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SpaceChem is a visual programming game by Zachtronics Industries, where you build little tiny molecular factories to pick up atoms, get them from point A to point B, and then do crazy stuff in the middle like manually bonding or debonding, sensing inputs, or doing fusion or fission math. The main campaign contains some neat tasks and a cosmic horror story to hold your interest, but the main replayability factor of the game is optimization - in other words, competing with your friends and enemies to make your solutions faster, or more symbol-efficient. Here's some past tournaments that may be of interest: - 2012 Tournament (lparchive) - 2013 Tournament (lparchive) - 2014 Tournament (Steam) The reason I started a new thread (instead of bumping the old one out of the archives) is that there is a new tournament happening in 2015! Hosted by 2014 contestant spagchem, it seems there will be several new puzzles, as well as a helpful SpaceChemTool to manage savegames and puzzle solutions, and give visual display-aids for quantum barrier or waldo restriction puzzles, as well as make results videos easier to produce. The tournament is starting on June 22nd, so there's still time to learn how to play the game, or get some good practice in. 2015 Tournament (Steam)
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Jun 4, 2015 20:28
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 23:07 |
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Just a reminder that the tournament will be starting next Monday, and that throughout the years several people made it all the way to the finals who didn't think they were any good at the game. To drum up a bit of interest, here's a simple puzzle I've had lying around that I may as well post publicly: Acetic Upgrade H4sIAJD0g1UA/42QPWvDMBCG/0q52YaTXEKwppAlQyFD26l0UOVzLFAko4/BNe5vr1SH4tIORX CgRy967m4GbccU63dnKUA7A5byxfL1ZYarM6SSIWjhoChqdXdQuhPH0wc2x/P5JJAxhoJhPoKx HcuVM0TBcY9c8ExQNGyfX5vCoQLlko3QMr68LksFLsXfHWy0T4N2clXLjfrxv2q2+8ONxTzIUB vpL1SvPUDbSxOogjdnO/L1LXy/JgPZ4Px3pqA+Bcok+nQDYTQ6RvqZimRodH6L4zSW0TwFkl4N uTErr5sdP48XLzvKXKY4FCs80JT/LqjTfa/zcuIELS6fuhAPVcIBAAA=  My best score so far is 152/1/61 for cycle optimization. Getting a low symbol count on this one looks pretty hard; I'll give it a try today and see what I can get! EDIT: For symbols I have 384/1/38, by making a garbage chain. Leylite fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Jun 19, 2015 |
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Jun 19, 2015 15:58
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Alright, the round 1 puzzles have now been posted. All the puzzles this year will be authored by spagchem, as far as I can tell. Be sure to import the puzzles using the SpaceChemTool and export solutions using the same tool, so that solutions will be easy to import later. Really Easy Minimize cycles:  Growing Windows Minimize symbols: 
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Jun 22, 2015 19:24
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Round 1 results are in and round 2 puzzles are posted! I will continue to post these updates even if there's no discussion whatsoever, but I hope this stuff is still interesting. See the Steam thread for full results, cumulative scores, and comments. Use the SpaceChemTool to import solutions automatically into SpaceChem - no screenshot reconstruction required! Round 1 Really Easy Results 1. Leylite 155-4-68 2. DariusOne 157-5-128 T3. 2ofts 158-4-69 T3. ToughThought 158-5-121 5. lolitsme 165-5-83 6. Ser(baldrig) 173-6-155 7. cheetah: 196-6-158 8. Eti33 213-5-71 9. Palm 216-3-54 10. gggol 218-3-55 (and 15 other participants) Growing Windows Results 1. 2ofts 1922-1-22 T2. Leylite 1688-1-23 T2. Ser(baldrig) 1839-1-23 T2. cheetah 2234-1-23 T2. ToughThought 2386-1-23 T6. DariusOne 1594-1-26 T6. gggol 2382-1-26 T8. Carlbunk 1753-1-27 T8. Zio 1949-1-27 T8. supersaiyanvegeta 2867-1-27 (and 16 other participants) Round 2 Air Supply Minimize sqrt(cycles * symbols):  Unlikely Minimize cycles + (0.01 * symbols): 
Leylite fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Jun 30, 2015 |
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Jun 29, 2015 20:46
