- Submit your bot a few days in advance, so that if there are submission errors you can get help before the event start. I felt sorry for those missing out on the action due to submission issues.
- Do not use the default “John Doe” for you bot name. It is bad luck!
- The double-playing of each opponent worked for me. I had 3 games where I had 1 win and 1 loss against the same opponent. For me there could have been a 6 position difference between winning all 3 and losing all 3 of those games.
- My results are very similar to the previous round 1 event. Happy about this - it tells me that luck-of-the-map is not a big factor for my AI.
- There are some pretty good AI in the competition. It is going to be very tough to reach the top 8.
Yeah, with the new run, my win rate slipped by 1%, but with other bots suddenly coming up from behind, that was enough to knock me down 4 places from I was at one point during the initial tournament run.
My inner geek would looooove to know what corrections were made behind the scenes for the 2nd run 
Anyway, the new changes (released like an hour ago) are going to be painful… for crying out loud guys, I have a day job gosh darrnit.
And kids.
And dogs.
And other LIFE stuff.
eish.
I noticed quite a big change in results between this tournament and the first one - from 5 losses to 21 and from I think 5th place (if the games were worked out correctly) to 11th.
Maybe the guys at the top didn’t have much variation but there was quite a bit of movement in the next 10 or so.
So there definitely is still a big aspect of randomness to the results - presumably based on getting maps that work better or worse with your strategy (and then having to play those maps twice).
I guess then the point is to be one of the top few who were good enough not to be as strongly affected by the randomness!
I also had a loss this round from a bug which crashes my bot if my opponent stops entirely (speed = 0) - an unconventional strategy but one that would have beaten my bot every time 
Aaaah yes, the old “make them think you’re dead and the don’t do anything else” strategy.
Gets 'em every time!
A good way to avoid such embarrassments is to create an opponent that makes completely random moves from all the possible moves and test your bot against it.
Number 1… Its a painful one, but I should have known better myself.
Going by a single seed (rounds finished) I know my speed is on par some of the top players
Going by my average score I also know I have one of the bests
So I can somewhat place myself. But doubt I would have won. But think I would have been close. But who knows what I would have interacted or what bugs I would have run into. I can only Guess.
Still going to improve on round 1 a bit more. with the new goodies in mind.
Still feel down I could not partake. But, it will also fuel my entry in round 2.
Goodluck to you. Im hoping to secure a place in top 8 again. I will fight for that. I always do.
Really amped for whats coming.
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