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Ultimate Bot Tournament Rules

Participation

  • Each tournament consists of all players playing each bot game one time (except where noted below).
  • To participate in the tournament, all players must register. Registration is permitted at any time prior to the last session of the tournament. Any missed games due to late registration or absence are scratched.
  • "Scratching" a game means that you will score zero points for that game. It has no other impact on the scoring of the tournament.
  • In advance of the tournament, the dates of each session, and what bot games will be played during each session, will be announced. However, the schedule should be considered tentative only. Players can be assured that no bot game will be played before the announced date and session, but games and even entire sessions may be delayed in the event of unforeseen circumstances. For example, if a particular bot game runs longer than anticipated, later games scheduled for that session may be delayed until the following session.
  • WhizKid did not participate in the first two tournaments. Starting with tournament 3, WhizKid will participate in selected bot games. For voting-based games, however, WhizKid will not cast votes.

Rules

  • All bots run as part of the tournament will be run by Sam.
  • In the event of a bot crashing or stalling, for whatever reason, in such a manner as to demonstrably alter the outcome of a round, the results for said round will be scrapped. Scores earned during the round will be undone, and the game will progress as if it had not occurred.
  • On rare occasions, answers submitted by two different people at the same time will appear in one order in the message window but be supplied to the bots in the opposite order, resulting in a bot crediting an answer to someone who seemingly submitted it an instant after someone else. If this happens, the bot's scoring will stand.
  • On less rare occasions, someone will appear to submit an answer or a vote a split-second prior to the bot timing out and displaying the results, but yet the answer or vote is not recognized by the bot as appearing on time. If this happens, the bot's scoring will stand.
  • It is permissible for players to be /away during any game, as this can only ever hurt you. This includes KickMoleBot, where being /away means you'll never be picked as the mole and therefore never kicked out of the room -- because, while /away, you can never score, as KickMoleBot will ignore anything you say until you come /back.
  • Not all the games will be played to the normal point scores. Normally, games will be played to 10, 15, or 30 points based on how long they take to play. However, within the tournament, each bot will be worth 30 points. So, if you score 8 points in a bot game played to 10 points, your score for the tournament will be multiplied by three, and you will earn 24 points for that bot. The score each bot will be played to will be announced before it starts.
  • The following games will not be played in the tournament: PokerBot (only a strategic game over time), HotOrNotBot (people who are uncomfortable with it shouldn't play it).
  • Each bot game will be played according to the normal rules. Some individual bot games have configurable rules and/or caveats, which are outlined below:

