TopCoder Open 2013 Marathon competition

Today's main event at the TopCoder Open is the Marathon Match finals. This year, the competitors are implementing resource harvesting strategies in a Starcraft-like setting - check out Rustyoldman's blog that actually has links that allow you to download the visualizer and start experimenting with solutions yourself! I think the problem this year is awesome - the problem statement is very simple and natural, it's fun to watch programs competing with each other, and it's easy to write and visualize a solution of your own.

Meanwhile, the start of the algorithm competition is getting closer. SnarkNews has launched a prediction contest for it, you can view the current favorites here.

(Photo on the left by TopCoder)