FEATURED Chimp Challenge 2012

This thread is where I'll detail what the rules and arrangements are for the Chimp Challenge 2012. Please check this post occasionally, as it will be updated as the contest takes shape.

Chimp Challenge Arrangements and Rules

The contest will start on the 15th of May 2012 at 12 pm PDT (GMT -7) and finish on the 25th May 2012 at 12 pm PDT (GMT - 7).

• Contestants
  • Overclockers.com - T32monkeys
  • Overclockers Australia - Monkey_Boll ocks
  • Overclock.net - OCNChimpin
  • EVGA - EVGApes
  • CPC & bit-tech - CustomBitChimps
  • Hardware Canuks - Beavers_Gone_Bananas
  • TSC! Russia - TSCh!mp
  • Tech Power Up - ChimPowerUp

Points

• Three categories:
  • Points: # of millions of points produced (e.g. 120 million = 120 points).
  • Growth: based on last years points.
  • Conversion: proportion of team points originating from the monkey, e.g. T32monkeys points divided by team points.
• Points from each category will be normalised so that the lowest team gets 10 points and the highest gets 110.
• Totals for each category are summed, and the winner is the team with the most chimp points.
• In the event of a close race, a Stanford daily_user_summary.txt file will be the official source for points information.

Prizes

• The victor gets to claim the lucky jaded monkey as the prize. Tales have been told of untold wealth and fame that comes with this. The victorious team is allowed to display in any honorary fashion the jaded monkey, the losing teams are forbidden to display it.
• The losing teams are bestowed the dreaded monkey's paw, which is said to be cursed. People have been known for have very bad luck with this paw!

Team Leaders

• Overclockers.com - Captain: David
• Overclockers Australia - Captain: leroyxx/RE TARD/BlueRaven
• Overclock.net - Captain: zodac/sweffymo
• EVGA - Captain: Drougnor/Xavier Zepherious/Devdog51
• CPC & bit-tech - Captain: coolamasta
• Hardware Canuks - Captain: chriskwarren/3.0 Charlie
• TSC! Russia - Captain: [kane]Enforce/BOSUN
• Tech Power Up - Captain: BUCK NASTY

Passkeys

The username you need is T32monkeys.
The team number is, as always, 32.
The public passkey is 00fc1ca869ed43359d7ea6695cd75d28.

However, I recommend you PM myself, Adak or (who else has it?) for the private passkey. The public passkey could, in theory, be used by other teams to sink our bonuses for work unit return, so the private passkey is safer. The public passkey will get you going, however.



Have fun and keep it positive!

I'm all in.
i5 2600K w/GTX460
PhenomII X4(X6) 960T w/GTX460
Phenom x27850BE w/GTX260
FX-8120 w/SLI 8600GT's
Phenom X4 9950

Will that group pull a few points?
I'm thinking that someone better PM before the race and help me switch over to the right clients from BOINC.

PenguinsPal said:

I'm all in.
i5 2600K w/GTX460
PhenomII X4(X6) 960T w/GTX460
Phenom x27850BE w/GTX260
FX-8120 w/SLI 8600GT's
Phenom X4 9950

Will that group pull a few points?
I'm thinking that someone better PM before the race and help me switch over to the right clients from BOINC.

Click to expand...

You bet it will! We'll have step by step guides to follow, either right here, or linked to, WITH PICS!

With the new V7 client, it should be a snap, since it detects the gpu's and sets them up pretty well, on it's own.

Family's all aware their machines are going to be commandeered starting May 5, so everything in the sig will be folding except GPU on #5. Should be good for about 120k ppd of SMP.

BTW, how long does the chimp challenge last?

LZ_Xray said:

Family's all aware their machines are going to be commandeered starting May 5, so everything in the sig will be folding except GPU on #5. Should be good for about 120k ppd of SMP.

BTW, how long does the chimp challenge last?

Click to expand...

Normal duration is 7-10 days. You'll have to get your family into the whole race website thing, and our posts on it. Let them feel the intensity. That way the commandeering won't be so painful.

We look to have a lot of fun this year.

Will we be able to fold under our own usernames or will it be like before, with everyone running under a username just for the challenge?

I've heard that EVGA can't seem to agree with the rest of the teams on the points for the race.

I thought using last years CC points generated as the basis for the handicap "basis" for this year, would be ideal. Since it pits the teams against their very own results from the previous year, how could it be unfair or biased?

