4 ms·

Reasons to compete in this year’s Battlecode programming competition at MIT

53 points by sskates 13y ago

Cixelyn 13y ago
> "If you love programming, games, and competition, it’s the most fun you’ll ever have" As both a past competitor and someone who's been following the current game, I can't stress this enough, especially if you're the kind of person who likes to think for a long time to come up with novel approaches to problems. As a contestant -- it's quite satisfying to be a step ahead of the crowd and watch other teams copy your strategy. As a spectator -- watching the metagame evolve is exciting. Because the game is brand new every year, there's a fast-paced metagame that the clever contestants get to define. It really brings me back the early days of starcraft, when the unit synergies were not well defined and players were theorycrafting new build orders all the time!
tsumnia 13y ago
I'd encourage students to compete, even if your best bots just run away from their enemies. My buddy and I actually used Battlecode as our final project in our AI course. We worked as a team and then had a mini competition between ourselves using different techniques (his was focus on resources, mine seek and destroy). Even if you feel underwhelmed going against MIT students taking it as a class, smaller schools still get recognition for participation. There is no correct solution; I think '08's winner just mass spawned tanks instead of running any type of strategy (he did test different set-ups and that was ultimately the best). Finally, like the post suggests, its a great thing get experience with and if you are recognized in anyway (even Honorable Mention) is something nice to slap on the ol' resume.
- sskates 13y ago
  Oh that's awesome. What was your team name/year? I may have saw you on the scrim servers.
diziet 13y ago
Funny enough one of the sponsors of Battlecode is https://amplitude.com https://amplitude.com , the founders of which won in 2009 and 2010.
- cocoflunchy 13y ago
  I'm pretty sure the OP is the CEO of Amplitude ;) Edit: https://amplitude.com/about https://amplitude.com/about
_dps 13y ago
Feynman once said, speaking of the merits of seeking inspiration from experiments rather than isolated theory, "The imagination of nature is greater than the imagination of man." Riffing on this idea, the imagination of a human opponent (even when expressed as an algorithm) is far greater than the possible counterstrategies you will imagine yourself when inventing your own system. Having a motivated, intelligent, competitor actively probing your designs for weaknesses rapidly teaches one about the extent to which your expectations for what a given design will do match up to reality in the wild.
mercora 13y ago
I would love to attend to such an event but i am neither a MIT student nor living in the US (i am living in Germany). I wonder if there are more competitions like this but open for all. If no formal competition, i would really like to see games like these. :)
- sskates 13y ago
  You can do it- the competition and prizes are 100% open and they have people from lots of schools at the finals.
  - mercora 13y ago
    Oh, ok. I guess i misinterpreted it as being closed. Anyways, i am also not a student at any school. In fact, i have no formal graduation whatsoever. So my question remains, are there more competition or games like those they have at MIT?
    - sskates 13y ago
      Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything quite like it. Top coder is a programming competition- although it's normally algorithms based instead of objective based. If you do find anything, let me know! You can also still compete if you're not a student, although I don't think you can win prizes.
      - mercora 13y ago
        Thanks a lot for your support. I will look into that :)
        AnAlien 13y ago
        We could maybe use another teammate if you think you can be committed and be dedicated in working at least 6+ hrs/day (you need time to catch up as well).
vaidhy 13y ago
Is the actual battlecode execution engine available for someone to try? It seems like a nice project to set up a open battlecode server..
- Cixelyn 13y ago
  Yup, everything's open source, setting up your own private competition is quite doable. https://github.com/battlecode https://github.com/battlecode
touristtam 13y ago
Post for last year competition: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5022167 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5022167 Just in case, like me, you fail to notice it last year. ;)
stevearc 13y ago
Competing in Battlecode was one of the best things I've ever done. Yes, it's great experience. Yes, you'll become a better programmer. Yes, it's a lot of fun. But you learn things about yourself. Battlecode was my first love. It was the first code I wrote that I really poured myself into. The hunger for victory, the desire for perfection, the frantic last-minute hacks and patches...a lot of emotion goes into this competition, and I was not expecting that. I was an unmotivated, procrastinating slacker in high school. After doing Battlecode I saw what I had in me. I saw that I really could work, and work hard. I could work hard and love it! That has been life-changing for me. I cannot recommend this competition enough. Participate, put everything you have into it, and Battlecode will give back.
chx 13y ago
I... don't get it. Why don't respectable hackers boycott MIT because of Aaron's death? They never apologized AFAIK.
- aaronem 13y ago
  Yes. Let us blame everyone except the man who chose to take his own life.

