Dear All, This should be the final mail from the simulation committee before Melbourne. This is an important email. Please read it carefully. The draw for the competition will be as follows : Group 1: S1. ATT-CMU S2. Open Zeng A-Team UBU Virtual Wender Group 2: S1. CMU99 S2. Gemini Sharif II AKU II Pizza Tower Group 3. S1. Magma Fr. S2 TakAI Airg Sibui Gnez Paso Team Group 4 S1. Essex S2 Headless Chickens IV Sharif Arvand Spatial Timer KU-Yam Group 5. S1. FC Portugal S2 Robolog Zeng00 Oulu2000 Texas Heat Group 6. S1. Karlsruhe S2 Mainz Kaitsubata Wright Eagle Group 7. S1. YowAI S2 Cyberoos GSP Lucky Lubeck Polytech 100 Group 8. S1. 11 Monkeys S2 AT Humbolt Harmony SBC NOAI The draw was done in the following way. The teams marked with S1 were the top seeds (based on previous results) and were allocated to the groups in order. The teams marked S2 were the second string seeds and were allocated via random ballot to the groups. The rest of the teams were allocated via random ballot to the groups. If there was more than three teams from the one country in the group the last team from that country was pushed into the next group. If team pull outs result in a group of three the groups with the largest number will be put in a ballot. The last named team in the group drawn out will be placed in the group of three. Sunday the 27th will be for set up (first access time) Monday Groups 7 and 8 will play Tuesday Groups 4, 5 and 6 will play Wednesday Groups 1, 2 and 3 will play Saturday is the QFs - Semi Sunday is the final The groups playing on a particular day will play in parallel. Team members from other groups playing on the same day will be expected to referee the games of the other groups. It is hoped/expected that seeded teams will take most responsibility for this as they often have more competition experience. Evaluation will be run in parallel with the games. Games will start at 9am on Tuesday and Wednesday and at about 10:30am on Monday. The days will finish when all the games and evaluation are complete. Gal will send details of evaluation soon. There will be three points allocated for a win and 1 for a draw. There is no extra time in the elimination rounds. At the end of the round robin the two top teams from a group will go through to the finals. If two or more teams are tied for second place in a group whoever won the head to head contest goes through. If that was a tie then the advancing team will be decided on goal difference. If that was a tie then the team with the highest number of goals goes through. Finally a coin toss will be used to seperate teams. A forfiet will result in the team receiving the worst of its other scores or 2:0 whichever is worse. The finals will be double elimination in the same format as 1999 (see http://www.ida.liu.se/~pausc/RC99/Results.html for an example). In the finals there must be a winner. 3000 cycles of extra time will be played with the golden goal rule. If there is no result the game is restarted (to refresh stamina) and up to 3 halves of 3000 cycles will be played under the golden goal rule. If there is still no result (after 6000 cycles of play and 12000 cycles of extra time, golden goal) the game is decided by a coin toss. Except for the final which will be declared a draw if there is no winner after the 18000 cycles (in the same format as the other finals). Rules are basically the same as last year. The only change from the released server configuration file is that the offside area will be 5 (not 9). The number of goalie moves is limited to 2. It is possible to get around this by doing a small kick and catching again. This is allowed *once* then the referee is required to drop the ball on the closest corner of the penalty box (notice this practice is not encouraged we are just acknowledging the potential for mis-kicks - continual use may be considered "ungentlemanly"). Players will have 200 cycles to take free kicks or kick-ins. Referees are encouraged to use some common sense, e.g. if a player needs to run a long way to get to the ball and is nearly there after 200 cycles they should be given the chance to take the kick, before dropping the ball but should not drop the ball before the 200 cycles. Drops should be as near as possible to the current position of the ball or on the corner of the penatly box. Other details will be discussed with teams at a *compulsary* team leader meeting after the opening cermony which is at 9am on Monday morning. Remote teams need to ensure their code is uploaded by Friday at the very latest. *Phew* I think that is all for now. Looking forward to seeing everyone in Melbourne (where it is fairly cold and wet at the moment!) Regards, Paul and the Simulation Organizing Committee