Results Round of 8 Probots

The results are in for the round of 8 of the KotN: Probots tournament. I’ll review the matches and the results below:

AviloBot vs MicroMachine

Watch the VoD here. This was the first chance we had to see AviloBot play. It plays a mech style off of one base. MicroMachine plays a 4 rax opening, also staying on one base. AviloBot built a bunker on the top of his ramp, which shut down all aggression from MicroMachine. MicroMachine didn’t really understand it though, and kept suiciding marines up the ramp. AviloBot eaily won 2-0.

m1ndb0t vs 5minBot

Watch the VoD here. m1ndb0t is also a new bot. It builds a proxy pylon with a shield battery. Then it goes for stalkers, immortals and a few adept.

5minBot has had some modifications for the tournament, but it still uses mostly marines and marauders with medivac support. It does now go for an early attack if it determines that the enemy is not going to put on too much pressure.

In game one this happens and the early attack hits m1ndb0t before he has enough units to defend. The victory goes to 5minBot. In game 2 5minBot does not scout that m1ndb0t has built a gateway in his main. According to Archiatrus, the author of 5minBot, this led the bot to believe that m1ndb0t was going for some form of proxy. Because of this, he doesn’t go for the early attack and the game goes on for a little longer. The stalkers are no match for the bio force though. For some reason the immortals all stay in the main base and do not contribute to the fight. They are also killed when the army of 5minBot marches into the enemies base. 5minBot wins the series 2-0.

HjaxAI vs Tyr

The VoD for these matches has not yet been uploaded to youtube. If you are a subscriber of ESChamp you can watch it on their twitch channel, otherwise you will have to wait until they upload it. Here is the match with my bot I have been waiting for all this time.

HjaxAI uses a macro heavy strategy where he quickly goes up to three bases and then masses hydras. Finally it adds a fourth hatch for some extra macro potential. It also makes sure to build lings to defend against early aggression.

My own bot Tyr makes use of two different strategies. With the first strategy is a two base voidray all-in. My bot makes sure to build plenty of cannons at the natural to stay safe against early pressure. If my bot loses with this build it will move on to the next. For the next build it walls itself in on one base with a gateway and a forge. It then builds a ton of cannons and some shield batteries on top of the ramp to stay safe. After that it goes for a combination of DTs and voidrays.

The matches themselves were actually cast in reverse order of how they were played. This makes it somewhat confusing as my bot decides its strategy based on the result of the previous game. I will discuss the games in the order that they were actually played.

Game one my bot went with the two base voidray strategy. The voidrays moved out at about the same time as the hydras did. The meet in front of my base and the voidrays are killed. The hydras move on to the cannons. They are barely held of – sort of – as only one hydra remains, which my bot seems to ignore. When the reinforecements arrive for HjaxAI it is game over for my bot.

The second game my bot decided to switch up its strategy and go with the one base DT, voidray build. The DTs arrive at the third base of HjaxAI before any detection is done. They quickly kill a lot of drones. When the voidrays arrive there are only a couple of queens and hydras, with spores being added on. The defenses are too little to late and the game goes to Tyr.

In the final game my bot sticks with the same strategy. This time, however, HjaxAI builds a ton of overseers right before my DTs arrive. According to the author of the bot, the overseers were supposed to be built every single game, but somehow the bot failed to do so during game two. This time, with the overseers out, the DTs are killed in seconds. The voidrays make the mistake of trying to kill all the lings before anything else. They do not get very far when a couple of hydras come in and kill them. The rest of the game, Tyr keeps slowly trickling in units, and finally dies when HjaxAI move out with his hydras.

HjaxAI wins the series 2-1.

CreepyBot vs CannonLover

The VoD for these games are not on youtube yet either. If you are a subscriber, they come after the HjaxAI vs Tyr matches in the same video as above.

CreepyBot stays true to its name. It is a Zerg bot that likes to cover the map in creep, and it does so at an insane rate. Behind that it goes for a macro focussed roach heavy build. CannonLover also likes to stay true to its name. It uses a cannon rush, although it does not try to kill the enemy with the cannons, but rather puts them in the natural to delay the opponent. After that it goes for a zealot, stalker, collosus army.

Both games played out fairly similarly. CreepyBot takes an early natural. CannonLover builds a pylon next to it. The probe that is supposed to build the cannon gets attacked by a drone and eventually dies. Then CreepyBot kills the pylon with drones. By this point CreepyBot starts spreading its creep. CannonLover doesn’t want to give up on its cannon rush and tries once more. Since there is creep in the way it has to build the pylon a way out. CreepyBot is having none of it and promptly destroys the pylon. Eventually CreepyBot overruns CannonLover with large numbers of roaches. By this point the entire map is covered in creep. CreepyBot wins 2-0.

 

That’s it for the round of 8. Next week will be semi finals with AviloBot vs 5minBot and HjaxAI vs CreepyBot. I am a bit dissapointed that I didn’t make it to the next round, but we can definitely expect some interesting games. In the meantime, the ladder will soon start up again, so it will be fun to see the new and improved bots battling it out there!