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Round 2 results have arrived and round 3 puzzles are posted! Since the puzzles were more complicated this time, we have lots of distinct solutions, and for Air Supply in particular it's neat to compare statistics and see what gets the minimal score. Congratulations to all entrants, and remember that it's never too late to participate! Round 2 Air Supply Results 1. 2ofts 181.69 (1179-1-28) 2. Leylite 189.21 (1326-1-27) 3. DariusOne 195.80 (1322-1-29) 4. Binky 196.24 (1328-1-29) 5. Zerthimon 198.13 (1402-1-28) 6. gggol 200.13 (1335-1-30) 7. ajh 205.91 (1247-1-34) 8. lolitsme 218.87 (1409-1-34) 9. ToughThought 222.38 (1413-1-35) 10. Ser(baldrig) 247.33 (1492-1-41) Incredibly, tournament host spagchem also got a 1179-1-28 solution, for the same score, but it looks completely different to 2ofts'. Unlikely Results 1. 2ofts 324-1-61 2. Leylite 331-1-59 3. gggol 339-1-52 4. DariusOne 342-1-41 5. Ser(baldrig) 351-1-47 6. ToughThought 352-1-43 7. Blueeyedrat 419-1-44 8. lolitsme 422-1-59 9. Etammate 445-1-59 10. BobThePumpkin 450-1-47 Round 3 Water Minimize cycles + (0.01 * symbols): Waldoes cannot move over the green squares!  Low Power Polymers Minimize (25 * bonders used) + symbols + (0.0001 * cycles): 
Leylite fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Jul 7, 2015 |
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Jul 7, 2015 02:01
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Round 3 results are here, and round 4 is upon us. The puzzles were pretty tough for week 3, so fewer solutions were sent in than in previous weeks, but there's still plenty to see. Round 3 Water Results 1. gggol 128-1-52 2. ToughThought 138-1-56 3. 2ofts 152-1-45 4. Leylite 183-1-41 5. Ser(baldrig) 199-1-43 6. DariusOne 199-1-54 7. supersaiyanvegeta 222-1-44 8. Blueeyedrat 242-1-34 9. dexusnl 245-1-39 10. Etammate 266-1-45 Methods to cross the gap included long oxygen trains, rotating single arms, rotating two single arms, and rotating one double-arm. Low Power Polymers Results 1. ToughThought 89.09 (10903-1-38, 2 bonders) 2. Ser(baldrig) 94.84 (8378-1-44, 2 bonders) 3. 2ofts 96.63 (6315-1-46, 2 bonders) 4. DariusOne 98.84 (8417-1-48, 2 bonders) 5. gggol 98.87 (8730-1-48, 2 bonders) 6. Blueeyedrat 99.42 (4150-1-49, 2 bonders) 7. Leylite 103.60 (6035-1-53, 2 bonders) 8. Binky 105.58 (5831-1-55, 2 bonders) 9. lolitsme 107.51 (5113-1-57, 2 bonders) 10. supersaiyanvegeta 109.46 (4566-1-59, 2 bonders) I wasn't the only one this week to think of trying to build the product in a U-shape instead of a zig-zag shape, but I was the only one to use only 2 bonders to do it - and you need some pretty asinine rotations to rotate a 2x8 block without crashing. That said, my normal scoring solution with the given output shape was what got me my best score, and all the top scores built a normal zig-zag shape. Round 4 Combustion Minimize symbols + (0.001 * cycles):  Photosynthesis Minimize cycles + (0.01 * symbols): 
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Jul 13, 2015 22:23
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Round 4 results are now published! Photosynthesis was a very difficult puzzle, with only 12 solutions submitted. It was still worth a lot of points, though, so it was definitely worthwhile to finish. Congratulations to all participants for making it this far, and continuing to make some great solutions to watch. While you're viewing these results, enjoy this archival footage of spaghetti photosynthesizing... Round 4 Combustion Results 1. 2ofts 710-1-27 2. gggol 817-1-27 3. DariusOne 311-1-31 4. Leylite 972-1-31 5. lolitsme 294-1-34 6. ToughThought 911-1-34 7. Etammate 1111-1-36 8. Blueeyedrat 363-1-40 9. dexusnl 502-1-41 10. Binky 642-1-48 Photosynthesis Results 1. 2ofts 1419.97 (1419-1-97) 2. gggol 1439.12 (1438-1-112) 3. Blueeyedrat 1875.93 (1875-1-93) 4. Leylite 1916.04 (1915-1-104) 5. ToughThought 2172.18 (2171-1-118) 6. rezoons 2264.05 (2263-1-105) 7. DariusOne 2424.11 (2423-1-111) 8. supersaiyanvegeta 2842.09 (2841-1-109) 9. lolitsme 2944.13 (2943-1-113) 10. BobThePumpkin 3768.20 (3767-1-120) And now... Round 5 Modern Alchemy Minimize cycles + (0.002 * symbols). Note that solutions must be able to run indefinitely and may not use the recycler; the recycler is there to help verify that your solution runs forever.  To save you some time looking at your periodic table: Iron is element 26; Rhodium is element 45. Yes, these are relative-prime numbers and you have to make a balanced solution. Have fun!
