The 2021 Computer Olympiad

Abstract

The 24^th Computer Olympiad was held online during August/September 2021. With 60 participants competing in 22 events, the event was a success. This raises the question as to whether the ICGA and its members are best served by having future Olympiads online or returning to the in-person format.

1. Introduction

The pandemic forced many events to move online, and the Computer Olympiad was no exception. The 23^rd Olympiad (2020) was held online, forcing the ICGA to rethink the event format and rules. Building on that success, the 24^th Olympiad was also online during August and September 2021. This report summarizes the observations and results from this event.

2. Preparation

With the pandemic still a global concern, there was only one choice if the ICGA was to hold an Olympiad in 2021: it had to be online. Moving the 2020 event online involved considerable work, as the organizers (the three authors of this paper) had to create a new format for the competitions and a new set of rules. The 2020 event ran smoothly and was almost problem free.

The 2021 Olympiad had an almost identical format to the previous event. Some minor rule changes were made to accommodate a few unforeseen situations. As well, the event schedule was modified to prevent the annoying problem of having to collect some of the registration fees after the events were concluded. For 2021, all registration fees were paid in advance, with only one exception. Other than that, because of the sportsmanship and cooperation of the participants, the event was trouble free. Information on the Olympiad schedule (2021 Computer Olympiad, 2021) and rules (Computer Olympiad Rules, 2021) are available.

Each event was self-organized. For each event, the participants were asked to agree on the following competition details:

Format, with a round-robin being the standard.

Number of games played between competitors.

Time controls (most games had a standard setting).

Playoffs. Some events agreed on the final round-robin standings serving for decisions on the medals. Other competitions had 1, 2 or 4-game matches to determine the medals.

The original schedule had 8 days to complete all the games (August 23 to August 30). Some events went beyond that limit to accommodate any special needs of the participants.

The 2021 Olympiad saw the debut of a new competition: Sylver Coinage (2022). This game was created by the brilliant mathematician John Conway, who sadly passed away in 2020 due to COVID-19. Conway has many claims to fame but is perhaps best known for his Game of Life. Thank you to Gilad Moskowitz for introducing the game to the Olympiad.

3. Results

In 2021, we had 22 competitions totalling 60 registrants. In terms of the number of events, it tied for the second largest in Olympiad history, behind 24 in the 22^nd Olympiad (Macau, 2019) (Schaeffer, 2021). As to the number of participants, this was tied for the 10^th largest in Olympiad history. The record is 108 in the 15^th Olympiad (Kanazawa, Japan, 2010).

Note that a further 10 competitions were not held because there was only a single entrant. Hopefully these games will reappear in the 2022 Olympiad.

Compared to our first online Olympiad (November/December 2020 (Iida et al., 2021)), the number of competitions went up by one, but the number of participating programs dropped by five.

The ICGA congratulations all the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medal winners, and thanks all the participants of the 24^th Computer Olympiad. There were many interesting results, but one accomplishment stands out for special recognition. Quentin Cohen-Solal and Tristan Cazenave seem to be on a mission to win every competition. This year they entered 16, winning the Gold Medal in 11. That’s going to be a difficult record to beat! Congratulations Quentin and Tristan.

The Appendix includes the results from all 22 Olympiad competitions.

4. Perspectives

The move to online raises two critical issues that the ICGA membership needs to resolve: a) online, in-person, or a hybrid Olympiad; and b) increasing the number of entries.

Post the pandemic, should the Olympiad return to its traditional in-person format? The cost of travelling to an Olympiad has been discussed in the past as being a significant barrier to participation. The online format was seen as a way for increasing the number of participating programs. However, the data does not support this. The historical record for the Olympiads shows 2020 and 2021 to be typical years in terms of entries (Schaeffer, 2021).

From the organizational point of view, an online Olympiad is much easier to organize (and less costly) than an in-person event. There is no need to deal with finding a venue, renting space, renting computers, obtaining Internet access, and so on. Essentially the move online comes without any significant financial costs for the organizers and the participants. Of course, an online Olympiad loses the most important aspect of in-person events – the ability to interact with your colleagues in person. We can debate the quality of in-person versus online interactions, but it appears that for most Olympiad programmers online is less appealing for having casual discussions of games and AI.

How do we increase the number of Olympiad entries? Being online allows the event to easily handle more entries without incurring additional costs (which is not true for the in-person events). The Olympiad is advertised on the ICGA web site (low traffic), through several mailing lists (probably low impact), and from various mailouts (mostly to past participants). None of these methods seems to be reaching a new audience. Globally, game programming is a popular activity, but we have been unable to reach more game-AI programming aficionados.

Your thoughts on these issues are most welcome. Please contact [e-mail].