Hosted by Czech Technical University, Prague & Comenius University, Bratislava
While watching the round of 42 of the SSCAI tournament, I noticed some games that were interesting and some that were hilarious. With the replays of the round of 42 released, I decided to watch some of the replays to make a "highlight" of interesting replays and a "lowlight" of hilarious replays.
SSCAI highlights:
Although the bots are not high level, there are still some interesting replays to watch.
One of the interesting things about the bots is that they can micro units faster than any human can.
For example: the bot made by Andrew Smith has near perfect timings for a "Hold Position Dragoon" micro.
Below are some examples of interesting things that bots can do:
Game 0068 PvP: Dragoon micro
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Andrew Smith opened with a fast dragoon versus a zealot rush from Black White.
But Andrew Smith used its millisecond reaction time to micro its dragoons.
Even when Black White expanded and increased the zealot pressure, Andrew Smith's dragoons managed to defeat them due to superior micro.
Eventually Andrew Smith teched up to reavers and won the match.
Game 0147 ZvP: Zerg bot sim-city
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Marian Devecka is the most sophisticated Zerg player in the tournament.
The only problem is that the Zerg bot crashes a lot.
This is one of the few games where Marian Devecka manages to complete a whole game.
In this game we see that there is some sim-city to protect the first sunken colony.
The sunken colonies hold of the first Protoss wave,
allowing Marian Devecka to build up an army large enough to defeat Protoss
Game 0326 TvP: Dark templar micro
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Game 0792 TvP: Cannon rush with genetic algorithm
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Replay link
Jakun Trancik is a Protoss bot that is specialised in Cannon rushing.
The build location of the cannons is trained with a genetic algorithm to maximize the effectiveness of the cannon rush.
The game against Lucia shows a clever strategy of placing cannons on the low ground (out of sight of the opponent) to protect the cannons on the high ground while they are constructed
Game 0795 TvP: One of everything
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Replay link
This game shows that Roman Daniels is the "one of everything" Protoss bot.
In this game you will see the Protoss bot use: dark archon, shield battery, corsair, scout, reaver, carrier, high templar and much more
SSCAI lowlights:
There are a list of characteristics that some bots seem to posses one way or the other:
+ Show Spoiler +
- Long distance mining
- 4 pool on 4 player maps
- Not attacking a worker scout that is attacking your worker units
- Worker scout with mineral in possession
- Not scouting for the last building on the map
- Prioritizing attacking larva
But the replays below have a specific problem that makes watching them so bad that they are good.
Game 0110 TvT: Bunker rush gone horribly right
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Game 0311 TvZ: Pacifist Marines
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Game 0393 PvT: Aggro Zealots
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In this game, the Terran player pulled its SCVs all the way to the middle of the map to attack the Zealots that were in the base (and are now retreating).
The zealots targeted the marines, which allowed the SCVs to surround some zealots.
Unfortunately, the SCV attack was not enough and the mining time lost causes the Terran to lose the game.
Game 0567 ZvT: Best of the Worst
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Replay link
Best of the Worst.
The Zerg bot forgot how to give commands to its units.
Hence it only had its starting units the entire game.
Despite this, the Terran managed to lose 3 vultures.
Game 0621 TvT: Marine path-finding
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Replay link
An unfinished building messed up the path finding, causing the marines of LetaBot to be stuck near the unfinished building.
Game 0765 ZvP: Very long distance mineral steal
+ Show Spoiler +
Finals
The top 8 bots of this part of the tournament are going to play today to determine the winner of the SSCAI.
More detail here.
Once the tournament is over, I will post some highlights in this topic.