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Jul 20, 2015 22:33
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Fifteen brave alchemists submitted solutions for round 5, and the results are in! Round 5 Modern Alchemy Results 1. Ser(baldrig) 154.47 (154-6-235) 2. Blueeyedrat 181.39 (181-6-194) 3. ToughThought 181.53 (181-6-266) 4. DariusOne 181.60 (181-6-299) 5. lolitsme 182.41 (182-6-205) 6. supersaiyanvegeta 192.34 (192-6-172) 7. 2ofts 202.35 (202-6-177) 8. rezoons 255.39 (255-6-195) 9. gggol 269.72 (269-6-362) 10. BobThePumpkin 379.58 (379-6-292) Huge congratulations to Serbaldrig for getting a nearly optimal time. Round 6 returns to more conventional research puzzles, that certainly dial up the difficulty another notch: Round 6 Spaghetti Hoops Minimize symbols + (0.01 * number of cells occupied by at least one waldo path). Note that solutions must work with *any* input proportions!  Chalcogens Minimize cycles + (0.01 * symbols). 
Leylite fucked around with this message at 22:02 on Jul 27, 2015 |
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Jul 27, 2015 21:59
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Round 6 has concluded, and the results are posted. Round 6 Spaghetti Hoops Results 1. gggol 36.30 (3321-1-36, 30 waldo path) 2. ToughThought 37.45 (10341-1-37, 45 waldo path) 3. 2ofts 37.53 (3890-1-37, 53 waldo path) 4. Leylite 39.40 (4465-1-39, 40 waldo path) 5. DariusOne 46.55 (4916-1-46, 55 waldo path) 6. Blueeyedrat 47.38 (3619-1-47, 38 waldo path) 7. supersaiyanvegeta 61.34 (5970-1-61, 34 waldo path) 8. lolitsme 65.54 (5511-1-65, 54 waldo path) 9. dexusnl 82.70 (2448-1-82, 70 waldo path) Only 9 people scored for this puzzle! rezoons did submit a solution but sadly it breaks in one particular input order. Chalcogens Results 1. 2ofts 280-1-59 2. Leylite 289-1-55 3. ToughThought 291-1-49 4. Blueeyedrat 297-1-45 5. gggol 349-1-58 6. Ser(baldrig) 350-1-61 7. DariusOne 368-1-59 8. lolitsme 388-1-64 9. supersaiyanvegeta 390-1-41 10. rezoons 395-1-53 Round 7 sees the return of waldo and atom restrictions... Round 7 Playing with Fire Minimize cycles + (0.01 * symbols). Waldoes may not enter the output zone!  Slices Minimize symbols + (0.01 * cycles). Atoms may not cross the horizontal dashed lines! 
Leylite fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Aug 3, 2015 |
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Aug 3, 2015 19:51
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Round 7 is done. It seems this week was also rather difficult. Round 7 Playing with Fire Results 1. DariusOne 237-1-58 2. 2ofts 249-1-44 3. Leylite 257-1-48 4. gggol 269-1-59 5. ToughThought 293-1-51 6. Blueeyedrat 299-1-49 7. rezoons 328-1-64 8. dexusnl 356-1-62 9. supersaiyanvegeta 397-1-55 10. lolitsme 449-1-64 Slices Results 1. 2ofts 53.04 (504-1-48) 2. gggol 56.01 (501-1-51) 3. ToughThought 58.91 (791-1-51) 4. Blueeyedrat 58.98 (598-1-53) 5. DariusOne 60.35 (535-1-55) 6. lolitsme 61.68 (368-1-58) 7. supersaiyanvegeta 72.83 (483-1-68) 8. Leylite 81.30 (830-1-73) 9. rezoons 111.98 (998-1-102) This week's product is somehow less likely to explode: Round 8 Handle with Care Minimize (80 * (Waldoes used - 1)) + Total waldo path length + (0.0001 * cycles): 
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Aug 10, 2015 19:23
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Round 8 is complete, and the results you've all been waiting for are in: Red waldo only: 6 Blue waldo only: 2 Both waldoes: 2 Sorry blue waldo, maybe next time. Round 8 Handle with Care Results 1. ToughThought 1-waldo 40-waldopath 2977-1-66 2. Ser(baldrig) 1-waldo 53-waldopath 1993-1-74 3. supersaiyanvegeta 1-waldo 53-waldopath 2122-1-77 4. Leylite 1-waldo 55-waldopath 1997-1-72 5. gggol 1-waldo 58-waldopath 1627-1-79 6. rezoons 1-waldo 60-waldopath 2099-1-87 7. Blueeyedrat 1-waldo 64-waldopath 1651-1-72 8. 2ofts 1-waldo 65-waldopath 2346-1-92 9. DariusOne 2-waldo 49-waldopath 798-1-97 10. lolitsme 2-waldo 67-waldopath 2046-1-115 Congratulations to ToughThought for a seriously compressed solution. Congratulations to DariusOne for making a really fast solution. And now, it's time to get rich quick... Round 9 Gem Factory Minimize cycles + (0.002 * symbols): 
