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11.3 - Joining the Research Community

Having progressed through this documentation, you have moved beyond being a user of python-sc2 to become a practitioner of StarCraft II AI. The final and most rewarding step in this journey is to evolve from a practitioner into a contributor.

The StarCraft II AI ecosystem is a dynamic, collaborative community of competitors, open-source developers, and academic researchers. Your skills are now at a level where you can begin to contribute to and help advance the state of the art.

Avenues of Engagement​

There are three primary paths for contributing to the community, each vital to its health and growth.

AvenueYour RoleHow You Contribute to the Ecosystem
The CompetitorYou design and refine the strongest possible bots for competitive play on the SC2 AI Arena ladder.By uploading novel and powerful agents, you advance the strategic "meta," providing new challenges and invaluable replay data for community-wide analysis.
The Open-Source DeveloperYou improve the foundational tools and libraries that the entire community depends on.You contribute directly to the BurnySc2/python-sc2 repository by fixing bugs, implementing new features, improving documentation, or building new community tools like replay analyzers.
The ResearcherYou use StarCraft II as a formal research environment to explore novel AI architectures and publish your findings.You read, reproduce, and build upon existing work from arXiv and Google Scholar, and submit your own discoveries to academic conferences like AIIDE or IEEE CoG.

The Community Flywheel​

These avenues are not isolated; they are deeply interconnected, creating a virtuous cycle where progress in one area accelerates progress in all others.

       +---------------------------------+
       |         The Competitor          |
       |  (Innovates strategy,           |
       |   generates high-quality data)  |
       +---------------+-----------------+
                       |
         Provides data |         Inspires new
           and ideas   |         research questions
                       v
+----------------------+-------------------+     Improves tools for     +----------------------+-------------------+
|      The Researcher                      |<--------------------------|    The Open Source Developer             |
| (Publishes new algorithms and techniques)|                          | (Improves libraries and creates new tools)|
+------------------------------------------+-------------------------->+------------------------------------------+
                                              Provides better platforms
                                              for implementing research

Your First Steps as a Contributor​

Your journey as a contributor can begin today. Here is a simple checklist to get started.

  • 1. Join the Conversation: Become an active participant in the #python channel on the SC2 AI Arena Discord. Start by answering a question from a newer developer. Teaching is a powerful way to solidify your own knowledge.
  • 2. Upload Your Bot: Package one of the bots you've built (even a simple one) and upload it to the ladder. The data from its first few games will give you immediate, valuable feedback.
  • 3. Read a Paper: Find one research paper on arXiv related to StarCraft II AI and read its abstract and conclusion. Start building your familiarity with the language and concepts of formal AI research.
  • 4. Explore on GitHub: Find one public bot repository on GitHub. Look through its "Issues" tab to see what kinds of challenges its developer is facing.

By taking these small, concrete steps, you transition from a passive learner to an active member of a vibrant research and development community. Welcome.