Competition rules

Registration and submission

Everybody is welcome to compete in the CodeCup. To enter the contest, you simply create a user account and submit your player program. The submission of player programs closes on January 17th 2009 at 12:00 GMT.

Before your program is admitted to the contest, it is tested to make sure that it makes valid moves and communicates correctly with the contest system. It is possible to submit updated versions of your program, thus replacing earlier submissions.

Tournament

Player programs play games against each other in a number of rounds. If the number of contestants is small, we will play a double full tournament. In this case, each contestant plays two games against all other contestants.

If there are many contestants, playing a full tournament would take too much time. In that case, we will start by playing some rounds according to the Swiss tournament system. The Swiss system is such that in every new round, contestants with almost equal ranking will play against each other. The ranking thus becomes more accurate after each round. After only a few rounds, the best players in the competition will be in the top of the ranking. We then take a small group from the top of the ranking, and only those contestants proceed to play a double full tournament in order to determine the final winner.

Ranking

In every game it is possible to gain match points. The winner of a game receives at least 18 points, and the loser gets at most 9 points. See also the rules of the game Pillars.

If you make an invalid move, if you use too much time or if your program crashes, you lose the game. It will count as an irregular game loss. The opponent automatically wins the game. The score for the player who loses will be 0. The winner's score will be calculated as follows:

• If the player already played the joker, the score is calculated normally, i.e. 18 points for winning plus his joker points.
• If the player didn't play his joker, the score is calculated as if he just played the joker, i.e. 18 points plus the number of open squares divided by 10.

The CodeCup tournament is won by the player with the highest total number of points. When there is a tie the number of irregular games losses will be taken into account (the lesser the better). If there is still no difference, the programs get the same place in the final standing.

Your program will be tested by the organization. If it is able to cooperate with the game director software, it will be placed for the tournament. You will always be able to submit another version of your program.

Test competitions

In the months before the final competition, we will already play a number of test competitions. You can use these test competitions to see how well your program holds up against the other players. Once you have submitted a program, you will automatically participate in all subsequent test competitions. Of course you may afterwards send in new versions for the next competition. That way, the tests are a great opportunity to try out new strategies and fine tune your algorithms. Have a look at the competitions page for the schedule.

During test competitions, only a limited number of rounds will be played. The results of the test competitions do not affect the final competition in any way. The final competiton is the only official CodeCup competition; the test competitions are just for fun and practice.

Prizes

A prize will be awarded to the winner of the final competition, and smaller prizes to the winners of the test competitions.

There is an additional prize for the best contestant who is also a student or teacher on a highschool in the Netherlands. This is the Windesheim-Digitalis prize of € 250, made available by Windesheim Educatief.