CodeCombat AI Arena is a competitive coding platform where players program the behavior of in-game characters using real programming languages. The goal is to create the smartest strategy that will outperform other players' code in various arenas.

In CodeCombat Arenas, students flex all the skills they have learned throughout the practice levels and control their characters known as “heroes” by creating and inputting lines of code written in Python and JavaScript. Their heroes compete head-to-head in a virtual world to collect resources or achieve other specified objectives. The code they write will run constantly against the code of other players to determine how strong it is. Students are able to continually edit and simulate their code while the tournament is active.

OBJECTIVE OF AN ARENA BATTLE

The core objective is to write code that controls your characters to compete in specific scenarios (e.g., battling enemies, collecting resources) against others. It’s not just about learning to code, but also applying strategic thinking to win games.

The CodeCombat AI Arena is uniquely both a competitive AI battle simulator and education engine for learning real Python and JavaScript code. Each player programs their team of “AI Heroes” in a head-to-head battle to determine the best code and strategy to win. It combines our project-based standards-aligned curriculum and engaging adventure-based coding game into an organized academic competition unlike any other! The AI League delivers all the best elements of esports competition with content that allows students to show off their impressive coding skills.

GAMEPLAY STRUCTURE

In multiplayer arenas, student code will battle the code of other players. All students will start by practicing and then battling very basic AI opponents. Once the AI opponent is beaten, students can then begin submitting their code for ranking and battling the code of other players. Every time code is submitted, simulations are run to pit your code against the code of all other players. Players are free to test their code against any other participating player on the leaderboard. All code submitted should be original code created by one student and submitted by that same student.

SCORING AND LEADERBOARD

All participants will be able to see their rankings on the leaderboard. These scores reflect the best in-progress estimate of final results, but rankings may change during the final ranking phase at the end of the tournament.

Throughout the tournament, scores are updated using a Bayesian system that estimates participants' likelihood of winning based on previous match data and the strength of their opponents. Participants gain or lose points based on the outcome of each match and the ranking of their opponents. So if you beat a player ranked higher than you, you gain more points. Beat a player lower than you, gain fewer points. Lose to a weaker player, lose more points. Lose to a stronger player, lose fewer points. You can test your code against any player and improve your strategy until you win, but remember: no points are scored until you submit your latest code and it starts to automatically play matches against other players.

Once the tournament ends, the leaderboard (ladder) is locked and participants can no longer submit new code. The CodeCombat team then runs a final ranking round, where every player competes against all others. Final rankings are based solely on the total number of wins in this round, without any adjustment for opponent strength or probabilistic factors. The results are final and not affected by random simulation order.