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Topic: World Championship format for 2006 (Read 3076 times) |
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omar
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World Championship format for 2006
« on: Aug 15th, 2005, 4:16pm » |
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http://arimaa.com/arimaa/wc/2006/
After much contemplation I decided to go with the floating double elimination for this years WC tournament. Since I've also decided to increase the time controls, I didn't want to burden the players too much at once. Lets see how it works out this year and after we get some practical experience with it we can consider the floating triple elimination next year.
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Fritzlein
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Re: World Championship format for 2006
« Reply #1 on: Aug 15th, 2005, 10:46pm » |
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This seems like a wise decision, Omar. I know I was lobbying both for the longer time control and for the triple elimination, but I see how the burden on the players could get too large, so it is likely for the best that you didn't let me persuade you on both counts. As it happens, I think I would rather have the extra "blunder protection" of a long time control than the extra "upset protection" of a third elimination.
As you say, our experience this year can inform the decision for 2007. Maybe the slow games will seem too boring and we can flip-flop to a triple-elimination with a shorter time control.
In any case the format is much improved over last year. I have already registered. Who's in with me? 
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omar
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Re: World Championship format for 2006
« Reply #2 on: Oct 26th, 2005, 7:44am » |
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I've made a page of the registered players for the 2006 WC tournament.
http://arimaa.com/arimaa/wc/2006/players.html
Please encourage other players to join. Some of the players from previous years have not registered yet; Im hoping they will.
Also don't forget to sign up for the prediction contest.
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99of9
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Re: World Championship format for 2006
« Reply #3 on: Oct 26th, 2005, 7:18pm » |
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Gee, that's a very small crowd 
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Fritzlein
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Re: World Championship format for 2006
« Reply #4 on: Oct 26th, 2005, 9:50pm » |
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The small size makes it all the more a wise decision to have a double elimination. But don't despair: we still have over two weeks of registration to go, and plenty of people could still sign up. Didn't Ryan Cable as good as say he was in? And surely Belbo will enter as well. Fear not: this will be a fine tournament.
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PMertens
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Re: World Championship format for 2006
« Reply #5 on: Oct 28th, 2005, 1:31am » |
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fine ? yeah probably ... but very very small ....
I could be mistaken, but somehow I got the feeling of a sharply declined activity a while ago
(might have had something to do with server problems shortly after a bunch of new guys came looking ...)
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99of9
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Re: World Championship format for 2006
« Reply #6 on: Oct 28th, 2005, 2:10am » |
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on Oct 28th, 2005, 1:31am, PMertens wrote:| somehow I got the feeling of a sharply declined activity a while ago |
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I think that was about the same time that you and Arimanator stopped competing against each other for botbashes .
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Fritzlein
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Re: World Championship format for 2006
« Reply #7 on: Oct 28th, 2005, 11:02am » |
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on Oct 28th, 2005, 1:31am, PMertens wrote:fine ? yeah probably ... but very very small ....
I could be mistaken, but somehow I got the feeling of a sharply declined activity a while ago
(might have had something to do with server problems shortly after a bunch of new guys came looking ...) |
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I agree with 99of9: if there is a decline of activity you and Arimanator account for all it. In fact, if we leave the two of you out of the calculation, I'll bet the activity has been on a slight, gradual rise, interrupted by a brief spike for the Metafilter mention and a brief dip for the server issues. There is a handful of newer folks working up the ladder, and a handful of us oldtimers puttering around. That's a far cry from how dead things were when I joined 15 months ago.
I confess that I was actually sure there would be a big upsurge in activity come November, with all the tournaments approaching, and that hasn't happened yet. I guess part of the excitement last year was that JDB was closing fast with Clueless, and then Fotland came around and started improving Bomb, so we all wanted a shot at speedy. Maybe the bot competition will heat up later.
In any event, it's a bit weird to call a 7-player World Championship "very very small", when the number of folks who participated the first two years was 13 and 9 respectively. If two more folks sign up we'll have as many players as last year, and that's with the longer double-elimination format. I'll bet a nickel this year's tournament will be better than last year's in more ways than one.
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| « Last Edit: Oct 28th, 2005, 11:05am by Fritzlein » |
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omar
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Re: World Championship format for 2006
« Reply #8 on: Oct 29th, 2005, 3:26pm » |
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I think with the longer tounament format the players who are signed up will be glad there aren't too many other players.
Im very satisfied with the quality of the players that have signed up so far. It's going to be a great tournament. I will wait a bit more and then personally invite some of the player who I think should be in the tourament, but haven't signed up yet.
BTW; the computer Go championship is coming up soon, please wish David good luck.
http://www.computer-go.jp/gifu2005/English/
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Fritzlein
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Re: World Championship format for 2006
« Reply #9 on: Oct 29th, 2005, 7:30pm » |
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on Oct 28th, 2005, 11:02am, Fritzlein wrote:[...]the number of folks who participated the first two years was 13 and 9 respectively. If two more folks sign up we'll have as many players as last year [...]