However, another folder suggested we have two brackets, one for a straight race with no handicap involved (only the biggest teams would have a shot at it, but it would be exciting nonetheless), and then a handicap bracket (just one), which would use the "basis" as mentioned above, to make it a fairer race amongst all the different sized teams.

Note that having other teams "merge" for the CC is simply no problem with this handicap scheme. Each teams basis would be easily calculated from their performance last year, so if NCIX wants to race again with Hardware Canucks Forum, it's no problem at all. Their basis would reflect that. Big changes would take a year to adjust the basis, but that's a lot like player drafts in the NFL, etc. It has a nice leveling effect, keeping it more competitive in the league. It also removes any effect of other big contests, etc., that a commercial team like EVGA may have going on, in the rest of the year. Finally, it makes the calculations for the basis dead simple, since we have that data already, and it's only 10 days or so worth of data, instead of a whole year.

If a team objects to this simple way of working points, I'd like to know why.

We need to get the rules made up for this year, and make them as simple and as fair as we can. Rules that are hard to enforce or impossible, should be thrown out. Complex and unenforceable rules can easily drain the fun right out of the race, and inevitably lead to cries of "cheating".

then you be wrong

EVGA team CC co-Capt here

EVGA has offered different formula, formats
so has OCN, OCAU,HWC

Overclockers has only recently signed in and hasn't offered anything nor has agreed to anything

If your team had signed in earlier and got involved with the process of fixing it Id would be saying thank you


the idea was to get everyone working together to come up with a formula and format. not to come in at the end and accept whatever was there and hope it works or doesn't unfairly bias against another team

what we have is just zodac formula (EVGA doesn't agree with it) and no one else offering ideas(one that did EVGA,HWC,OCAU) or different formula(EVGA has) to use.

You could offer suggestions on how to tweak a formula or a format
that would be most helpful

or even decide on a fallback position (format)

Greetings, Xavier. Welcome to the forum.

I've been doing CC's long before you, or anyone on your team. Overclockers.com and MaxPC were the two teams that started the CC.

Time is short. Let's solve this problem.

You could offer suggestions on how to tweak a formula or a format
that would be most helpful

or even decide on a fallback position (format)

Click to expand...

OK.

Format:

two brackets, unlimited (straight points race), and a handicap bracket. The handicap basis point score for each team would be taken directly from their average day in the CC, last year.

If you believe it favors smaller teams a bit too much, then give each team a 50% penalty for the *increase* - sounds diabolical, but it cuts down on the advantage of the smaller teams percentage being a smaller quantity, compared to the same percentage increase, in a larger team.

(I'm not sure this is needed since the smaller teams will undoubtedly be in the handicap bracket, and the larger teams will be in the unlimited bracket.)

It's fair, it handles any problem of teams merging (like NCIX and HWC last year), and has a leveling effect on the competition.

Points:

Points in this format would be:

Unlimited bracket:
race points earned = total FAH pts.

Handicap bracket:
race points earned = total FAH pts - average days total FAH pts taken from last years CC.

Teams that are new to the CC and racing for the first time need a simple tweak to the points formula:

race points earned = total FAH pts - team daily average for the last six months.

It's important to remember in the midst of all this, that this is just a FUN race. It's not life or death -- it's more important than that! I don't need rules about EVGA having contests during the race, or any team "timing" work units so they score the most points, etc.

It's a race!

I don't care if EVGA wants to set their britches afire, and run around the park - if it helps them fold, then it's a win -- for Folding@Home. Maybe EVGA will get some time on a super computer -- Go EVGA! You time your work units, and I'll time mine.

It's a race!!

We may melt a server HD at Stanford, but that's their CC challenge!


It's simple, and we need to keep it that way. You start the race here, you end the race over there, and in-between, you fold like crazy.

Keeps it simple, keeps it fun and gets LOTS of folding done.

And isn't that why we have a CC?

