Blog

Great Performance from teams during the SR2021 Third League Session

With another 36 matches of the SR2021 Competition, team HRS4 from Hills Road Sixth Form College head up the league, though a number of other teams are hot on their heels. This weekend’s matches saw great performances from our teams, including a new team, SWI from South Wilts Grammar School, who hadn’t submitted a robot for the first two league sessions.

Module Ⅲ provided a new challenge to the teams, both with the change to end state scoring and by the addition of a lockout mechanic for territories. The latter in particular created some tense moments during the matches, with robots able to dramatically affect each others’ scores by booby trapping territories.

At the end of the league we announced the details of our fourth and final game module. This substantially changes the arena layout and adds new kinds of territories worth more game points. The towers also received an upgrade meaning they no longer become locked out, but if a robot attempts to claim a territory they already own then it will become unclaimed.

This module of the game requires that the teams robots further increase their awareness of their environment and how they react to it if they want to claim territories and also hold them for the duration of the match

We’re now three quarters of the way through the league matches that will seed the eventual knockout stage, so teams still have everything to play for. The final league session will be in 5 weeks, on the 24th April.

If you would like to catch up on any of the matches so far, our livestreams are available on YouTube:

We look forward to seeing you over the coming months for the culmination of the SR2021 Competition.

Date Competition Stage
24th April 2021 League Session 4
1st May 2021 Knockouts and Final

SR2021 Teams Show Progress in Second League Session

With another 36 matches of the SR2021 Competition, team HRS3 from Hills Road Sixth Form College head up the league leaderboard, though a number of other teams are hot on their heels. This weekend’s matches saw great performances from our teams, including three new teams which hadn’t submitted a robot for the first league session.

Module Ⅱ provided a new challenge to the teams, both through opening up the arena half way through the match and by requiring that territories be linked back to a teams starting zone to be captured. The latter in particular created some tense moments during the matches, with robots able to dramatically affect each others’ scores by severing territory chains.

At the end of the league we announced to teams the details of our third game module. This changes the way that a robot’s score is calculated from being the largest extent of their territory during the match to being purely based on the territory they control at the end of the match. Additionally the territories will now become locked (and unclaimed) after they have been successfully claimed four times.

This module of the game requires that the teams robots further increase their awareness of their environment and how they react to it if they want to claim territories and also hold them for the duration of the match

We’re now at the half-way point in the league matches that will seed the eventual knockout stage, so teams still have everything to play for. The next league session will be in 6 weeks, on the 20th March.

If you would like to catch up on any of the matches so far, our livestreams are available on YouTube:

We look forward to seeing you over the coming months for the continuation of the SR2021 Competition.

Date Competition Stage
20th March 2021 League Session 3
24th April 2021 League Session 4
1st May 2021 Knockouts and Final

SR2021 First League Session a Great Success!

After the first 36 matches of the SR2021 Competition, team HRS3 from Hills Road Sixth Form College head up the initial league leaderboard with a staggering 82 game points. They’re closely followed by the other 3 Hills Road teams as well as one of our rookie teams We Robots.

The league matches provide a proving ground for all the teams’ hard work over the past few months in preparing their robot code. There is also a prize for the rookie team which scores the best in the league, which both the We Robots team and Harris Westminster Sixth Form Team 1 are currently well placed for.

At the end of the league we announced to teams the details of our second game module. This sees the territories, that teams must claim to gain points, have ‘links’ added between them. Coupled with a new restriction that prevents robots claiming territories unless they can form a chain back to their starting zone, this makes for an interesting problem for teams to solve.

The teams now have three weeks to work on and improve their code before another 36 league matches are played over the course of next league schedule. Given this is only our first league session there is still everything to play for.

If you would like to catch up on this weekend’s livestreamed matches, they’re available on YouTube:

We look forward to seeing you over the coming months for the continuation of the SR2021 Competition.

Date Competition Stage
6th February 2021 League Session 2
20th March 2021 League Session 3
24th April 2021 League Session 4
1st May 2021 Knockouts and Final