Terms and Conditions

Terminology

• A competition entrant or participant is an individual or a team of individuals that supplies a competition entry. Individuals may only belong to a single team. This rule does not apply to supervisors of student teams. In this case, the supervisor may be excluded from the prize distribution and be part of multiple teams.
• A competition entry is a single valid submission to a specific competition.
• The Organizer is the Institute of Information Processing, Leibniz University Hannover, Appelstraße 9a, 30419 Hannover, Germany.

1. Scope

These conditions of participation apply to the Battlesnake Blackout 2026 Competition by the organizer. By participating, each participant acknowledges these conditions of participation.

2. Participation

2.1 Every natural person is entitled to participate in his own name or as part of a team.

2.2 Persons without legal capacity and employees of the Institute of Information Processing are excluded from the competition.

2.3 The organizer reserves the right to exclude persons from participation who violate these conditions of participation or who gain or wish to gain an advantage over other participants by unlawfully influencing or manipulating the competition. In such cases, the organizer may also exclude participants from the competition later, deny prizes and reclaim them.

2.4 The organizer reserves the right to exclude persons from participation who display unsportsmanlike behavior. This includes, but is not limited to hate speech, threats, or racist comments directed at other participants, racist or hateful snake display names.

2.5 Participation is only possible within the period specified in the description of the competition.

2.6 Each participant may only participate using a single competition entry.

2.7 Only participants that beat the baseline implementations supplied by the organizers are eligible for prize distribution.

3. Execution of the Competition

3.1 The competition will be held during the specified period. The winner will be determined among the participants who meet the requirements set out in section 2.

3.2 A change or cash payment of the prize is excluded. The prize is not transferable.

4. Prize Distribution

4.1 The winner will be contacted by the organizer. Regarding the prize, each participant notified in this way is obliged to inform the organizer within 7 days of dispatch of the prize notification whether they accept the prize. If the organizer does not receive a notification within this period, the possibility of accepting the prize lapses and the organizer reserves the right to identify another participant and notify him accordingly.

4.2 If the participant's contact details are incorrect, the organizer is not obliged to provide the correct information. The disadvantages which may result from the provision of incorrect contact data shall be borne by the participant.

4.3 Prizes are awarded to the top-ranked entries that meet the quality threshold:

• 1st place: $500 USD
• 2nd place: $300 USD
• 3rd place: $200 USD

4.4 Payout of the prize money is solely handled by IEEE CIS Education Competition Subcommittee. The organizer is in no way liable or responsible for this process.

5. Liability for Defects

For damages incurred by the winner due to material defects and/or defects of title, the organizer shall only be liable in the event of malice, intent or gross negligence. Any other liability for material defects and/or defects of title is excluded.

6. Premature Termination

The organizer is entitled to terminate the competition prematurely at any time without prior notice and without giving reasons. This applies if a proper execution of the competition cannot be guaranteed for technical or legal reasons.

7. Data Protection

7.1 The organizer uses the data received from the participants within the scope of participation in the competition for the execution and handling of the competition. You can object to the storage and use of your data for this purpose at any time by sending a message to the organizers.

7.2 The organizer reserves the right to publish the name of the winner on the competition page, unless the winner has objected to this. This includes the snake alias, the competition ranking and statistics.

7.3 Upon written request to the organizer, the participant will be informed of the personal data stored about him/her and can correct this data.

7.4 Participants may be contacted after the competition and asked for a short, high-level overview of the methods used in their submission. This overview may be published in a scientific article after the competition has concluded. There is no obligation for participants to supply this information.

8. Applicable Law

The law of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply to all legal relationships between the parties. In the case of consumers, this choice of law shall only apply insofar as the protection granted by mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which the consumer has his habitual residence is not withdrawn.