2026 - Another Thank you to the team

Thought id post here, Cause,
Nostalgia,

The long nights, the hours honing ourselves,

Sadly I am going to seemingly need to split my competitive nature from my codebases at this stage.
I could probably walk into the SA Darts team over the next 2 years if I chose,

And Modding, Think Im going to build some mods for some of the largest open gamebases,
Things like 7 Days to die,
Rimworld,

Its definately not Entelect, But thats alright,
Not everything thats good always lasts, But neither does the things that stop end either.

Maybe we see another challenge sometime,
Maybe we make a new,

This challenge has given me a nice large vessel to see how far I can push myself, and the code I can write today would not be what it is if it wasnt for the challenge,

How many people can write a 200 line hyper AI that can power games :face_savoring_food:

Or the memories, like 2019,
I start the year in Hospital, just a bad year,
Walk to the bus stop, go from bloem to JHB, walk from the station to comic con, Do the event, 2 hours later, walk back to the station for my next ticket, So much walking, such a difficult year,

But then, 1st place, and i can breathe again,
Would I have done that for free, Probably,

So I want to say from my side,
Thank you to the team, For the experience that you provided,
And my apologies for the times myself, or fellow competitors got a bit roudy,
I cannot speak for everyone, but know how consumed I become,
We took it personal because it was a big deal to us :face_with_peeking_eye:

I will miss that a lot,
I can pick up other disciplines, but Entelect was Entelect,

Maybe I take up pro gaming next, I have a gaming partner, and life partner now, who can hold her own in a competitive gaming space.
That itself is invaluable to me.

And to the other contestants, It was also great to share some life with you lot,
Riaan who was at first invisible to me, and then one day, Im like, wait, this guy is always here.
Kobus, for breaking me after my first win, making me wonder, is the next generation going to school me…
Kevin, for snapping at my heels last year,
A Guy named Pierre, who was the title holder consecutively in my first year, 2 years in a row, who I personally eliminated in Bomberman, Regardless of if that was luck.

Jean-Paul and Anesu for pure energy…
There has been many chats, with many contestants,

And the team members,
I often times suck with names,

But:
Bianca McFadyen whose just been with us
Always great energy as well,

Lets all go higher, and maybe we meet eachother a decade in somewhere, to see what became of the beasts of Entelect :phoenix:

You better not be slacking off now…

Entelect Challenge 2026
The new stage is the world,

We all build AI systems, and see who takes over most of the world,
You all get to choose your alignment, good or evil, And we hash it out…

Rules:+5 points for saving a human, -10 points for killing one,
+4 points for saving an animal, An extra +10 points if its a dog,

Battle stage can be any warzone on earth

Anyways, hope everyones doing well, thought id bother everyone here for a change

Then

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It’s still strange.

Comic Con season is rolling around again, and for the first time in years, there won’t be an Entelect Challenge finals. No familiar faces gathering around, no one final battle to see whose bot would come out on top.

I still catch myself opening the Entelect forum every now and then. I don’t even know why. Muscle memory, I suppose. I know there won’t be any new announcements, but I guess a part of me still hasn’t quite accepted that it’s over.

This time last year I was squeezing every last bit of performance out of every game tick, chasing that one extra edge before the finals. There was something incredibly satisfying about spending months obsessing over tiny improvements that, somehow, ended up making all the difference.

I’ve poured that same energy into something new. I’ve started building my own 2D pixel art game called Hollow County, and it’s been an amazing creative outlet. It’s definitely scratching that creative itch, but if I’m honest… I still find myself missing the pursuit of digital dominance.

There was just something special about spending a year building a bot to outthink some of the smartest developers in the country.

I genuinely hope one day we see the Challenge return in some form, although I understand why it changed. The landscape has shifted so much in the age of AI that maybe this was inevitable. Even so, it feels like the end of something truly unique.

To everyone who competed over the years—whether we battled for first place or just shared ideas, laughs, frustrations, and late nights—thank you. You all pushed me to become a better developer, and I’ll always be grateful for that.

I wish every one of you nothing but success in whatever challenge you take on next.

And if the Challenge ever does return…

I’ll be there.