Leylite fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Aug 24, 2015 |
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Aug 17, 2015 19:40
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Last week's puzzle was very time-consuming, with probably the most demanding balancing math yet. Nine brave SpaceChemists submitted solutions: Round 9 Gem Factory Results 1. 2ofts 627-6-184 2. DariusOne 696-6-356 3. ToughThought 829-6-247 4. gggol 909-6-195 5. Leylite 986-6-193 6. rezoons 1001-6-291 7. lolitsme 1074-6-170 8. Blueeyedrat 1376-6-148 9. supersaiyanvegeta 2483-6-263 Congratulations to 2ofts and DariusOne for successfully implementing balancing math to beat the 800 cycle barrier corresponding to two inputs -> one output. Congratulations to ToughThought for still making a super-fast two inputs -> one output solution. Round 10 will involve a different kind of "blind" balancing: Round 10 Separation Minimize symbols + (0.01 * waldopath). Outputs must be produced in equal quantities even if the input ratio is changed! 
Leylite fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Aug 25, 2015 |
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Aug 24, 2015 22:06
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Round 10 results are now in! It turns out that despite the problem constraints, there were still many different ways of solving the problem. Unfortunately some solutions were disqualified - any solution that produces waste won't run forever! 1. 2ofts 2882-1-45, 41 waldopath 2. ToughThought 4484-1-51, 49 waldopath 3. DariusOne 5643-1-53, 62 waldopath 4. Leylite 2013-1-55, 49 waldopath 5. rezoons 5396-1-61, 54 waldopath 6. Blueeyedrat 4836-1-66, 58 waldopath 7. supersaiyanvegeta 2302-1-67, 50 waldopath 8. lolitsme 3367-1-72, 63 waldopath 9. gggol 7074-1-78, 66 waldopath Round 11 features the return of Dr. SpaceChem. This is the second-to-last "open" puzzle round, but submissions are still accepted and would be greatly appreciated for any of the remaining puzzles, even the closed round ones! Round 11 Chemotherapy MInimize sqrt(cycles * waldopath): 
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Sep 1, 2015 01:51
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Apparently we all made transplatin instead of cisplatin. Whoops! Results are in anyway. Round 11 Chemotherapy Results 1. gggol 122.40 (454-1-89, 33 waldopath) 2. Blueeyedrat 123.98 (427-1-75, 36 waldopath) 3. 2ofts 125.99 (429-1-82, 37 waldopath) 4. DariusOne 134.37 (531-1-88, 34 waldopath) 5. lolitsme 140.87 (484-1-75, 41 waldopath) 6. ToughThought 143.94 (518-1-100, 40 waldopath) 7. rezoons 160.44 (585-1-80, 44 waldopath) 8. Leylite 162.19 (548-1-85, 48 waldopath) 9. supersaiyanvegeta (722-1-137, 68 waldopath) Round 12 is the final "open" round, and features two puzzles, both of which explore a bit more design space and should be very useful to future SpaceChemists: Round 12 Chlorine and Ammonia Minimize cycles + (0.01 * symbols):  Break Up Minimize cycles + (0.01* symbols): 
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Sep 7, 2015 19:24
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The results are in! Round 12 Chlorine and Ammonia Results 1. DariusOne 211-1-52 2. ToughThought 227-1-44 3. rezoons 238-1-43 4. gggol 259-1-44 5. 2ofts 266-1-42 6. lolitsme 267-1-46 7. Leylite 277-1-48 8. Blueeyedrat 286-1-43 9. supersaiyanvegeta 303-1-32 10. 12345ieee 311-1-38 Break Up Results 1. ToughThought 3193-1-118 2. supersaiyanvegeta 3767-1-82 3. rezoons 3809-1-63 4. 2ofts 4025-1-64 5. gggol 4955-1-74 6. Leylite 5332-1-86 7. Blueeyedrat 13324-1-91 8. DariusOne 14822-1-81 9. lolitsme 16044-1-50 10. 12345ieee 21348-1-51 Surprisingly, it seems as though solutions that make waste are competitive with solutions that don't make waste since it can be faster to just store waste and bring in a new Mt than it is to bother completely processing an Mt before getting a new one. Congratulations to our "tournament finalists", and everyone who's still playing. Don't forget that submissions are still accepted for the next three weeks' puzzles, so if you have a solution, send it in! Overall Standings after round 12: 1. 2ofts 33.026 2. ToughThought 32.035 3. gggol 29.078 4. DariusOne 27.961 5. Leylite 26.522 6. Blueeyedrat 25.926 7. lolitsme 23.617 8. supersaiyanvegeta 23.026 The first "closed round" puzzle is upon us, and it seems to be a cousin of one already in ResearchNet: Round 13 Slightly Acidic Minimize sqrt(cycles * symbols): 
