Bugcatcher

Main Match 5: Bugcatcher

In this game, players manage two routes, evading collisions with other players and accomplishing missions to acquire fireflies.

Setup and Terminology

The board consists of a 6x5 grid laid out in 30 squares, which will be called cells.

In this game, each player controls two nodes: a border node and a central node. A node is the starting point of a player’s paths at the beginning of each round; the next round’s node for the player is the ending point of their paths.

In the above image, the blue circle is the starting border node and the black circle is the starting central node.

Paths are the routes players take. The border node’s path follows along the edges of the cells; the central node’s path connects the centers of the cells. The two paths will always be black or blue, such that when the border node’s path is black, the central node’s path is blue, and vice versa. A singular path will always move one space orthogonally, meaning left, right, up or down from a gray square to another gray square if the path derives form a central node or along the edges of the cells if the path derives from a border node.

The above image depicts four paths deriving from a blue border node.

Energy is the unit of currency for taking actions in this game. It costs 1 energy to place a path and 1 energy to color swap nodes. Each player will have 7 energy per round to distribute their actions.

Pregame and Coordinates

In the 24h pregame period, players must submit a list of 18 coordinates in a two numbered priority lists: 1 set of 9 coordinates for the starting black central node, and 1 set of 9 coordinates for the starting blue border node. For Round 1, the central node will always start out black and the border node will always start out blue.

Coordinates for each cell have been labeled; the upper-leftmost cell is the A1 cell, and so on.

For the Round 1 black central node’s priority list, only the cell’s coordinate is necessary; for the Round 1 blue border node’s priority list, please designate both a cell’s coordinate and the corner of the cell (upper left, upper right, bottom left, bottom right).

In the above image, this player's central node begins at C3; their border node begins at C1 bottom right (or D1 bottom left, C2 upper right, or D2 upper left).

Players may spend any number of garnets on their priority lists to tiebreak their priority lists.

For each type of node (central and border), we will examine players’ priority lists and give each player their first choices; if multiple players submit the same coordinate, we move onto the tiebreak to decide who receives the coordinate. Then, if there are any remaining players who did not receive their first choice, we will give out second choices; if there is a tie, the tiebreak will be used. This process will repeat until all coordinates have been distributed.

Ties will be broken

(1) by most garnets spent on the priority list tiebreak.

(2) randomly.

General

The game will take place over 7 rounds.

After choosing coordinates, players will take actions to collect fireflies. Each successful path placed earns you 1 firefly. Players may also partake in missions to earn additional fireflies.

Each round, a board of 5 missions will be provided. Missions provide rewards in the form of fireflies if they are completed; however, some missions will penalize you if you fail to complete them within a designated number of rounds. Players can take on as many missions as they like, but may only accept missions presented for that round's set. Multiple players may complete a mission; however, if this happens, the mission’s reward will be equally divided among them (if the number of fireflies earned is not an integer, round up). Mission rewards will be given at the earliest round they are completed; once a mission is completed, it cannot be undertaken again. If you have undertaken a mission with a penalty that another player has completed but you have failed to complete, you will incur the penalty on the round the other player(s) complete the mission.

An example mission would be

1. Cheerful Jellyfish: In a singular round, successfully build a path in the shape of down down right down left with your border node. You may begin at either endpoint and this shape may be rotated or reflected in any direction.

Success: +6 fireflies. Failure (2 rounds): -3 fireflies.

Round limits for failures include the mission is presented. You can go into a negative amount of fireflies.

The board of all nodes and paths within a round is public; however, players' nodes will not be labeled, and color swaps will not be indicated other than by the colors of the paths. The board of all starting nodes will also be revealed at the start of Round 1.

Players aim to collect the greatest number of fireflies.

Actions

Players must list out an ordered sequence of actions in each round. All players’ 1st actions will occur simultaneously; their 2nd actions will take place simultaneously, and so on.

There are two different types of actions players may take in this game.

The first is placing a path (1 energy). When placing a path, specify a node and a direction.

Paths must be linear starting from your nodes, meaning they must connect from the last coordinate your system of paths have reached. When a path is successfully placed, you will earn 1 firefly.

The second action you may take is color swapping (1 energy). When you color swap, your paths derived from each of your nodes swap colors simultaneously (black becomes blue, and blue becomes black). The paths already placed will remain their colors at the time they were placed; any future paths created will take on the new colors.

Once per round, players may spend 1 garnet to color swap once without using up energy.

Example Submission

1. border node path down
2. border node path left
3. central node path left
4. border node path down
5. color swap
6. border node path left
7. central node path down

If a player submits this set of actions (and no collisions occur), their round actions would appear as such:

The preferred shorthand for the above submission would be:

1. BD
2. BL
3. CL
4. BD
5. swap
6. BL
7. CD

Collisions

There are three kinds of collisions: (1) one in which one player claims a coordinate before another, (2) one in which multiple players reach the same coordinate at the same time, and (3) one in which multiple players’ paths of the same color intersect (prior to reaching a coordinate).

In the first case, in which one player claims a coordinate before another, the player who reaches the coordinate later will have the action that causes the collision and all following path placement actions deriving from the node that causes the collision invalidated.

In the second and third cases, in which multiple players reach the same coordinate at the same time or multiple players’ paths of the same color intersect, the action that causes the collision and all following path placement actions deriving from the node that causes the collision are invalidated.

If a color swap action takes place following a collision, the color swap will go through.

Endgame

The singular player with the most fireflies at the end of the Main Match will earn a garnet and two Tokens of Life. The singular player with the least fireflies at the end of the Main Match will be the Elimination Candidate.

If there are any ties, the tiebreaker will be following (for winning the Main Match and for evading the position of EC):

(1) Number of missions completed

(2) Least number of collisions caused

(3) Gamewide Tiebreak

For every 30 fireflies at the end of the game, you will earn 1 garnet.

Clarification: Players can collide with themselves.

Clarification: Paths do not remain from round to round.

Clarification: Round to round firefly counts will not be revealed; however, at the end of the Main Match, all players' firefly counts will be revealed.

Addendum: There is a fourth possible collision, in which two players' paths of the same color intersect (prior to reaching a coordinate), but one player's path arrives at the point of intersection before another player's path does.

This will be treated similarly to the first case; the player who reaches the point of intersection later will have the action that causes the collision and all following path placement actions deriving from the node that causes the collision invalidated.

Clarification: With respect to the endgame tiebreak, "collisions caused" would be defined as all collisions in Cases 2 and 3 (in which multiple players reach a coordinate at the same time and in which multiple players intersect with the same color at the same time) and all collisions in which you are the later to arrive in Cases 1 and 4 (in which one player arrives at a coordinate before another and in which one player arrives at a point of intersection before another).

• Edited Addendum with "(prior to reaching a coordinate)" following "intersect"

Clarification: When a mission is completed, this will be publicly announced. (It will not be said who completed the mission.)

Clarification: I will privately update each player on their firefly count at the end of each round.

Clarification: For R1’s Jellyfish mission, your pathing does not have to begin or end with the Jellyfish shape.