Challenge Rules

NeurIPS 2022-NEURAL MMO CHALLENGE OFFICIAL RULES

PLEASE READ THESE OFFICIAL RULES CAREFULLY. ENTRY INTO THIS CHALLENGE CONSTITUTES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE OFFICIAL RULES. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ANY PART OF THESE OFFICIAL RULES, PLEASE DO NOT ENTER THIS CHALLENGE.

NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE OF ANY KIND WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

1. Challenge Description

The NeurIPS 2022-Neural MMO Challenge is a competition to facilitate the generalization of agent-based methods to massively multiagent environments. This challenge addresses the gap between arcade tasks typically used in research and the complexities of the real world. Participants will create agents that accomplish high-level goals requiring navigation, long-term reasoning, robustness, and cooperation to outcompete other participants.

Contestants' contribution could broaden the scope of reinforcement learning and other agent-based methods to more realistic problem settings. This will be the first of many challenges related to multiagent and multitask learning on Neural MMO.

The NeurIPS 2022-Neural MMO Challenge will be run according to these Official Rules ("Rules").

2. Sponsors

The challenge is organized by Parametrix.AI, MIT Embodied Intelligence, THU_SIGS, and AICrowd. Challenge mainly sponsored by Parametrix.AI, 9B2004, Shenzhen Bay Eco-Technology Park, Shahe Rd W, Nanshan, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China, 518063.

These organizations will be referred to as "Organizers" collectively.

3. Organizers Admins

“Sponsor Admins” are any companies or organizations authorized by Organizers to aid it with the administration or execution of this Challenge, including but not limited to AIcrowd SA.

4. Challenge Start and End Dates

There will be one round of open submissions in total, which could be divided into two almost simultaneously tracks--PvE and PvP. The timeline of the NeurIPS2022-Neural MMO Challenge is shown as follows:

• August 18th, 2022 - PvE stage 1 begins, Starterkit releases and submission system opens
• August 31st, 2022 - PvP begins
• September 22nd, 2022 - PvE stage 2 begins
• October 24th, 2022 - Entry and team formation deadline
• October 30th, 2022 - Final submission deadline
• October 31st, 2022 - November 15th,2022 – Final PvP evaluation
• November 16th, 2022 - Winners announced

The competition organizers reserve the right to update the competition's timeline if they deem it necessary. All deadlines are at 11:59 PM PST on the corresponding day unless otherwise noted.

5. Am I Eligible to Enter the Challenge?

You are eligible to enter this Challenge if you (and each member of your Team) meet all of the following requirements as of the time and date of entry:

• You are an individual;
• You are 18 years of age or older but in no event less than the age of majority in your place of residence;
• You have Internet Access, an Email Account, and access to a personal computer;
• You have accurately and truthfully completed the participant registration;

You are only permitted to be part of one Team. Any Entrant that is part of more than one Team may be disqualified, and their corresponding Teams may be disqualified at the sole discretion of Organizers.

It is entirely your responsibility to review and understand your employer’s and country' policies about your eligibility to participate in this Challenge. If you participate in violation of your employer’s or countries policies, you and your Entry may be disqualified from the Challenge. Organizers disclaim any and all liability or responsibility with respect to disputes arising between an employer and such employer’s employee or between a country and its resident in relation to this matter.

People who, during the Challenge Period, are directors, officers, employees, interns, and contractors (“Personnel”) of Organizers, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, and their respective advertising, promotion, and public relations agencies, representatives, and agents (collectively, “Challenge Entities”), immediate families members of such Personnel (parents, siblings, children, spouses, and life partners of each) and members of the households of such Personnel (whether related or not) are ineligible to win a prize in this Challenge. The Organizer reserves the right to verify eligibility and adjudicate any eligibility dispute at any time.

By participating in the Challenge, all Entrants unconditionally accept and agree to comply with and abide by these Official Rules and the decisions of the Organizer which will be final and binding including the Organizer’s right to verify eligibility, to interpret these Official Rules, and to resolve any disputes relating to this Challenge at any time.

