Microsoft Cloudball Challenge - football AI competition
I remember a lively discussion on the Google AI Challenge, and I didn’t find any notes on such a competition from Microsoft. And since I was lucky enough to win this competition, I guess I should tell about it.
As in the case of the Google AI Challenge, Microsoft itself did not directly participate in the organization, and the Swedish company Giraff was involved in the development.
Cloudball is a simplified version of football. They play two teams of 6 players. Players can “lead” the ball, beat it in any direction and make tackles. The ball bounces elastically from the sides. Each player has his own role (goalkeeper, left back, right back, etc.), but it is not necessary to stick to them.
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Here is an example of a match:
You can develop commands only in C # (but I don’t see any obstacles for other .NET languages, compiled dll are uploaded to the server, but the organizers have stated only C #). Technically, your library should contain a class with an ITeam interface that implements the Action method. This method will be called at each turn of the game. Each player must be given one of the tasks:
The game provides ample opportunities for fantasy in the field of tactics. And if I tried to stick to the matching game, with a large number of passes and the forwards at the expense of the forwards to the shock position, many came up with completely exotic options: from the “bus” in their gates to the so-called “blob”, when attacking everything players pile around the ball and go to the opponent's gate with a “pig”. Several participants, including the third-place Canadian, did a good job with dribbling, having trained their players to draw lace across the field and due to the inertia of their rivals to move away from their tackles. And the runner-up American clearly confesses total football - he has everything from goalkeeper to center forward to attack and defend.
The competition lasted from April 18 to June 16 and probably a post about it would have been more logical two months ago, but there is good news: after fixing the results and announcing the winners, the server is restarted and the upload of commands is allowed. Perhaps some changes in the rules will follow.
I described the history of creating my team in some detail from version to version: rus eng (PDF).
News from the organizers and the main discussion on the Facebook page .
Official competition website with standings.
Details of the rules in the wiki .
Several videos of my matches.
As in the case of the Google AI Challenge, Microsoft itself did not directly participate in the organization, and the Swedish company Giraff was involved in the development.
Cloudball is a simplified version of football. They play two teams of 6 players. Players can “lead” the ball, beat it in any direction and make tackles. The ball bounces elastically from the sides. Each player has his own role (goalkeeper, left back, right back, etc.), but it is not necessary to stick to them.
')
Here is an example of a match:
You can develop commands only in C # (but I don’t see any obstacles for other .NET languages, compiled dll are uploaded to the server, but the organizers have stated only C #). Technically, your library should contain a class with an ITeam interface that implements the Action method. This method will be called at each turn of the game. Each player must be given one of the tasks:
- ActionGo (IPosition) - direct the player to a specific point in the field.
- ActionShoot (IPosition, float) - hit in the selected direction with the selected strength
- ActionPickUpBall - take the ball if it is a draw
- ActionDropBall - drop the ball
- ActionTackle (Player) - make a tackle
- ActionWait - do nothing on this turn
The game provides ample opportunities for fantasy in the field of tactics. And if I tried to stick to the matching game, with a large number of passes and the forwards at the expense of the forwards to the shock position, many came up with completely exotic options: from the “bus” in their gates to the so-called “blob”, when attacking everything players pile around the ball and go to the opponent's gate with a “pig”. Several participants, including the third-place Canadian, did a good job with dribbling, having trained their players to draw lace across the field and due to the inertia of their rivals to move away from their tackles. And the runner-up American clearly confesses total football - he has everything from goalkeeper to center forward to attack and defend.
The competition lasted from April 18 to June 16 and probably a post about it would have been more logical two months ago, but there is good news: after fixing the results and announcing the winners, the server is restarted and the upload of commands is allowed. Perhaps some changes in the rules will follow.
I described the history of creating my team in some detail from version to version: rus eng (PDF).
News from the organizers and the main discussion on the Facebook page .
Official competition website with standings.
Details of the rules in the wiki .
Several videos of my matches.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/146102/
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