Feel free to answer as many questions as you like, but it would be great if everyone answered everything! Please feel free to provide external references/links as necessary Bot Name: HITA Bot Race: Zerg Author Name(s): Hiroto Takino Affiliation(s): University of Electro-Communications Nationality(s): Japan Occupation(s): university student Q: How did you become interested in Starcraft AI? A: I knew my professor's introduction. I played Starcraft and I interested in Starcraft AI! Q: How long have you been working on your bot? A: I started developing HITA in July. I started playing Starcraft and reading some code in April. Q: About how many lines of code is your bot? A: About 3000 lines. Q: Why did you choose the race of your bot? A: I had no time I can develop so I want to win in short time. I thought zergling rush is very useful for my thinking. Q: Did you use any existing code as the basis for your bot? If so, why, and what did you change? A: I read UAlbertabot because it is 2013 AI Competition's champion. Q: What is the overall strategy/strategies of your bot? Why did you choose them? A: I chose zergling rush but it is not the fastest production. I explained about this reason. Q: Do you incorporate learning of any form in your bot? If so, how was it accomplished? A: I didn't use learning. Q: Do you use any interesting AI techniques or algorithms in your bot? If so, which? A: I didn't use any special algorithms. Q: What do you feel are the strongest and weakest parts of your bot's overall performance? A: I think my bot can win if an opponent is not quick bot. But I think my bot can't win if an opponent is quick bot and my bot has many bugs. Q: If you competed in previous tournaments, what did you change for this year's entry? A: I didn't participate in 2013 Competition. Q: Have you tested your bot against humans? If so, how did it go? A: I didn't. Q: Any fun or interesting stories about the development / testing of your bot? A: Um... To my surprise, my professor sugested in July so my schedule very very hard and I submited in middle of debug. Q: Any other projects you're working on that you'd like to advertise? A: I don't have any other projects. Optional Opinion Questions: Q: What is your opinion on the current state of StarCraft AI? How long do you think before computers can beat humans in a best-of-7 match? A: In my opinion, current state is good but I want more bots to paticipate. I don't know the latter question. Q: What do you feel is the biggest hurdle (technological or otherwise) in improving your bot's AI? A: Now, I can't use game commands such as larva's morph well. For example, morph command don't work well in middle of game. Q: Which bots are the most interesting to you and why? A: I don't see replays because I am busy now but I interested in IceBot, Ximp and LetaBot. I think it is difficult to win over 80 %.