Oktgopus
What is the Freestyle Go League?
The Codecentric Freestyle Go League was founded by Prof. Ingo Althöfer (Jena) in 2018. Freestyle Go refers to playing Go with virtually no restrictions on strength-improving aids. In particular, computer usage (i.e. bots) are allowed. Codecentric AG funds a price of 500€.
In 2018/19, 7 teams participated, each of which is to play against each other, such that there are 6 game days. A pairing consists of two games played simultanously, i.e. it is a team match with two boards. Match dates are roughly every four weeks between September 2018 and April 2019.
Games are played using Japanese rules and a komi of 7.0. While these parameters are very common in human games, they pose a challenge for most AI programs, which are used to Chinese rules and 7.5 komi. This calls for a combination of computer and human intelligence.
What is Oktgopus?
Oktgopus is a team participating in the 1st Codecentric Freestyle Go League. Its members are students at the university of Paderborn.
During the season, only the teams' captains' names are known - other members as well as used software, hardware or other resources, if any, may be kept secret.
Team
Sebastian Heuchler
- CS grad student, Go player since 2006
- Founder & captain, player 1
- Responsible for research & development, testing, infrastructure, organizing, finances and website
Ngoc Chi Banh
- CS grad student, Go player since 2005
- Player 2
- Responsible for QA and art
Oliver Kruse
- CS undergrad student, Go player since 2018
- World record holder in number crunching
Plush Weighted Storage Cube
- Does not play Go
- Debugging support
Results
After round 4:
| Round | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | City | Place | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Score |
| Oktgopus | Paderborn | 1 | 7+ | -- | 5+ | 4+ | 6+ | 3+ | 2= | 11:1 |
| Karlsruher Allerlei | Karlsruhe | 2 | 5+ | 4= | 6+ | 3= | -- | 7+ | 1= | 9:3 |
| Deep Green | Darmstadt | 3 | 4= | 6+ | -- | 2= | 7+ | 1- | 5+ | 8:4 |
| AI Sensei | Hamburg | 4 | 3= | 2= | 7+ | 1- | 5+ | -- | 6+ | 8:4 |
| Saargenhaft | Saarbrücken | 5 | 2- | 7+ | 1- | -- | 4- | 6+ | 3- | 4:8 |
| Chris the brain & friends | Freiburg | 6 | -- | 3- | 2- | 7= | 1- | 5- | 4- | 1:11 |
| Oldenburger Ozas | Oldenburg | 7 | 1- | 5- | 4- | 6= | 3- | 2- | -- | 1:11 |
We won! In the finale against Karlsruhe, both teams were pushed to the limit and ended up winning one board each. As Paderborn was two points ahead before, they won the season.
Used software, hardware and other resources
(redacted)