Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride


Ticket to Ride is a popular board game, in which the players collect and play matching train cards to claim railway routes connecting cities on a given map. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who can fulfill their Destination Tickets by connecting two distant cities, and to the player who builds the longest continuous railway.

For complete specifications of the game, please check out the Ticket to Ride Rulebook and the Tutorial. To download the SDK, you need be logged in.

Awards

The winning team is awarded a prize of 1.000 Euros!

Important dates

Solution Submission for Testing Round #1* December 19th, 2010
Testing Round #1 December 20th, 2010
Solution Submission for Testing Round #2* January 20th, 2011
Testing Round #2 January 21st, 2011
Solution Submission for Testing Round #3* February 6th, 2011
Testing Round #3** February 7th, 2011
Solution Submission for Qualifications* February 11th, 2011
Qualification Round February 12th, 2011
Final Solution Submission Date* February 16th, 2011
The Finals February 19-20, 2011

* All submissions until 24.00h (GMT+2)

** Additional testing round. Participation is also optional.

How do I get to the finals?

In order to get to the finals, you will have to pass a qualification round, which will take place on February 5th, 2011. The qualification may have several stages, depending on the number of valid solutions submitted in the Ticket to Ride challenge.
The ELO rating system will be used for ranking the solutions. The default starting rating for each team is 1500 points.

Qualifications First Stage

If the total number of valid solutions, submitted until February 4th, 2011 is greater than 32, then an online selection stage will be held.

An online server will be available for this stage. The selection will take place over a period of time, during which each team will have to play a minimum number of games. The duration of the online selection and the minimum number of games will depend on the number of valid solutions participating in the challenge and they will be announced on within 12 hours from the date of Solution Submission for Qualifications (February 4th, 2011).

Note: If the number of valid solutions submitted will be less than 32, this stage will not be necessary, and all the solutions will automatically pass on to the second stage.

Qualifications Second Stage

The ELO ratings computed in the previous stage are reset to the default value of 1500 points.

If 32 valid solutions enter the second stage, 8 groups of 4 teams each will be formed. 5 games will be played within each group. The first 2 teams from each group will enter the third stage.

After this stage, only 16 players will be left in the competition.

Note: If the number of valid solutions submitted for this stage is greater than 16, but less than 32, the number and structure of groups will be announced within 12 hours following the submission deadline.

Note: If the number of valid solutions submitted will be less than 16, this stage will not be necessary, and all the solutions will automatically pass on to the third stage.

Qualifications Third Stage

The ELO rating values are kept from the previous stage.

Note: Henceforth, a solution will be referred to as a player.

The 16 players left will be split into 2 groups of 8 players each. The first four players will be called the favourites, and will be assigned to the groups in the following configuration:

  • Group A will get the 1st player and the 4th player.
  • Group B will get the 2nd player and the 3rd player.
  • The remaining 12 players will be assigned randomly to each of the groups A and B.

Initially, each group will be split into two subgroups of four players. Each of these subgroups will contain one of the 2 favourite players in that group (see the image below).

Each of the two subgroups will play a game. After the game, the ELO ratings are updated. The first 2 players with the highest ratings from the first subgroup will switch places with their counterparts in the second subgroup.
The process repeats until each player has played 5 times. Meanwhile, the ELO ratings are updated, and a ranking will be obtained for each group of 8, as shown in the above image.

The score between two players is considered tight when the difference between their ELO rating values is less than 5% of the average of the ratings of all 8 players in the groups.

For the ranking obtained within each group, the players with the following ranks will be checked for tight scores: 3 and 5, 4 and 5, 4 and 6.
All players involved in tight scores (if any) will play 5 additional games, after which the ranking will be final.

The first 4 players from each group’s final ranking will compete in the finals, on February 19-20, 2011.

Notes:
1. If the number of valid solutions submitted for this stage is greater than 8, but less than 16, the format of the selection during this second stage will be announced within 12 hours following the submission deadline.
2. If the number of valid solutions submitted is less than 8, they will automatically enter the finals. If this is the case, the format of the finals will be announced within12 hours following the submission deadline. Note, however, that there must be at least three valid solutions, in order for the challenge to take place.

The Finals

The ELO rating scores of the 8 finalist players will be reset.

The 8 finalist players from the previous round will be: A1 A2 A3 A4 B1 B2  B3 B4. They will be organized into 2 groups of 4 players each. The groups will be formed as follows:

  • Group X: A1 B2 B3 A4
  • Group Y: B1 A2 A3 B4

Each group will play 5 games, which will determine the ranking within the group:

  • X: X1 X2 X3 X4
  • Y: Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4

The players ranked first and second in each group will play the last 5 games, which will decide the winner.


See also: General Rules