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Sep 14, 2015 21:36
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Eight brave SpaceChemists looked at the previous puzzle, and though it inspired fear in many, they righteously strode forth and created wonderful machinery to both quickly assemble the product and do so with few symbols. The results are in! Round 13 Slightly Acidic Results 1. gggol 256.42 (707-1-93) 2. Blueeyedrat 276.06 (866-1-88) 3. ToughThought 283.73 (875-1-92) 4. DariusOne 290.35 (969-1-87) 5. Leylite 341.29 (896-1-130) 6. supersaiyanvegeta 376.81 (1327-1-107) 7. lolitsme 426.37 (1765-1-103) 2ofts mentioned he was too busy to continue with the tournament. rezoons apparently submitted a non-scoring solution; SpagChem is examining it right now and is still trying to get it to work. More news when it arrives. Congratulations to the top 4! You move on, and get an even harder puzzle: Round 14 Hydrocarbons Minimize (50 * bonders) + Waldopath + (0.01 * symbols). Atoms may not cross the horizontal dashed barrier! 
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Sep 21, 2015 20:09
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Round 14 was pretty brutal. While I did play around with it for a while, I ended up taking the week off since this one looked pretty dang hard. Nevertheless the results are in. Round 14 Hydrocarbons 1. Blueeyedrat 353.02 (2834-1-102, 6 bonders, 52 waldopath) 2. DariusOne 366.54 (2939-1-154, 6 bonders, 65 waldopath) 3. ToughThought 374.53 (7253-1-153, 6 bonders, 73 waldopath) 4. gggol (infinity) (would be 381.60 if the solution worked) (Incomplete-1-160, 6 bonders, 80 waldopath) Non-scoring lolitsme 443.82 (1165-1-82, 8 bonders, 43 waldopath) gggol did not finish a working solution on time. Sorry gggol. The final round is upon us. Two SpaceChemists will battle each other for first place, but anyone can submit a solution and see if they can compete with the best: Round 15 - Final Round A Small Difference Minimize symbols + (0.01 * waldopath). Solutions must be able to handle any of the 56 possible inputs created by swapping hydrogen, chlorine and fluorine atoms around (so, any isomer). 
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Sep 29, 2015 03:08
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im gay
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Sep 29, 2015 11:09
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The final results are here! It was a close call, and several non-finalists submitted competitive solutions, but after the dust has settled, the results are clear: Round 15 A Small Difference Results 1. DariusOne 35.38 (1482-1-35, 38 waldopath) 2. Blueeyedrat 39.39 (1213-1-39, 39 waldopath) DariusOne+SpagChem 32.41 (1957-1-32, 41 waldopath) gggol 33.50 (3420-1-33, 50 waldopath) Blueeyedrat+SpagChem 37.35 (1920-1-37, 35 waldopath) ToughThought 66.49 (9661-1-66, 49 waldopath) supersaiyanvegeta 108.56 (6774-1-108, 56 waldopath) So, without further ado, the final standings: First Place: DariusOne Second Place: Blueeyedrat Third Place: ToughThought Fourth Among Equals: gggol Congratulations to the above, and thanks to all who participated and made this a great tournament. With that, I'll go ahead and close the thread since no community SpaceChem discussion took place here. Once interest resurges, surely someone else will make a new thread.
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Oct 6, 2015 01:51
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