AWAP2024

Applied Algorithms Hackathon

• Github Repo | Competition Homepage

Description

• AWAP is a yearly 24-hour hackathon where contestants build Python bots to beat opponents' bots in a game.

• I worked in a team of four in the 2024 competition, which was a recreation of Bloons Tower Defense, a game where you place defenders against an onslaught of balloons.

Our approach was to split our team into two pairs, each working on its own bot. To gauge their strengths and weaknesses we had the bots fight.

Our final bot used the following strategy:

• Precompute how good each spot along the track is for each defender.
• Allot the best spots for each type of defender in a round-robin fashion.
• During a game, decide which type of defender to purchase, placing it at the best remaining position allotted to it.
  • Every so often, place a special defender which boosts nearby defenders.

We came in 8th place. We realized that we underestimated the boosting-effect of the special defender was, and we were beaten by teams who used more boosters.

Incoming Links

• Projects.md

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