6. Is the Entry an Eligible Entry?

To be eligible to be considered for a prize, as solely determined by the Organizers:

The Entry MUST:

• be compatible with the official submission format as dictated by the starter kit.
• obey track-specific restrictions detailed on the challenge page
• be in English;
• be the Team’s own original work;
• not have been submitted previously in any promotion of any kind;
• not contain material or content that: is inappropriate, indecent, obscene, offensive, sexually explicit, pornographic, hateful, tortious, defamatory, slanderous or libellous; or promotes bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age; or promotes alcohol, illegal drugs, or tobacco; or violates or infringes another’s rights, including but not limited to rights of privacy, publicity, or their intellectual property rights; or is inconsistent with the message, brand, or image of Organizers, is unlawful; or is in violation of or contrary to the laws or regulations of any jurisdiction in which the Entry is created; and

The Team members MUST:

• designate one person as the team leader who will be solely responsible for receiving communications from and communicating with Organizers;
• ensure the Team has obtained any and all consents, approvals, or licenses required for submission of the Entry;
• obtain any consents necessary from all members of the Team with respect to the sharing of such member’s personal information as outlined herein;
• obtain the agreement of all members of the Team to these Rules;
• not generate the Entry by any means which violate these Rules, the Organizers Terms of Service or the Organizers Privacy Policy;
• not engage in false, fraudulent, or deceptive acts at any phase during participation in the Challenge; and
• not tamper or abuse any aspect of this Challenge.

7. Disqualification

• If you, any Team member, or the Entry is found to be ineligible for any reason, including but not limited to conflicts within Teams and noncompliance with Sections 5 and 6 of these Rules, Organizers and Organizers Affiliates reserve the right to disqualify the Entry and/or you and/or your Team members from this Challenge and any other contest or promotional activity sponsored or administered in any way by the Organizers.
• A participant is not allowed to create more than one account to participate in the challenge. Violating this will result in disqualification from the challenge.
• If the Organizers find that any team member has not followed the Rules of the competition posted on the challenge website, then the team will be automatically disqualified.

8. How may the Entry potentially be used?

The Entry may be used in a few different ways. Organizers do not claim to own your Team’s Entry, however, by submitting the Entry you and each member of your Team:

• hereby grants to Organizers and Organizers Admins a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, world-wide right and license to (i) review and analyze the Entry in relation to this Challenge; and (ii) use the Entry or parts of your Entry in any media for any non-commercial or commercial purpose in connection with the marketing, sale, or promotion of Organizers, Organizers Admins and their respective products and services;
• agrees that each member will execute any necessary paperwork for Organizers and Organizers Admins to use the rights and licenses granted hereunder;
• acknowledges and agrees that the Team will not be compensated and may not be credited (at Organizers’s sole discretion) for the use of the Entry as described in these Rules;
• acknowledges that the Organizers or Organizers Admins may have developed or commissioned materials similar to the Entry and waive any claims resulting from any similarities to the Entry;
• understand that the Entry may be posted on a public website or social media channel and that Organizers is not responsible for any unauthorized use of the Entry by visitors to such site; and
• understand and acknowledge that, subject to provision of Prizes, Organizers are not obligated to use the Entry in any way, even if the Entry is selected as a winning Entry.

Personal data you submit in relation to this Challenge will be used by Organizers and Organizer Admins in accordance to Section 14 of these Rules.

9. How will Winners be Selected and Notified?

Entries will be judged via an algorithm that will generate a score based upon which Entries will be ranked and such ranking will be displayed on the AIcrowd Site’s Challenge specific leaderboard (“Leaderboard”). The algorithm will rank your Entry as follows:

PvE: In the PvE leaderboard, the Top1 Ratio and submission time are two main ranking metrics. Among them, the definition of Top1 is earning the highest killing scores and survival scores in each tournament with built-in AIs. All submissions are first ranked by the teams' Top1 Ratio and then the earlier submission ranks higher while the win rate is the same.

