Game count...

[KyberPrizrak]

the questions is: why some bots have 10 games in the past and at the same time some bots have only 4 games. They have similar rank, so they should have same "next_game_priority". Isn't it?

Try this one: matqua has played 23 games at the same time that many of us have played just 4
http://aichallenge.org/profile.php?user=6158

I'm sure it will all balance out in the end, but it hurts to watch right now

23!?
But user "tefferi" have only 3 games!!! http://aichallenge.org/profile.php?user=11165
Last game: Dec 19th 6:13pm (12 hrs 21 min ago)

P.S. The interesting fact: there are no players with an amount of games less than 3. Probably, TrueSkill algorithm have min_game_count=3 config?

[Scryer]

But user "tefferi" have only 3 games!!! http://aichallenge.org/profile.php?user=11165
Last game: Dec 19th 6:13pm (12 hrs 21 min ago)

No, he or she has 4 games also. The first of the four is at 9:47 AM, when the player scores are the same. It shows on page 78 of "Current Rankings" as 3 games, but that part is in error (and there are others with the same off-by-one error).

[KyberPrizrak]

But user "tefferi" have only 3 games!!! http://aichallenge.org/profile.php?user=11165
Last game: Dec 19th 6:13pm (12 hrs 21 min ago)

No, he or she ha's 4 games also. The first of the four is at 9:47 AM, when the player scores are the same. It shows on page 78 of "Current Rankings" as 3 games, but that part is in error (and there are others with the same off-by-one error).

last game (№4) - 33 sec ago (After my previous message)
previous game (№3) - 12 hrs 37 min ago

"superice" have 3 game: http://aichallenge.org/profile.php?user=9547
"dwilson5" have 3 game: http://aichallenge.org/profile.php?user=6715
"bjcubsfan" have 3 game: http://aichallenge.org/profile.php?user=59

[ChrisH]

I am going to try and explain what is going on with the game counts. I have talked with one of the devs on IRC and he confirmed that this explanation is accurate.

The match maker is trying to sort the bots, so it would prefer to have a bunch that play more matches to act as landmarks in the rankings.

Think how quicksort works, it picks a pivot value and then partitions the rest of the values into two groups, based on whether they fall on one side of the pivot or the other. During this partitioning step each value is compared to the pivot only once, but the pivot gets compared to every other value. The result is that the values are put in the proper section of the list quickly.

The matchmaking system is trying to do something similar, and the bots that are getting a lot of games are acting as a sort of pivot or landmark for broadly categorizing the other bots more quickly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicksort

[Zaph]

I am going to try and explain what is going on with the game counts. I have talked with one of the devs on IRC and he confirmed that this explanation is accurate.

The match maker is trying to sort the bots, so it would prefer to have a bunch that play more matches to act as landmarks in the rankings.

Thanks for finding that out - it makes much more sense with an explanation (not that I really understand how the matchmaking achieves this, but I'll take their word for it)

Now who do I have to pay to become a pivot-bot and get to my 6th game, to make up for my failure in the 5th ?

[franperuzzi]

I too would love to know more about how the cutoffs are going to work When will they occur? What will epsilon be?.

My bot isn't a contender, but if I miss the cutoff having only lost once (to zarkon who is currently ranked 7th), I'll probably have some misgivings about how the finals are set up. At my current game rate, I think having only 5-6 games by tomorrow (Wednesday) is a possibility.

[lama3oid]

and how many pivots are there ?
I think now about half of people have at least 10 games. many have 13-14, some >20, while I and some other people still have only 6.

[ChrisH]

and how many pivots are there ?
I think now about half of people have at least 10 games. many have 13-14, some >20, while I and some other people still have only 6.

I don't know if you are right, but a brief scan of the standings does seem to show that a significant number of bots (at least 50%) have at least 10 games at the moment. Once the bots begin to get sorted into a general order then it would be good for it to even out the game counts. So hopefully what we are seeing is the ongoing process of that happening. If there are fewer bots with small game counts as time goes on, then that is a sign that the system trying to balance them out again, while playing more meaningful matches.

I don't know if the above is true, but I hope it is. Also, I feel your pain, I'm still waiting for my sixth game.

[bluegaspode]

As long as I can see that ChrisH and Xathis are facing the same problems one kind of keeps patient.
Ten games *jeleous* ...

Right now the tournament with the last three games every 12 hours is sooooo daunting (and one cannot see how this tournament can be over on 22nd of Dec).

[stupidquestions]

Well, they COULD cut 2/3 bots off after everyone gets at least 10 games, that would speed things up... But I still don't see why starter bots weren't eliminated at the beginning.