This is the first time in Vietnam a simulation contest combining AI algorithm with Esport has been held. The Arena, named ‘Treasure Island’, follows the one-on-one combat model to select 8 most prominent teams. These competitors then went through 15 final rounds to identify the winner.

Among the contestants for the final match, 4 created a virtual agent based on Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithm, while the rest employed non-AI-related algorithms.

Experts of the field commented that the contest was a fight between AI and real humans. Most importantly, all teams needed to program their agent so that it could self-learn and make a strategic decision on its own. The agent also had to upgrade its brain when observing opponents’ moves in order to beat them and win the game.

At last, Black Panther from HCMUS excellently surpassed other contestants and was named the champion of the arena. They received a cash prize of VND100 million (approx. US$431000) and will attend an AI workshop worth VND20 million ($862) held by FPT Software.

The second position belongs to Trusted-AI, who used RL algorithm to train their agent to learn from experience for best logical moves based on a specific environment.

Besides the main prizes, the organization board also delivered awards to the Most Talented and the Most Promising, worth VND20 million ($862) and VND10 million ($431) respectively. These winners are the teams with all students.

Mr. Nguyen Do Van from AI Academy Vietnam, one of the judges in the contest, shared his hope that in the future, such a competition is able to identify more inspiring, innovative algorithms to tackle current negative issues in the community.

The contest was held from August to September 2020 attracting 445 teams of nearly 1000 people from all over the nation and other countries like Japan, the Republic of Korea, Germany, and the US.

By Tan Ba – Translated by Thanh Tam