SSCAIT 2018 prospects
The tournament starts with the usual round robin. There are 72 players, down from 78 last year due to stricter rules and a trend to disable weaker bots. The top 16 round robin finishers will go on to a final in a knockout format. Last year I predicted—not with full confidence—that Steamhammer would finish between #4 and #8. It ended up dead in the middle at #6. My predictions are not usually that accurate, but I won’t let that stop me.
First, let me get a handle on the top bots. Some familiar players are out, either by the author’s choice or by the rules.
| Krasi0 | Wacky Krasi0P, not powerful Krasi0 terran. |
| SAIDA | Updated with scary new skills. |
| Locutus | Updated. |
| BananaBrain | Updated. |
| PurpleWave | Switched in on the last day as a “surprise”. |
| Killerbot | (Marian Devecka) Updated. |
| CherryPi | Out, due to shared author rules. |
| Tscmoo family | Tscmoo protoss. |
| DaQin | Out, presumably because it is too like Locutus. |
SAIDA is of course the favorite for #1. Obviously the protoss trio Locutus, BananaBrain, and PurpleWave should finish high. PurpleWave is a black box. It was left disabled in the run-up to the tournament, no doubt while the author prepared, then switched in on the last day: It is prepared for us, we are not prepared for it. Killerbot by Marian Devecka is the other top contender. These 5 will fill in the top 3 almost surely, and likely the next 2 places as well.
Iron should do well too, though it has fallen behind. Hao Pan has improved greatly. McRave seems to remain inconsistent against weaker opponents, but should perform well. I find it hard to foresee how the lower end of the top 16 will fill out. For the Tscmoo family, the author did not disable unwanted variants, so the organizers did it instead, choosing Tscmoo protoss as the representative. (Last year they said they’d choose randomly; this year I don’t see a decision criterion stated.) Tscmoo can surprise, but this version doesn’t look like a contender. XIMP by Tomas Vajda is no longer likely to finish in the top 16, since its rivals have learned to cope—that is a change, last year it finished #12.
For Steamhammer, I am disheartened by a couple of undiscovered serious bugs in its very last game before the tournament began. Still, I did fix other bugs, and the buggy test versions performed fairly well. I am predicting Steamhammer to finish from #7 to #13 and safely make it into the final—again, not with full confidence.
“Good luck to everyone” is a wimpy wish. Absolute victory to everyone! Crush all in your path!
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McRave on :
LetaBot on :
I was just about to write my own predictions when I saw your blog. I posted mine on my TeamLiquid blog:
https://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/540151-starcraft-ai-tournament-sscai-predictions
Dan on :
Dilyan on :
Jay Scott on :
MarcoDBAA on :
Newest SAIDA can drop vs all races.
He also did a Bio-SCV rush vs MadMixP, but that one wasn´t too effective, even though he won finally.
There seem to be new skills, but are these the right ones? Because BananaBrain and Locutus already rushed him successfully.
Marian builds mutas vs zerg too now, but this did not look too good vs Arrakhammer and he lost. Might win vs the strong protoss bots however.
I do not underestimate Purplewave either. But the tournament might be to short to find answers.
Would have believed in McRave maybe, but no new update.
So rather not.
Jay Scott on :
Dan on :
Jay Scott on :
Dan on :
MarcoDBAA on :
Countered all cheeses krasi0P tried. Waiting behind the sunkens until massing enough troops to break out. DTs were useless because Overlords were always in range. When the carriers came into play, he build spore colonies and massed hydras and scourge. Nice drops hurt krasi0s economy and best of all, he finished him off with BM hatcheries :P xD
Even though this isn´t terran krasi0, you have to say that Simplicity did much better than SAIDA or McRave at least. ;)
Jay Scott on :
Tully Elliston on :
Tully Elliston on :
Jay Scott on :