Post it on the CC forums and lets get it passed then
we have a similar post in our own forums on such a race

Honestly, EVGA would have welcomed the handicap race

what we needed is people to give input on just what is should be rather than OCN or EVGA providing a formula that no one questions or looks at in depth

It's no good if the big boys on the block determine the rules/Formula/Format only rather than a bottom up discussion by ALL THE TEAMS

Actually I already posted it in CC forums for you
you can chime in and agree
I think we can get HWC too quite easliy


Yes ADAK a 3 way race between OCN,EVGA,[H] would have been something
I tried 3 times now to see about getting them in some contest(even a head up between just EVGA and them) - no go
considering [H] production is up and so is OCN (quite signicantly too)

would have been a nice race and sheer team power and output increase would have been something to see ...even from [H]
we almost set a team record last month of 800M (EVGA)

What is the url for the CC discussion?

[H] won't race in the CC, and any discussion of it is unwelcome on their forum. I tried to entice them last month, but they're totally burned out from their self-immolation in their last CC.

Yes, the Beavers are all Banana's for racing in the CC.

Chimp Challenge forum
http://chimp.sagacioustechnologies.com/index.php?topic=24.msg572#msg572

I know I tried more than once to say the least with [H]

I also requested a fallen soldier(folders) page for the contest, so we can fold in their honor as well
seems fitting we fold for them as well

I can't PM Full Taoer at MPC yet...seems a person has to post there for awhile (been a member for a few weeks already) or have a number of posts

and I can't find a CC 2012 thread at MPC

I had Agreed to OCAU multiple categories - or a subset of it early on (two category PPD race and handicap race).
This way we could tweak the formula til we got it right. then no team would wind up feeling it was biased till it was perfected

as for TSC - I can PM them on EVGA (Bosun has an account there)

Seems I have a little less than 30 days to pull it together.

That's right WII... get it in gear!

Xavier Zepherio said:

Chimp Challenge forum
http://chimp.sagacioustechnologies.com/index.php?topic=24.msg572#msg572

I know I tried more than once to say the least with [H]

Click to expand...

I saw your post on their forum, Xavier.

I also requested a fallen soldier(folders) page for the contest, so we can fold in their honor as well
seems fitting we fold for them as well

I can't PM Full Taoer at MPC yet...seems a person has to post there for awhile (been a member for a few weeks already) or have a number of posts

and I can't find a CC 2012 thread at MPC

Click to expand...

Send what you want posted to me, here, in a PM. I folded for MPC for a year, and still can post there. I'll post it for you today.

They are leaning toward not racing, but having a "folding memorial" for GSmitheman, (their well known moderator who recently passed away), during that time period.

I had Agreed to OCAU multiple categories - or a subset of it early on (two category PPD race and handicap race).
This way we could tweak the formula til we got it right. then no team would wind up feeling it was biased till it was perfected

as for TSC - I can PM them on EVGA (Bosun has an account there)

Click to expand...

I've registered over at the Simple Machines Forum, now awaiting approval.

You're right about the tweaking - although it covers honest racing teams, my points format can be subverted (if a team wants to badly enough), by simply racing *VERY* badly one year, and then having that low basis for a handicap, a team could run away with the race, next year. Using a CC average for the last 2 years would stop that.

What about Bit-Tech and the other racing teams?

You won't get quick and easy communication when the CC uses a forum where you can't post until an admin approves your registration.

I would suggest contacting Zodac at OCN and indicating this as your choice

at the moment Im having troubles convincing them that everyone is going to be onboard with this format change

OK.

Ive posted at OCAU.

OCN has seen it (zodac going to be tough to convince)
HWC is not a problem (they seem pleased with that format - they would have settled for straight PPD race)

Ive PM'd TSC
Ive posted at Bit-tech (waiting for moderator to post)
maybe you should try there - seems it can take awhile to post (and I can't PM there yet either)

FOR MPC just send your format idea and ask if they are in or out of contest (for the memorial...I can quite understand)
if they are in ask if they support the idea - then for them to send zodac a message they are onboard with your proposal

I've posted the above suggestion, to OC.NET.

Xavier, I'm going to pause here for a bit. Going further could easily be misinterpreted. The only reason I went this far is because time is getting quite short.

Do you have a set time for meeting with all the other captains?

I can try to set one up - once my accounts are all able to PM people

TSC would be an issue (russia is a little hard to setup)
the only avenue I have is BOSUN who is a member of EVGA - he's been getting CC info from me for their team - because their team is not signed into CC forums

I do have an account on TSC (and have posted there)...but as Bosun said translating and communication is a problem

It might take a few days before I hear from BOSUN
I don't think TSC will be an issue either but I'll find out