Models and versions

A model is a lineage: a name you chose, and every version you have entered under it. A version is one submission — two files and their two hashes.

The distinction decides almost everything else on this page. Versions of one model replace one another — a new one that passes its trial supersedes the previous one, inherits its rating, and takes its place on the ladder. Different models never do that to each other. They are separate entries with separate ratings that can sit on the same ladder at the same time, and one of yours beating another of yours is an ordinary result.

You may hold as many models as the season allows.

The name is the key, and it is yours

A model is identified by its name, unique among your own entries for a game. Its page is addressed by id:

/models/{id}          the model, and its whole version history
/models/{id}/v3       one version of it

Three consequences follow, and all three are deliberate:

• Two competitors may hold the same name. A name is not an identity and nothing is decided on one. Who you are is your GitHub account, which is what signing in establishes — and that is the only thing GitHub does here.
• The name is yours to edit, at any time. It is a label, not an address, so changing it breaks no link and moves no rating.
• There is no repository to own. A model is not tied to a GitHub repository: every ceiling on a competitor is a season rule, none of them mentions one, and creating a model never waits on GitHub.

Creating one

await fetch('/v1/games/ants/models', {
  method: 'POST',
  credentials: 'same-origin',
  headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
  body: JSON.stringify({ name: 'Nano probe' })
});

That is the whole request. A name you already hold in this game is refused model_name_taken; a name another competitor holds is not your problem.

Nothing on this path reaches GitHub, so creating a model works whether or not GitHub does.

Creating a model enters nothing. It starts no clock, costs no attempt, and puts nothing on a ladder. Submitting a version is what does that.

Version numbers restart per model

Your second model’s first version is v1. A lineage whose history began at v4 because you happened to have an earlier model would be a number no page could explain.

You do not choose the number: the platform assigns it as one past this model’s highest.

Retiring one

A retired model takes no new versions and frees its slot against the season’s limit on how many models one competitor may hold. It withdraws nothing: every version keeps its rating, its rank and its place in every match it played, because a standing is a record of what happened and not a claim about what you still intend. Retiring is reversible, and it is not a way to restart a version series.

What is per model, and what is per competitor

The four on the right are all season rules and all absent by default. What a given season actually sets is on its own page, and GET /v1/games/{game}/submission reports your standing against every one of them before you make a request.

More

• Submitting a version — putting a version under a model
• The life of a version — what happens to it after that
• Seasons — the rules a season may declare