Hunger Games - what happens next? - David Mattingly

We had 440 individual and team submissions to hunger games, many of them exceptional examples of game theory analysis and machine learning. Way to go all you Brilliant folks!

Over the next two weeks we will be examining each submission and actually running the game, letting all your algorithms duke it out. After the game is run (or during, if it takes a very long time - there are some complex algorithms!), we will post the current standings. The final results will be posted before September 1st, and most likely well before. We will then be in contact with the finalists for their short interviews, after which we will award the prizes and t-shirts.

In the meantime - in the Brilliant discussion forum there is now a Hunger Games strategy week discussion, where all of you can discuss what you did and why if you so desire. While this is a little like shopping after you bought something, it can still be a lot of fun to toss around your ideas. Please upvote those posts that give strategies you like, and we'll see in the end how those strategies actually did!

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This discussion board is a place to discuss our Daily Challenges and the math and science related to those challenges. Explanations are more than just a solution — they should explain the steps and thinking strategies that you used to obtain the solution. Comments should further the discussion of math and science.

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Markdown	Appears as
`italics` or `_italics_`	italics
`bold` or `__bold__`	bold
- bulleted - list	bulleted list
1. numbered 2. list	numbered list
Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly
paragraph 1 paragraph 2	paragraph 1 paragraph 2
`[example link](https://brilliant.org)`	example link
`> This is a quote`	This is a quote
# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"	# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `$` ... `$` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$

Comments

Will there be any future competitions in similar areas of game theory, AI, and ML? Also perhaps for prize money?

Timothy Schmid - 7 years, 9 months ago

There most likely will be future competitions. What areas they are in is yet to be determined. Suffice to say though, we value diversity of mind at Brilliant so the competition topics will be varied.

David Mattingly Staff - 7 years, 9 months ago

If I do not win or am not successful will I still be able to find out how I placed for example 300/440?

Xavier Torgerson - 7 years, 9 months ago

Yes, there will be a list published of everyone's results.

Will you post an analysis of the (actual)game, e.g. diagrams of the current food and reputation?
It said tournament style. How many players in each tournament? For instance, 22 tournament with 20 players in each; final tournament with the winning 20.

Pontus Hultkrantz - 7 years, 9 months ago

We'll definitely post some sort of data on how the game progressed. I think this would be interesting from an analytic point of view as well.
Everyone goes into one big tournament.

Will you be running the tournament multiple times, since the results will probably not be deterministic?

Ante Qu - 7 years, 9 months ago

@Ante Qu – We will make sure that noise and random variation is minimized, so that the best algorithms do rise to the top.

I haven't received any e-mail. Have you sent any?

Leonardo Daher - 7 years, 9 months ago

It's almost the 1st. Update?

Joshua Nathaniel - 7 years, 9 months ago

If I may speculate, I think that they encountered a massive draw and several players having 1.0 in reputation. Just a guess though! ;)

After one slack it would be impossible to have a 1.0 rep. A draw is plausible though.

@Joshua Nathaniel – There is no draw. First updates coming shortly.

@David Mattingly – Cool beans

@Joshua Nathaniel – https://brilliant.org/discussions/thread/hunger-games-the-story-so-far/

@Joshua Nathaniel – I was thinking of numerical round off errors of 'float' numbers. =P

Oh and I kinda assumed just one game with rounds till only one is left... haha That is why I thought about the draw due to an equilibrium.

it looks like the conversation venue has shifted:

http://brilliant.org/discussions/thread/hunger-games-the-story-so-far/

avi newman - 7 years, 9 months ago

I was wondering when the competition will be officially "closed"- after results, after prizes are distributed, or what?

Justin Wong - 7 years, 9 months ago

It's closed now, in that there are no submissions being accepted. The competition game itself might live on as a game to play with friends, as an ongoing challenge to find the "best" algorithm, etc. We don't know yet.

That would be cool, playing with friends and having the game live on as a more complex Prisoner's Dilemma.

@Justin Wong – What would be really cool is keeping it open as a King of the Hill style competition where people can enter continuously and the tournament is automated and run daily with posted results. This would give people a chance to adapt their programs instead of just having their programs adapt. I would love to see the strategy of the program which could stay at the top of that competition for a while...

Ethan Berl - 7 years, 9 months ago

@Ethan Berl – That'd be great if they could find a way around the security issues (people submitting scripts that try to hack the competition or even the whole site).

Christopher Johnson - 7 years, 9 months ago

@Christopher Johnson – Well online graders like USACO have found ways around this (and they even use Python for the open tournaments). I see no reason why the Brilliant staff cannot.

Tanishq Aggarwal - 7 years, 9 months ago

I noticed that my teammates are not getting the update e-mails I am getting. It could be them not checking their junk mail boxes, but are update e-mails only sent to the e-mail of the account that submits the code? Or, rather, to get straight to the point of my fears, how can we check that we have submitted our team details correctly now that the submission page is closed?

Kevin Wongso - 7 years, 9 months ago

send me a message from the account you registed on Brilliant with and I'll check for you

Excuse the late reply. How do I send messages here? I can't seem to find any messaging-related buttons on the interface or the profile page.

@Kevin Wongso – email david@brilliant.org

@David Mattingly – I sent the email yesterday, thanks!

And where are the final results?

Toms Bergmanis - 7 years, 9 months ago

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$