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AIIDE 2020 - Steamhammer versus McRave

I added parsing for Steamhammer. DaQin is nearly the same. The only remaining bot which records data that can be analyzed this way is ZZZKBot, which has a difficult file format, does not keep a recognized enemy strategy, and doesn’t bother to write a newline at the end of its file. I may skip ZZZKBot.

The Steamhammer-McRave strategy crosstable is the most interesting one yet.

steamhammer strategies versus mcrave strategies

overallPoolHatch,12Pool,2HatchMutaPoolHatch,12Pool,2HatchSpeedlingPoolLair,9Pool,1HatchMuta
overall64/150 43%17/33 52%10/22 45%37/95 39%
12PoolLurker0/1 0%--0/1 0%
3HatchLingBurrow1/5 20%1/2 50%-0/3 0%
8DroneGas7/11 64%-1/1 100%6/10 60%
9HatchMain9Pool9Gas0/2 0%--0/2 0%
9PoolHatchSpeedAllInB0/1 0%--0/1 0%
9PoolSpire0/2 0%0/2 0%--
Over10HatchBust8/19 42%7/7 100%-1/12 8%
Over10PoolLing0/1 0%--0/1 0%
OverpoolSpeed3/15 20%1/5 20%0/3 0%2/7 29%
OverpoolSunk8/21 38%0/1 0%2/8 25%6/12 50%
OverpoolTurtle11/23 48%2/6 33%1/1 100%8/16 50%
ZvP_3HatchMuta0/1 0%--0/1 0%
ZvZ_12HatchExpo0/1 0%-0/1 0%-
ZvZ_Overgas9Pool0/2 0%-0/1 0%0/1 0%
ZvZ_OverpoolTurtle26/45 58%6/10 60%6/7 86%14/28 50%

For Steamhammer, either 8DroneGas (a zergling build despite the name) or else ZvZ_OverpoolTurtle (a mutalisk build) may dominate among the openings tried, while McRave’s best was the 1 hatch muta play because no Steamhammer try was better than even against it. It’s possible that switching between different kinds of builds was important, though, because the table suggests that the other counters are likely imbalanced (without a game-theoretic saddle point).

Both sides had trouble identifying the best strategies. If both had played their best strategies then the match would have come out close to 50%, while in fact Steamhammer came out behind, so Steamhammer had more trouble selecting from its excessive range of possibilities. I get the impression of a back-and-forth learning struggle.

steamhammer as seen by mcrave

steamhammer played#mcrave recognized
12PoolLurker11 HatchPool,12Pool,1HatchMuta
3HatchLingBurrow53 HatchPool,Unknown,2HatchLing | 1 HatchPool,Unknown,Unknown | 1 Unknown,Unknown,3HatchMuta
8DroneGas116 HatchPool,9Pool,2HatchLing | 2 PoolHatch,9Pool,2HatchLing | 1 PoolHatch,Unknown,2HatchLing | 1 HatchPool,Unknown,2HatchLing | 1 PoolHatch,Unknown,Unknown
9HatchMain9Pool9Gas21 PoolHatch,12Pool,2HatchLing | 1 HatchPool,Unknown,2HatchLing
9PoolHatchSpeedAllInB11 PoolHatch,9Pool,LingRush
9PoolSpire22 Unknown,Unknown,Unknown
Over10HatchBust197 HatchPool,12Pool,Unknown | 4 HatchPool,12Pool,2HatchLing | 3 Unknown,12Pool,Unknown | 2 HatchPool,Unknown,2HatchLing | 2 HatchPool,Unknown,Unknown | 1 PoolHatch,12Pool,Unknown
Over10PoolLing11 HatchPool,12Pool,Unknown
OverpoolSpeed155 HatchPool,9Pool,LingRush | 4 PoolHatch,12Pool,Unknown | 3 Unknown,12Pool,Unknown | 1 Unknown,9Pool,LingRush | 1 PoolHatch,9Pool,LingRush | 1 HatchPool,12Pool,3HatchMuta
OverpoolSunk218 HatchPool,9Pool,Unknown | 5 PoolHatch,9Pool,LingRush | 2 HatchPool,9Pool,3HatchMuta | 1 PoolHatch,9Pool,Unknown | 1 Unknown,Unknown,Unknown | 1 Unknown,12Pool,3HatchMuta | 1 HatchPool,Unknown,Unknown | 1 HatchPool,12Pool,3HatchMuta | 1 PoolHatch,Unknown,Unknown
OverpoolTurtle237 HatchPool,9Pool,LingRush | 5 Unknown,12Pool,1HatchHydra | 3 Unknown,Unknown,1HatchHydra | 2 HatchPool,Unknown,1HatchHydra | 2 Unknown,9Pool,1HatchHydra | 2 HatchPool,12Pool,1HatchLurker | 1 PoolHatch,12Pool,1HatchLurker | 1 HatchPool,12Pool,1HatchHydra
ZvP_3HatchMuta11 HatchPool,Unknown,2HatchLing
ZvZ_12HatchExpo11 HatchPool,Unknown,2HatchMuta
ZvZ_Overgas9Pool21 PoolLair,Unknown,1HatchMuta | 1 PoolLair,Unknown,Unknown
ZvZ_OverpoolTurtle4515 Unknown,Unknown,Unknown | 10 PoolLair,9Pool,1HatchMuta | 6 PoolLair,12Pool,1HatchMuta | 6 PoolLair,Unknown,1HatchMuta | 2 PoolLair,Unknown,Unknown | 2 Unknown,12Pool,Unknown | 2 Unknown,Unknown,3HatchMuta | 1 PoolLair,9Pool,Unknown | 1 Unknown,12Pool,3HatchMuta

Some curious stuff here. None of Steamhammer’s openings here is 3 hatch mutalisk, so those that are recognized that way may have added a third hatchery later in the game. Steamhammer does have an unfortunate love of laying down an unnecessary hatchery before its spire in ZvZ (3 hatcheries with zerglings is good, 2 hatcheries with mutalisks is good, 3 hatcheries with mutalisks is hard to justify in ZvZ). Looking at the Steamhammer openings tried more often, OverpoolSunk should be recognized as PoolHatch usually (maybe sometimes PoolLair). McRave got it wrong over half the time, without any big effect on its win rate. OverpoolTurtle should be PoolHatch with a hydra followup (this opening is not intended for ZvZ). For ZvZ_OverpoolTurtle, the closest match is PoolLair,9Pool,1HatchMuta. McRave got it right 10 times out of 45 and was close some other times. Failing to recognize anything (likely the scout was denied) was bad.

mcrave as seen by steamhammer

mcrave played#steamhammer recognized
PoolHatch,12Pool,2HatchMuta3322 Naked expand | 6 Unknown | 5 Heavy rush
PoolHatch,12Pool,2HatchSpeedling229 Naked expand | 9 Unknown | 3 Heavy rush | 1 Worker rush
PoolLair,9Pool,1HatchMuta9589 Unknown | 4 Turtle | 2 Naked expand

Worker rush? That is likely a bug. The other choices capture information about the game that is probably true and not particularly useful.

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