Tuesday evening we had the play-offs of the Coding Contest. We weren't off to a good start - the green guide said that the Coding Contest started at 6:30pm, while the door said 6:00pm. Having not seen the door, I was pleased to realise I could attend the Packaging BOF at 6:00pm, leave early from that and join the Coding Contest at 6:30pm.

When I arrived at the Coding Contest room, there were a bunch of people sitting around waiting. Boris naturally piped up saying "It was meant to start at 6:00pm". After apologising, I checked my sanity and discovered that yes, indeed, the guide said 6:30pm.

So! We began the contest. I explained what the contestants were up against and then dived right in. Six games were to be played with Andres and Blaine's players swapping sides each turn for fairness.

The winner is Andres Vallourd, aka "Blogten".

Second place goes to Blaine Buxton.

It was an interesting match. Both players were quite good but Andres's was just slightly better. The battles were to get 30 points ahead, so the scores were a differential. The interesting thing was that Andres's player had to fight for every point it got ahead, which was quite entertaining.

In one game, Blaine's player was 10 points ahead due to some lucky balls, but Andres's players better strategy won out in the end, clawing back point by point until he eventually won. Kudos to Andres's design and strategy, as it was clearly superior in the end.

We cannot forget Blaine either of course. I had two other prototype players built for the coding contest by my house mates David Price and Michael Carter. Neither were able to beat Blaine's player too, so I wouldn't say Blaine did badly either, Andres just did slightly better.

The contestants receive their awards at the end of today.