Tower Defence, this years’ Entelect Challenge, launches today (25 April) and will culminate with the finals on the centre stage at Comic Con Africa on 15 September.
“Each year we look to build the challenge around a popular game theme, and this year is Tower Defence,” says Rishal Hurbans, solutions architect at Entelect. “The idea behind the theme is not just to make it appealing to those of us who love gaming, but to also provide a game with simple enough rules that anyone with a basic understanding of programming can enter.
“This year, we will again be running with a mini-playoffs series, a staggered strategy component, and the grand final playoff event.”
The mini-playoffs series will provide more opportunities for contestants to win. Unlike previous years where contestants submitted their bots to the play-offs in September and then the final eight competed at the finals event, the series of mini-playoffs will allow contestants to pitch their bots against other players throughout the year and stand a chance of winning golden tickets to the finals.
There will be three mini-playoffs during the year. The first will be in June, known as Codename Renegade and the second in July, called Operation Firestorm.
At these playoffs, contestants will be able to pit their bots against one another in a Round-Robin format and possibly win a golden ticket to the finals. The third playoff is Countdown to Zero Hour, this will be a Double-Elimination round to determine six of the eight finalists.
The first submission date for Codename Renegade will take the format of a hackathon. Hurbans says details will be announced nearer the time, but in simple terms, contestants will be able to utilise the hackathon environment to refine their submissions before entering the first round-robin event.
“There will be a few small cash prizes up for grabs and a golden ticket to the finals at ComicCon Africa, however, no one will be eliminated in these sessions,” explains Hurbans.
The phases are designed to help contestants see how their bot is fairing. After each playoff event, a new strategy component will be launched, for example, the ability to introduce weapons or cloaking devices. Thereby upping the competition by adding in more bot strategies.
As before, the player portal will be available to contestants to test their bots, and the community forum for contestants to chat about their builds and discuss ideas. However, Entelect is also adding a webinar series to the competition period.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is that competing successfully in the Entelect Challenge is not about having the smartest, most supersonic bot,” says Hurbans. “It is actually all about player strategies. Your bot may be really simple in design, but its strategy could be highly effective. The collaboration between the community also makes for an amazing experience.”
Prize money for this years’ event is R200 000, which will be divided across the mini-playoffs series and finals, with the biggest component awarded at the finals at Comic Con Africa. First prize will be R70 000, R35 000 will go to second place, third and fourth place receive R25 000 each, and fifth to eight place receive R10 000.