The Qualification Round

<Roy> Group D might be the closest I think, interesting group
<brx> nenad, sascha, michal. this is going to be fun.
<sf> I'm glad I'm not in group C
<Nenad> I would like best to be in C
<brx> I would love to be in C

Roy van Rijn       2,2
John Metcalf       3,7
Michal Janeszek    4,7
Chip Wendell       4,8
Nenad Tomasev      5,1
Zul Nadzri         6,3
Sascha Zapf        6,8
German Labarga     7,8
Jens Gutzeit       9,2
Simon Wainwright  10,1
LAchi             10,6
Will Varfar       11,4
Mizcu             12,0
John K. Lewis     12,4
el kauka          12,5
inversed          13,3
S. Fernandes      14,9
brx               15,1
fiveop            17,1
datagram          18,9
X-man             19,7

I decided to use a bishot in this round, because I knew that 
oneshots and bishots will be better in coresize==3800 than in 
coresize==8000, so it seemed like a logical choice to use one 
of those. I know that it is risky... 

I wanted to use somethin a little safer, like an incendiary 
first, but I realized that it didn't score that well (the one 
that I've made). I'm afraid that I might get trashed by 
coreclears or maybe even CLP's here, but... I hope that noone 
is crazy enough to use a CLP... 

Why a bishot?

Well, it's a little safer than oneshot - able to bypass some 
decoys, etc. ... although it is weaker against imps.
So, it's a gamble. I hope that I'll manage to qualify, though. 
I know that it's not that original to submit a slightly reworked 
tiny and 94nop warrior like Diptera, but... I didn't have enough
time this week to test new stuff, and I also didn't want to use 
tricks from my unpublished warriors, so... I decided to place my
bet with Diptera. We'll see soon if I made a terrible mistake.

as for what other players will try to make... I've got no idea. 
I think that sf will try a oneshot. And Sascha Zapf might decide 
to use a s/i. ... but that's just a conjecture. I believe, 
however, that noone will use papers. That is too big a risk. 
I'm worried about the size of the groups. It renders the scores 
very unpredictable...

But oneshots ARE probably the best choice, generally speaking. 
In practise, you might use them and fail.

Hmm, qualification - 3800 the number of the beast...

No instructions are forbidden, everything can be used... 
Guess that there are all kind of warriors present. Don't want to 
bet on what Michal does, or Nenad...Can't see what brx or S-Fernandes 
choose to get on the top. So first the benchmark. 20 Warrior from Tiny.. 
Redesigned for 3800er core and optimized two times against themselves..

Then steel the code from one of Roy's most successfull warrior and 
optimize like hell.

Hope for the best

For this round I'm expecting a few stone/papers (since they became
quite fashionable recently), maybe also one-shots and stone/imps.
The warrior I'm submitting is Recon 2, with constants picked to match
core parameters,  and wasn't tested at all (except for looking at
pmars display to see if patterns look nice :)). Nevertheless, I hope
that with a bit of luck I will get out of the group.

Something simple: decoy-maker + oneshot. I am worried if I try 
anything more complex it will backfire.

Countdown started i didn't known what to write.

Brief analysis:
---------------

   Let's take a look at the group and see what my opponents
could submit.

                         Group B 
                         ======= 

                     German Labarga 
                      Will Varfar 
                      Jens Gutzeit 
                        datagram 
                      John Metcalf 
                      Sapan Bhatia 

   Will is mostly an evolver, though i assume he knows well the
basic strategies. I expect an evolved paper from him, or just
and optimized human designed paper.
That should not be a serious problem... should it?

   As far as i know, the only succesful warriors from Jens are papers.
I have seen Yatima 2.0.5 and Military Grade Milk 1.1.2, and they
are very agressive papers. That could be a problem. I don't expect
a s/i or s/p from him. Those strategies has a bit more complex design
and he submited his entry relatively soon.

   I saw at the IRC-log that Datagram could do a paper.  Don't know if
he will submit one finally. He could surprise us with a s/i.
He said that he had not much time so i don't expect anything complex 
from him.

   About John, well, he can do anything. Let's assume he will submit
a scanner to take advantage from Jens' papers. Nothing risky, zooomish
blur, or a oneshot. Though, it would not be a surprise for me to see
a s/p or s/i from him.

   I simply have no idea about what Sapan could submit...

And now what?
-------------
   I first tried a s/p, based on my Gihegruoerg, wich has a tough
anti-imp paper. The idea was to take points from any scanner from
John and stone/imps, and resist papers, but i noticed it has
problems against those papers from Jens. Also, s/i's are the best
feed for such a s/p, and i don't expect to see many.