PvP: The Agent submitted in the Entry will be evaluated against other competitors’ agents on Neural MMO game maps generated using N random seeds unavailable to participants during the Challenge (“Seeds”). Each tournament will contain one or more instances of your agent and many instances of other submitted agents. After each tournament, your submission will be ranked according to True Skill level. We will run such tournaments frequently throughout the competition. The qualified and latest Entry will be ranked on the PvP Leaderboard based on True Skill level. In the PvP Top 16 final, we will again use pure scores to rank.

There will be a seperate leaderboard for each round.

Tied Entries:

If two or more participating Teams have the same score and prizes are awarded to the teams, they will be shared evenly among the Teams.

Potential winners will be contacted within one week of each Deadline via the email associated with AIcrowd.com account through which the Entry was submitted. If a potential winner cannot be contacted, does not respond as directed, refuses the prize, or is found to be ineligible for any reason, such prize may be forfeited and awarded to an alternate winner. Only one alternate winner will be selected per each prize package, after which prizes will remain unawarded.

To the extent that there is any dispute as to the identity of the potential winner, the official account holder of the email address associated with the AIcrowd account through which the Entry was first submitted will be deemed the official potential winner by Organizers.

10. Your Odds of Winning

ODDS OF WINNING A PRIZE ARE SUBJECT TO THE TOTAL NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE ENTRIES RECEIVED AND HOW YOUR ENTRY SCORES IN ACCORDANCE TO THE JUDGING CRITERIA.

11. Prizes

We will award a total of 20,000 USD in cash prizes or special awards. Prize details for each track can be found on the challenge page.

To receive a prize, the Team must make the submission via the AIcrowd portal, and submit a detailed document describing its training process. The description must be written in English, with mathematical formulae as necessary. The description must be written at a level sufficient for a practitioner in computer science to reproduce the results obtained by the Team. It must describe substantially the training and tuning process to reproduce results independently. Failure to submit both the code and description within one week of Organizers will disqualify that entry and additional qualifying entries will be considered for prizes. Organizers reserve the right not to award prizes to any Team whose results cannot be reproduced.

The top teams from each track will be invited to contribute material detailing their approaches and be included as authors in a summary manuscript at the end of the competition. Additional honorable mentions may be awarded at our discretion for academically interesting approaches, such as those using exceptionally little compute or minimal domain knowledge. Honorable mentions will be invited to contribute a shorter section to the paper and have their names included inline.

12. When will prizes be awarded?

The prizes will be awarded within a commercially reasonable time frame. All members of a Team may be required to complete and sign additional documentation, such as non-disclosure agreements, representations and warranties, liability and publicity releases (unless prohibited by applicable law), tax documents, or other similar documentation in order for the potentially winning team to claim the prize. For Teams in excess of one member, the prize will be awarded to the Team Lead. Organizers will in no way be involved in any dispute with respect to receipt of a prize by any other members of a Team.

Only prizes claimed in accordance to these Rules will be awarded.

13. Winner List

A list of all winners of this Challenge will be posted on AIcrowd Site and may be announced at Organizers’ discretion via Organizers’ Twitter, Facebook, Blog, or Website, or at an Organizer or Organizer Admins sponsored or hosted event.

14. Your Personal Data and Privacy

Organizers may use cookies and/or collect IP addresses for the purpose of implementing or exercising its rights or obligations under the Rules, for information purposes, identifying your location, including without limitation for the purpose of redirecting you to the appropriate geographic website, if applicable, or for any other lawful purpose in accordance with the AIcrowd Privacy Policy.

Organizers may use the personal data you provide via your participation in this Challenge:

• to contact you in relation to the Challenge;
• to confirm the details of your Entry;
• to administer and execute this Challenge, including sharing it with Organizer Admins;
• at Organizers’ discretion, to credit you and/or your Team for the Entry, identify you and/or your Team as a Winner, or other similar notice; and
• as otherwise noted in these Rules or as necessary for Organizers to meet their obligations under these Rules or applicable law.

