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        Arimaa >> Events >> 2008 Challenge Defenders
        
(Message started by: omar on Nov 4^th, 2007, 11:37pm)

Title: 2008 Challenge Defenders
Post by omar on Nov 4^th, 2007, 11:37pm

If anyone is interested in being one of the three human players defending the challenge match this year please send me a message through the Contact link on the main page. It's a great opportunity to do something for the Arimaa community and to become a part of Arimaa history. You don't need to have a high rating to apply. Just show that you can defeat the current CC bots and that you are interested to defend the challenge. I need to select three human defenders before the computer championship games start in March. The challenge match games don't start until April. Here is the link for more info about this years challenge match:
http://arimaa.com/arimaa/challenge/2008/

Title: Re: 2008 Challenge Defenders
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 5^th, 2007, 11:03am

I will happily volunteer to defend the Challenge again this year. It's a bit of a time investment that overlaps with the start of the Postal Mixer, but the glory is worth losing a bit of clock in the postal games.

On the other hand, if there are other players who haven't yet had a turn at defending the Challenge, I would happily defer to them. We develop the strategic knowledge necessary to defeat bots as a group, so the glory for defeating the bots should be spread around the group as much as possible.

Furthermore, the more different names we have in the Arimaa Challenge hall of fame, the more it is clear to the outside world that the bots are nowhere near our abilities. My preference would therefore be for three first-time defenders this year.

Beyond being able to beat the bots, I think the greatest qualification is enthusiasm. If you want to be on the team beating up on the silicon in defense of humanity's honor, then you should be on the team.

Title: Re: 2008 Challenge Defenders
Post by Fritzlein on Feb 24^th, 2008, 9:25am

The Challenge Rules say, "The name of the human players and backup players will be submitted to the match director before the start of the computer championship." That means Omar has a week to decide.

With OpFor having won some practice games against Bomb, it looks like there is at least a possibility of a new Challenger, and indeed one that humanity has no practice against. That adds some spice to the challenge cycle, but realistically no matter which bot qualifies, it is a question of how badly humanity beats that bot, not whether we will be able to.

I still believe that we would be best-served by having three first-time defenders. If you are excited about the possibility of being a Challenge Defender, please don't be shy. I hope Omar picks someone other than me this year. Also, you can express your interest privately, so there is no need to worry about public rejection. (Actually, for all I know Omar has already chosen three folks other than me by private correspondence.) Throw your hat in the ring today!