^th-27^th 2004) aka When the game becomes hard...