We just released version 1.0.7 of the software, which contains some new client features and minor bug fixes. Check out the changelog for details. We expect this to be our last software update -- barring any major bugs, v1.0.7 is what the tournaments and refplayer matches will be run on.

Also, as a reminder, the player and write-up submission deadline is Wednesday the 31st at noon.

We'd like to announce that, at the Final Tournament this year, we'll be giving away around $30,000 in prizes. In addition to prizes for placing well in the tournament, there will be a *lot* of prizes for well-written or well-designed code and creative strategies, regardless of your tournament performance.

To help the judges award prizes, we ask that you submit a write-up of your player on the Team Options page. You're strongly encouraged to submit a good write-up to increase your chance of getting a prize. A good write-up will touch on your player's strategy, AI techniques, algorithms you used, and code design, indicating parts of your source that would be interesting for judges to look at. If your player does anything interesting or unique, be sure to mention it. Entertainment value and enthusiasm in the write-up can't hurt either. Please keep your write-up to no more than 500 words. The write-up is due at the same time as your player -- Wednesday the 31st, at noon.

Finally, remember to upload a resume on the User Options page. Your resume will be visible to 6.370 sponsors, who see contestants as the "best of the best" among college programmers. If you're looking for a job, or ever will be in the future, take advantage of this opportunity to get your name out there in a big way.

We've just updated the scrimmage system with some new features. First and foremost, there's now a ranking system: when sending a challenge, the "ranked match" checkbox allows you to select whether the match is ranked or not, and there's a ranking page showing the teams and their scrimmage scores. Unranked matches, of course, don't affect your score or rank.

Second, we've added the three-match sets from the seeding tournament to the scrimmage system. Just like the tournament, these matches are played best-out-of-three.

Finally, there are a few improvements to match listings: completed matches are displayed with a red or green tint depending on whether you lost or won (respectively), team names are linked to info pages, and the listings show the time that a match was sent/received or completed.

Be sure to let us know if you find any glitches in the new system by posting in the bugs subforum.

We've just released version 1.0.6 of the software, which includes the maps from the seeding tournament. Be sure to check the changelog on the downloads page.

... from the tournament page. Tournament users that are logged in can download the matches their team participated in from that page. After the final submission deadline, all matches will be made available to the public.

We've just added a tournament page for brackets, rankings, and match file downloads. The seeding tournament ranking has been posted, and brackets and match files will be available shortly.

We have just posted version 1.0.4 of the BattleCode software. There are a couple of small bug fixes, a handful of new features, and some added API methods. Have a look at the changelog and get the release from the downloads page.