    • BlankBot: Telling other players what your answer is (or isn't) is considered cheating. Intentionally doing so will result in disqualification from the entire tournament. Doing so accidentally may result in loss of score for the round or scratching the game, at Sam's sole discretion. There is one exception: if it is a particular player's turn to answer first, and that player mistakenly forgets to use /b on his or her answer, posting it publicly, that player is obligated to supply a different answer to the bot and subsequently affirm to the other players that the publicly posted answer was not the one ultimately submitted.
    • BlitzBot: BlitzBot will be played in speed mode. In the event that an answer is not credited to a player when it should be (for example, if the player gives an answer with a different wording than the bot recognizes), then it is the responsibility of that player to call a timeout and claim the point. If a timeout is called, the bot will be paused (after any round in progress has completed), and Sam will make a determination of whether or not the point should be awarded. If so, the score will be adjusted. If the answer was incorrectly credited to a player who answered later, that player will lose the point. If, however, the bot credits an answer to a player incorrectly (that is, if a player says one thing, and the bot recognizes it as a valid wording of a totally different answer) then the scoring will stand.
    • BuzzBot: For BuzzBot only, strategic dishonest play, in this case refusing to answer during a leading player's round, is permitted. While permitted, however, note that such play is unlikely to be fruitful, as it only takes one single player to answer correctly to overturn a strategic boycott. Players are therefore encouraged to play each round to win. Also note that telling other players your answer is not considered "strategic dishonest play"; it's outright cheating and will result in disqualification from the entire tournament.
    • ChainBot: ChainBot will be played in free-for-all mode.
    • CountryBot: CountryBot will be played in quiz mode, with all question types enabled. It is worth noting that the bot's default configuration excludes certain question types; nonetheless, for the tournament, all question types will be enabled except flag colors. Also, the bot's recognition or nonrecognition of answers will stand. Players who submit abbreviations for countries or oceans or anything else are expected to know which abbreviations the bot recognizes and abide by the consequences either way. Finally, players are on their honor not to use reference material to look up answers. Normally, this practice is permitted at the discretion of the summoner of the bot, but for the tournament, this is disallowed.
    • CuteBot: CuteBot will be played in Triples mode. Players are on their honor to cast honest ratings. Telling other players what your rating is is considered cheating. Intentionally doing so will result in disqualification from the entire tournament. Doing so accidentally may result in loss of score for the round or scratching the game, at Sam's sole discretion. If a rating is accidentally submitted publicly instead of with /b, all scores earned by any player during the round will be reverted.
    • JumbleBot: JumbleBot will be played in quiz mode, with all dimensions enabled.
    • MatchBot: For the first two tournaments, "Match Nouns to an Adjective" mode was used. Starting with tournament 3, all modes will be used.
    • MathBot: MathBot will be played in quiz mode, with all question types enabled.
    • MoleBot/KickMoleBot/SinbadBot: As they are all variants of the same basic game, will be considered a single game for tournament purposes. These games may be played in sequence, or simultaneously, depending on the tournament.
    • MovieBot: Sometimes the MovieBot database is particular about how a title is worded, although it is lenient about spacing, capitalization, punctuation, leading articles, and makes a strong attempt at equating things like the word "and" with the "&" symbol. But MovieBot may not recognize a title the way an answer has phrased it. If this happens, it stands; no manual adjustments will be made to the scores in this event. Wording of titles comes from the IMDb; both the primary title and alternate titles are recognized.
    • PicMatchBot: For the first two tournaments, the "Match Images to an Adjective" mode was used. Starting with tournament 3, all modes will be used.
    • SnagBot: Two games of SnagBot will be played to determine the single winner of the game. In the first game, the bot will be configured to disallow taking items out of players' hands and also to disallow passing along bad items. In the second game, both these things will be allowed. In neither game will disadvantageous trades be allowed. The number of points each player will score for SnagBot, as far as the tournament is concerned, is the total points between both games divided by 2, rounding down (unless rounding down causes the winner to tie with someone a point behind, in which case the winner's score only is rounded up). For example, if your total score across both games is 43, you score 21 points for SnagBot in the tournament. The winner of the SnagBot game as far as the tournament is concerned will be the player with the highest total score between both games. Note that this could potentially be someone who did not win either of the two individual games.
    • StackBot: If an answer is given that is valid, but not recognized by the bot's dictionary, no score adjustment will be made. However, the missed words may be added to the bot's dictionary at any future time, before or after the end of the game. Starting with tournament 3, StackBot will be played in free-for-all mode.
    • StateBot: StateBot will be played in quiz mode, with all question types enabled. Players are on their honor not to use reference material to look up answers. Normally, this practice is permitted at the discretion of the summoner of the bot, but for the tournament, this is disallowed.
    • WhoBot: If there are more than 26 players, note that WhoBot will only accept the first 26 answers given in each round. Also, players are on their honor to submit honest answers, despite that an advantage may be obtained by attempting to disguise their answers. Deliberate subterfuge may result in the game being scratched for the infringing player.
    • WordBot: WordBot will be played in quiz mode. If an answer is given that is valid, but not recognized by the bot's dictionary, no score adjustment will be made. However, the missed words may be added to the bot's dictionary at any future time, before or after the end of the game. Also, note that for tournament games, all question types will be enabled.
  • In games that involve voting, it is possible (especially in BlankBot) to cast dishonest votes in order to improve your standing within the game. For example, you might vote against a submission you believe to be from a particular player, rather than voting for the submission you honestly believe to be the best. Players are asked to vote honestly and are on their honor to do so. Vote for the submissions you honestly believe are most deserving and not in order to improve your standing within the game.

Scoring

  • Players are ranked in the tournament in two separate sets of rankings, the Games Ranking and the Points Ranking.
  • In the Games Ranking, players are ranked according to how many bot games they have won. If a particular bot game is tied, a full win is credited to each player involved in the tie. However, any ties in the final Games Ranking will be broken in favor of players who participated in the least number of tie wins. If there is still a tie in the Games Ranking, it will be broken in favor of the player whose tie games were shared with the fewest total number of people. For example, if A and B each have 10 wins, but one of A's wins is shared with C, then B is ranked higher than A. If, however, one of B's wins is shared with D and E, then A is ranked higher, because A's tie is shared with fewer other players. If there is still a tie in the Games Ranking, the tie breaks in favor of the player with the higher Points Ranking.
  • In the Points Ranking, players are ranked according to the total number of points scored in all the bot games. Negative scores count zero in the Points Ranking, that is, if you end a bot game with a negative score, the negative points will not be applied against you. Ties are broken in favor of the players who place higher in the Games Ranking.
  • If players are tied in both the Games and Points Rankings, the members of each tie will play a game of BlitzBot -- involving only those players in the tie -- to break it. It is, however, perfectly acceptable for one player to concede defeat to the other without playing the tiebreaker. It is also permissible for both players to agree to waive the tiebreaker, in which case the tie stands.
  • The top player of the Points Ranking will be the Grand Champion winner of the tournament, as this ranking is more indicative of excellence at the full spectrum of the various games. If the top player of the Games Ranking is different, that player will be the Reserve Champion. If the top player in both rankings is the same, there is no Reserve Champion.
  • In addition to overall rankings, separate rankings will be kept for each class of bot game, as specified below:

    • Academic Games (Math, Movie, State, Country, Bible)
    • Associative Games (Blitz, Match, PicMatch)
    • Creative Games (Caption, Crack, Line)
    • Psychological Games (Blank, Buzz, Cute, Who)
    • Speed Games (Bingo, Snag, Moles)
    • Word Games (Chain, Jumble, Stack, Word)
    • Wordsmith Games (Acro, Count, Letter)
    In the event of tied rankings within each class, the ties are broken according to the rules specified above, except that BlitzBot is not used to break ties. If a tie cannot be broken according to any of the other rules, the tie stands.