Organizers only require name and email address to be submitted for you to participate in this Challenge for its uses as outlined in this Section 15.

Please read the AIcrowd Terms and Conditions, Participation Terms carefully to understand how your data may be used by AIcrowd SA.

15. Additional Terms and Conditions

If Organizers determine, in their sole discretion, that any portion of this Challenge is compromised by virus, bugs, unauthorized human intervention, or any other causes beyond its control, that in the sole opinion of Organizers corrupts, or impairs the administration, security, fairness or proper participation in/of the Challenge, Organizers reserves the right to (a) cancel the Challenge; (b) pause the Challenge until such time the aforementioned issues may be resolved; or (c) consider only those Entries submitted prior to the when the Challenge was so compromised for the prizes.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you agree that Organizers, Organizer Affiliates, and Organizer Admins, and each of their directors, officers, employees, agents and assigns, will not be liable for personal injuries, death, damages, expenses or costs or losses of any kind resulting from participation or inability to participate in this Challenge or acceptance of or use or inability to use a prize or parts thereof including, without limitation, claims, suits, injuries, losses and damages related to personal injuries, death, damage to or destruction of property, rights of publicity or privacy, defamation or portrayal in a false light (whether intentional or unintentional), whether under a theory of contract, tort (including negligence), warranty or other theory.

Your use of any other products and services required by these Rules, whether required by these Rules or not, are subject to the terms and conditions associated with such products or services, including the AIcrowd site and services.

In the event any clause or provision of these Rules prove unenforceable, void or incomplete, the validity of the other conditions will remain unaffected.

16. Additional Prize Conditions

Prizes are non-transferable except as directed by Sponsor. No prize substitutions are allowed. Except where prohibited by law, all federal, state, provincial or other tax liabilities are the responsibility of the prize winners, the Sponsor will not be responsible for any tax deductions which may be necessary, and Sponsor reserves the right to withhold taxes as required by law. Prize winners will be responsible for paying all costs and expenses related to the prize that are not specifically mentioned, including, but not limited to, taxes, withholdings, and any other expenses that might reasonably be incurred by the winner in receiving or using the prize. All prizes awarded will be subject to any taxes Organizer is required by law to withhold as well as applicable sales, use, gross receipts, goods and service, or similar transaction based taxes. IF TAXES ARE APPLICABLE TO THE PRIZE(S), IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE WINNER TO PAY TO THE APPROPRIATE AUTHORITIES. PAYMENTS TO CHALLENGE WINNERS ARE SUBJECT TO THE EXPRESS REQUIREMENT THAT THE WINNER SUBMIT TO ORGANIZER ALL DOCUMENTATION REQUESTED BY ORGANIZER TO PERMIT COMPLIANCE WITH ALL APPLICABLE STATE, FEDERAL, LOCAL AND FOREIGN (INCLUDING PROVINCIAL) TAX REPORTING AND WITHHOLDING REQUIREMENTS. Prize winners are responsible for ensuring that the tax documentation submitted to Organizer complies with all applicable tax laws and requirements. If a winner fails to provide the documentation or submits incomplete documentation, the prize may be forfeited and Organizer may, in its sole discretion, select an alternate winner. Designation as a prize winner is subject to Entrant’s proof of compliance with these Official Rules, maintaining compliance with these Official Rules and approval by the Organizer. All details of prizes not specified herein shall be determined solely by Organizer. Your use of any other products and services required by these Rules, whether required by these Rules or not, are subject to the terms and conditions associated with such products or services, including the AIcrowd site and services. In the event any clause or provision of these Rules prove unenforceable, void or incomplete, the validity of the other conditions will remain unaffected.