   So? I think that facing a group of contenders, i might face-off
different strategies. The best way, is probably to assume some risk
and submit something agressive, that can take many points, doesn't
mater if it loses a lot too.

  I don't have time to write and test something complex.
I'm just going to take a oneshot, (i think "Boss is back again" is my
best one), and addapt it to this round settings.

   It has problems against papers, but can get nice win percentages
from them too. The bomb detection trick helps a lot against s/i's
and s/p's, and the core trashing helps a bit against other scissors.
This oneshot seems to be agressive enough to score well without
a too high risk.
Go ahead.

-G.labarga-

The Making of "Evidence of Inability"
-------------------------------------

After the rules for the qualification round went out, I had to think 
about what kind of warrior to submit. One thing was clear from the 
start. It had to contain a quickscanner.

But what else? I could write a scanner in order to make something 
unexpected. I could write a stone/imp, too. I could write a paper to 
do something very execpted ...

I wrote a paper, because I'm lazy. What kind of paper? I'm lazy, so 
I took the first, that I could find. It was a little variation of 
nPaper II. It is still a very good one, but has its weak points. But 
because I only want to qualify for the next round and not to win (i.e. 
probably face Roy the next round), I did nothing more about the paper.

The quickscanner was simple. I've taken a normal q^4, deleted some 
scans, made sure everything works. Ready. I'M LAZY!

I didn't tweak a constant. I didn't make a benchmark to optimize it 
against. It has taken 5 minutes to find a good name ... yes, I know, 
that I'm doomed!

- Jens

PS: In the unlikely case, that I've made it to round 2, please assume, 
that I'm not lazy. It was all divine inspiration, but it is probably 
too late to say something like this now.

Well... after rewriting French Kiss for coresize 3800 I just discovered 
that the clear alone scored better... :/

Mean stone/imp, not well optimized. But it should beat any scanner 
and I expect oneshots/bishots from LAchi and Wainwright (yes, this is naive). 
Relatively large, so adding qScan is useless. Anyway I think I have a chance.

 
First I created a benchmark (and deleted it, see logs 26-10-05)
   then I tried all warriors I could find
   seems that mostly oneshots and Hullabaloo do well

 So I optimized Myrmidon (my best oneshot) and Hullabaloo
   they scored almost the same against my benchmark..
   after a one-on-one fight the best warrior was the Hullabaloo-clone

 I suspect others will do the same (benchmarking)
   they will also notice oneshots are best and submit that
   and then having Hulla might be a slight advantage

Sending: Hullabaloo in 3800

Some more testing, but WAIT! Hullabaloo is only strong against a few oneshots
   not all oneshots in my benchmark... that is VERY dangerous in this round

Back to the drawing board.. time to think of another strategy
   looking at my enemies, fiveop might make a oneshot, so does LAchi
   he started out making bombing-oneshots and later some papers.
   inversed could make a oneshot, and simon is always tricky

How about a oneshot that beats most other oneshots
   I took my best oneshot up to date, Myrmidon
   Optimized it a little bit against oneshots in 3800 core
   And here is the replacement..just to tricky to send a stone/paper!

Sending: Myrmidon clone for 3800

(Never change strategies, stick with the first thing that comes to mind...)

So much doubt...
I'm going to test what was a better choice when this tournament is over!

Being the favourite isn't fun at all... I can't win, only fail

Here it is.... my gamble for this round:

Note: Take the facts, leave out the rumours
a) #1 -> During chatting at #corewar, I discover a secret: put 
   "John" anywhere to gain advantage.
b) #2 -> Due to the tough Group D, I will go for non-last ranking 
   instead of the leader spot.
c) 8000 vs 800... which one wins at 3800? Well, let's try the 
   smaller core.
d) Which tiny warrior to use? Get an off-the-hill warrior and 
   revitalize it! Quite interesting.
e) Which one? How about madpixel... sounds maniac to me. Fit 
   for this crazy core size.
f) Adjustments? Change some constants to cover more areas.
g) {Looks like SPL/SPL/DAT clear is the major problem. No time, 
   so, go ahead and risk on this.}
h) No pspace -- Therefore, no self-win strategy (Fizmo hates 
   handshakers...just a guess :)
i) How to optimize? Duh... I don't know how to use Optimax. No 
   server offering this command too.
j) So, trial and error.
k) No second warrior to help me up. Just one chance to survive...
***
y) Here it is.... Jump "John" Jump. See the mad pixels jumpin'.
z) p/s: if I lost this round, please search the guy starting 
with Je**, who tipped me wrongly ! "John"..yeah.