Star Challenge - How does it work?

[bobade]

I've been playing a lot of friend challenges lately, and find them to be more entertaining than Free Daylong Tournaments, in that it is possible to win!

 

Star challenges are also pretty entertaining. I find the human opponents more consistent than those in arena challenges. In fact, I've never had a Star fail to finish a round. Because the results always return immediately, it seems these challenges must always be initiated, and completed, by a Star before being offered to us mortals.

 

There are differences in Star Challenges I'd like to understand:

 

1) What is the incentive for "Stars" to play in these challenges, rather than "Challenge a stranger"?

2) Why is it that the stars always play the boards first? I ask, because results are always immediately available after completion.

3) When a Star initiates a Star Challenge, how many of us non-stars play that set of boards? More than one?

4) Is it possible to see statistics, like win percentage of everyone who participates in Star Challenges?

[barmar]

The star doesn't initiate Star Challenges, they play ordinary Robot Challenges.

 

When you play in a Star Challenge, we pick a random challenge that one of them played in. You play the same hands, and then your scores are compared with the star's.

[bobade]

Thanks, Barry. So does the Star know when they get beaten by a mortal, and vice versa?

[barmar]

Thanks, Barry. So does the Star know when they get beaten by a mortal, and vice versa?

No, the stars are completely out of the loop. They aren't notified of the results, and they don't see them when they view their own history.

 

We do allow stars to opt out of letting their games be used for this.

[barmar]

Here are the scoring statistics for the mortals over the past 5 weeks:

 

+---------+----------+-------+-------+------+
| scoring | bot      | count | score | win% |
+---------+----------+-------+-------+------+
| MP      | BASIC    |  2356 |  46.5 | 42.1 |
| MP      | ADVANCED |    34 |  48.9 | 41.2 |
| IMP     | BASIC    | 42264 |  -7.0 | 34.7 |
| IMP     | ADVANCED |   215 |  -6.2 | 39.3 |
+---------+----------+-------+-------+------+

 

So the stars generally win, but not by huge margins. They're good, but not superhuman.