MechMania is a 24-hour programming contest in which teams of students from various schools compete to create a bot capable of playing (and winning) a strategy game we have secretly developed. The competition, from the moment it starts to the closing ceremony and awards presentation, will be livestreamed on Twitch. You must be registered for Reflections|Projections to compete in MechMania. You can check out RP here.
We accept teams of up to four students. All participants must actively be enrolled in a college or university, but teams do not need to be composed of students from the same school. Besides that, we accept everyone of every skill level!
Although we accept everyone of all skill levels, you do need to have at least some programming background. Teams will have the option to program their bots in Java, Python and Rust. The provided cli tool will allow you to use the engine to locally test your implementations. We will provide relevant installation & setup info on the day of the competition.
We will be in-person on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Campus, specifically in Room 1404 of Siebel Center for Computer Science. Come join us! If you can't, we'll also be active on our discord and live stream on twitch.
Competitors need to bring their own laptops. You can also bring any reference manual(s) you want, whether it be The Art of Computer Programming or The Art of War. However, no food is allowed in the room, and please keep any loud music outside or use headphones.
By using our provided sample starterpacks, you will implement a bot that will play our game! The goal is simple: return a decision from a function, but the logic you take to get there is entirely up to you.
Indeed. There will be cash prizes for the top teams! We will announce the prizes soon!
Not yet, please check back later!