17. Waiver, Release and Limitation of Liability

EACH ENTRANT ACCEPTS THE CONDITIONS STATED IN THESE OFFICIAL RULES, AGREES TO BE BOUND BY THE DECISIONS OF THE ORGANIZER, WARRANTS THAT HE OR SHE IS ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS CHALLENGE AND AGREES TO RELEASE, INDEMNIFY, AND HOLD HARMLESS CHALLENGE ENTITIES AND THE PERSONNEL OF EACH FROM AND AGAINST ANY AND ALL CLAIMS, LOSSES, LIABILITY, AND DAMAGES OF ANY KIND (INCLUDING REASONABLE ATTORNEYS’ FEES AND EXPENSES) ASSERTED AGAINST ANY OF THEM, INCURRED OR SUSTAINED IN CONNECTION WITH OR ARISING OUT OF ENTRANT’S PARTICIPATION IN THIS CHALLENGE OR ANY TRAVEL OR ACTIVITY RELATED THERETO, OR BREACH OF ANY AGREEMENT OR WARRANTY ASSOCIATED WITH THE CHALLENGE, INCLUDING THESE OFFICIAL RULES. ANY ATTEMPT TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE ANY WEBSITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE CHALLENGE IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND, SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, THE CHALLENGE ENTITIES AND EACH OF THEIR LICENSEES RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SEEK ANY AND ALL REMEDIES AVAILABLE FROM ANY SUCH PERSON(S) RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY SUCH ATTEMPT TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

Entrants further agree that the Challenge Entities are not responsible for the following: (a) electronic transmissions, entries or notifications that are lost, late, stolen, incomplete, damaged, garbled, destroyed, misdirected or not received by Sponsor or their agents for any reason; (b) any problems or technical malfunctions, errors, omissions, interruptions, deletions, defects, delays in operation or transmission, communication failures and/or human error that may occur in the transmission, shipping errors or delays, receipt or processing of entries or related materials; or for destruction of or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, entries or related material; (c) failed or unavailable hardware, network, software or telephone transmissions, damage to Entrants’ or any person’s computer and/or its contents related to or resulting from participation in this Challenge; (d) causes that jeopardize the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Challenge; (e) any entries submitted in a manner that is not expressly allowed under these Official Rules (all such entries will be disqualified); or (f) any printing errors in these Official Rules or in any advertisements or correspondence in connection with this Challenge or the tabulation of scores. Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel or suspend this Challenge should virus, bugs, fraud, hacking, or other causes corrupt the administration, security, or proper play of the Challenge, or in the event Sponsor does not receive a minimum of two qualified entries from separate eligible Entrant Teams. Sponsor further reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel or suspend this Challenge or to reschedule or reformat events should Sponsor be prevented, in any manner whatsoever, from holding this Challenge or any event due to any present or future law (whether or not valid); any act of God, earthquake, fire, flood, epidemic (including, without limitation, any pandemic), accident, explosion or casualty; any civil disturbance or armed conflict; or any other cause of any similar nature outside of Sponsor’s control. In all such cases, notice to this effect will be posted on the Challenge Site and prizes to the extent awarded will be awarded as determined by Organizer prior to cancellation. If in Organizer's opinion, there is any suspected or actual evidence of electronic or non-electronic tampering with any portion of the Challenge or if technical difficulties compromise the integrity of the Challenge, the Sponsor reserves the right to void suspect entries and/or terminate the Challenge and award prizes in its sole discretion. Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual found tampering with the entry process or entry materials or otherwise interfering with the proper administration of the Challenge or violating these Official Rules.

DISPUTES: Except where prohibited, you agree that: (1) any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Challenge or any prize awarded shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action; (2) any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, including costs associated with entering this Challenge, but not to exceed $10,000 USD and in no event to include attorneys’ fees; and (3) under no circumstances will you be permitted to obtain awards for, and you hereby waive all rights to claim, indirect, punitive, incidental and consequential damages and any other damages (other than for actual out-of-pocket expenses), and any and all rights to have damages multiplied or otherwise increased. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of the Entrant and Sponsor in connection with the Challenge, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with, the laws of the People's Republic of China without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules, which would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than the People's Republic of China.