53 points by sskates 13y ago

> "If you love programming, games, and competition, it’s the most fun you’ll ever have" As both a past competitor and someone who's been following the current game, I can't stress this enough, especially if you're the kind of person who likes to think for a long time to come up with novel approaches to problems. As a contestant -- it's quite satisfying to be a step ahead of the crowd and watch other teams copy your strategy. As a spectator -- watching the metagame evolve is exciting. Because the game is brand new every year, there's a fast-paced metagame that the clever contestants get to define. It really brings me back the early days of starcraft, when the unit synergies were not well defined and players were theorycrafting new build orders all the time!

tsumnia 13y ago

I'd encourage students to compete, even if your best bots just run away from their enemies. My buddy and I actually used Battlecode as our final project in our AI course. We worked as a team and then had a mini competition between ourselves using different techniques (his was focus on resources, mine seek and destroy). Even if you feel underwhelmed going against MIT students taking it as a class, smaller schools still get recognition for participation. There is no correct solution; I think '08's winner just mass spawned tanks instead of running any type of strategy (he did test different set-ups and that was ultimately the best). Finally, like the post suggests, its a great thing get experience with and if you are recognized in anyway (even Honorable Mention) is something nice to slap on the ol' resume.

sskates 13y ago
Oh that's awesome. What was your team name/year? I may have saw you on the scrim servers.

diziet 13y ago

Funny enough one of the sponsors of Battlecode is https://amplitude.com https://amplitude.com , the founders of which won in 2009 and 2010.

cocoflunchy 13y ago
I'm pretty sure the OP is the CEO of Amplitude ;) Edit: https://amplitude.com/about https://amplitude.com/about

_dps 13y ago

Feynman once said, speaking of the merits of seeking inspiration from experiments rather than isolated theory, "The imagination of nature is greater than the imagination of man." Riffing on this idea, the imagination of a human opponent (even when expressed as an algorithm) is far greater than the possible counterstrategies you will imagine yourself when inventing your own system. Having a motivated, intelligent, competitor actively probing your designs for weaknesses rapidly teaches one about the extent to which your expectations for what a given design will do match up to reality in the wild.

mercora 13y ago

I would love to attend to such an event but i am neither a MIT student nor living in the US (i am living in Germany). I wonder if there are more competitions like this but open for all. If no formal competition, i would really like to see games like these. :)

sskates 13y ago
You can do it- the competition and prizes are 100% open and they have people from lots of schools at the finals.
- mercora 13y ago
  Oh, ok. I guess i misinterpreted it as being closed. Anyways, i am also not a student at any school. In fact, i have no formal graduation whatsoever. So my question remains, are there more competition or games like those they have at MIT?
  - sskates 13y ago
    Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything quite like it. Top coder is a programming competition- although it's normally algorithms based instead of objective based. If you do find anything, let me know! You can also still compete if you're not a student, although I don't think you can win prizes.
    - mercora 13y ago
      Thanks a lot for your support. I will look into that :)
      - AnAlien 13y ago
        We could maybe use another teammate if you think you can be committed and be dedicated in working at least 6+ hrs/day (you need time to catch up as well).

vaidhy 13y ago

Is the actual battlecode execution engine available for someone to try? It seems like a nice project to set up a open battlecode server..

Cixelyn 13y ago
Yup, everything's open source, setting up your own private competition is quite doable. https://github.com/battlecode https://github.com/battlecode

touristtam 13y ago

Post for last year competition: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5022167 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5022167 Just in case, like me, you fail to notice it last year. ;)

stevearc 13y ago

Competing in Battlecode was one of the best things I've ever done. Yes, it's great experience. Yes, you'll become a better programmer. Yes, it's a lot of fun. But you learn things about yourself. Battlecode was my first love. It was the first code I wrote that I really poured myself into. The hunger for victory, the desire for perfection, the frantic last-minute hacks and patches...a lot of emotion goes into this competition, and I was not expecting that. I was an unmotivated, procrastinating slacker in high school. After doing Battlecode I saw what I had in me. I saw that I really could work, and work hard. I could work hard and love it! That has been life-changing for me. I cannot recommend this competition enough. Participate, put everything you have into it, and Battlecode will give back.

chx 13y ago

I... don't get it. Why don't respectable hackers boycott MIT because of Aaron's death? They never apologized AFAIK.

aaronem 13y ago
Yes. Let us blame everyone except the man who chose to take his own life.