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I see now that JDB and Naveed have signed up. Yay! That brings the number of registrants up to 9.
One year ago there were 10 registrants, of whom one never played, and two years ago there were 18 registrants, of whom five never played. Looking over the nine registrants for this year, I wouldn't be surprised if there were no forfeits at all. I'm so excited I can hardly wait.
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omar
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Re: World Championship format for 2006
« Reply #10 on: Oct 31st, 2005, 10:52pm » |
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Frank just signed up, so now we're at 10.
I didn't calculate the exact numbers, but Im sure the average rating of the players has improved quite a bit over the past years.
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PMertens
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Re: World Championship format for 2006
« Reply #11 on: Nov 1st, 2005, 4:16am » |
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I am pretty sure that Pat and I account for a lot of human vs. bot games ... 
What I was refering to is the 15 points Fritzl needed for player of the month 
(and a total of 12 h-h games)
Compared with the 2 previous month I would still call it a decline (even if you take me out of the calculation)
Of course you guys are correct that it can not really be called a small tournament, but I still hoped for a few more somehow ....
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Fritzlein
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Re: World Championship format for 2006
« Reply #12 on: Nov 1st, 2005, 2:11pm » |
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Well, we still have way more h-v-h games than we did a year ago, but it's true that we've declined significantly from a peak in h-v-h activity several months ago. That's too bad, because the h-v-h games advance the state of Arimaa theory far more rapidly than all the h-v-b games.
Yes, we are getting bot-bashing down to a science. Yes, we can feel more comfortable than ever about defending the Arimaa Challenge because we have discovered and cataloged umpteen strategies for beating Bomb. But no matter how organized and scientific our bot-bashing becomes, it only adds to general theory of Arimaa strategy at coral reef growth rates, because the bots themselves aren't adapting or advancing very fast.
The postal tournament was a great leap forward for experimenting with new ideas and disseminating old ones. Back in the spring I felt sure we would have a deep understanding of the E+H attack before the next World Championship. But now the WC is upon us, and we still don't have good rules of thumb about when E+H is sound or unsound. Indeed, just yesteday I made a rotten move against blue22 in our postal game, underestimating the power of his E+H attack, thereby throwing away an otherwise large advantage. I feel pretty clueless about Arimaa strategy at the moment, and my hope for winning the WC is that nobody else has worked out new ideas any better than I have.
Yet I feel the strategies are out there. That is to say, I don't think Arimaa is inherently incomprehensible to human intelligence. On the contrary, I feel that if we would just view things in the right terms, we could tack on another 200 points to our collective playing strength by next year, and another 200 the year after that. But that will require discussing with each other and testing against each other and basically not worrying about the bots so much.
I'm glad the Player of the Month Rules are as they are. Sooner or later some newcomer is going to start playing the lights out in pursuit of the monthly prize, and that will re-energize the community. Also, I have high hopes for the next postal tournament. If we slow down the time control so it isn't such a burden to play, last year's format will be perfect. The 2006 postal tournament will be a great forum for teaching each other everything we know.
The World Championship itself will contribute more to theory this year than last, in part because the average rating of the competitors has gone up, and in part because a ten-player double-elimination has twice as many games as a ten-player single-elimination. Eighteen games isn't a huge number, but it's a good start, especially if they are high-quality games.
In short, I think we've got a good infrastructure in place, and a growing community of excellent players. It will require more h-v-h activity (or much better bots) to keep Arimaa theory rolling, but there are lots of reasons to hope it will pick back up before long. Arimaa is maturing month by month, and isolated signs of a downturn are far outnumbered by signs of a general upward trend.
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Ryan_Cable
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Re: World Championship format for 2006
« Reply #13 on: Nov 3rd, 2005, 1:28am » |
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I just registered for the tournament.
I will be on a cruise with my family from December 21 to December 28, which, if I did the math right, means I will not be available any of Week 6. Looking at the competition, I am confident this will be a moot point, but I still think it is rather strange to have a tournament over Christmas vacation. Am I the only person who will have trouble playing around Christmas time? Has this not been a problem in the past?
The median rating of the tournament has indeed skyrocketed! It was 1536.5 in 2004 and 1823.5 in 2005. Currently, I have the median rating at 1983. Unless some more people sign up, it is quite possible that the median rating will be 2000+ by the start of the tournament. It looks like my goal of 2 wins is going to be very challenging. 
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99of9
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Re: World Championship format for 2006
« Reply #14 on: Nov 3rd, 2005, 3:01am » |
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on Nov 3rd, 2005, 1:28am, Ryan_Cable wrote:| I still think it is rather strange to have a tournament over Christmas vacation. Am I the only person who will have trouble playing around Christmas time? Has this not been a problem in the past? |
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Yes, I have had trouble with this in past years, but at least that time of year is a little less busy at work. On balance I don't mind too much.
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