Competitions: The Master Guide

eyewire competitions, eyewire, competition iconFor some time now, Eyewire has been holding competitions. Here is an overview of competition formats, how to participate, and past competition results. Feel free to keep this post bookmarked so you can check something if you’re confused, or should you simply need to answer the burning question of who won the great battle of T-Rex vs. Velociraptor.

Please note that as of 2020, this event schedule is new!

VS Competitions

Each VS competition is held every the second full week of the month, from Monday at 11:00 AM Eastern to Wednesday at 11:00 AM Eastern. When signups are running, select a team in your notification popup, then you’ll be registered; you can change teams up until the competition has actually started. Averaged points per player are how we determine which team wins.

Happy Hours

These weekly challenges began by happening every Friday from 2:00 to 4:00 PM Eastern. Learn the full rules here. We then added Happy Hour 180 for our players on the opposite side of the globe from HQ; Happy Hour 180 runs every Thursday from 8:00 to 10:00 AM Eastern. And now, most recently, we have added HH3 (“Happy Hour Cubed”) on Fridays for those folks playing Eyewire from 10:00 PM to midnight Eastern. Enrollment for all of these events is automatic.

Accuracy Happy Hours

All three weekly Happy Hour events convert to Accuracy Happy Hours every third week of the month. During this time, you still earn normal Happy Hour bonuses, but the following Monday you will also receive special badges and bonuses for how accurately you traced.

Marathons

Every month there is a 24-hour period for all Eyewirers to focus together on speed-growing one cell and then finishing as many other existing cells as possible. This falls every fourth full week of the month, from Wednesday to Thursday. Start times vary by month:

  • January: Marathon starts at 8 PM US Eastern
  • February: Marathon starts at 8 AM
  • March: Marathon starts at 2 PM
  • April: Marathon starts at 8 PM
  • May: Marathon starts at 8 AM
  • June: Marathon starts at 2 PM
  • July: Marathon starts at 8 PM
  • August: Marathon starts at 8 AM
  • September: Marathon starts at 2 PM
  • December: Marathon starts at 8 PM

During the marathon, you receive bonuses based on how many cubes you trace. Enrollment for this event is automatic.

Challenge Weeks

Now on a quarterly basis, we hold a series of thematically linked challenges with a simple storyline behind them. This began with the Eyewire Winter Games to commemorate the 2014 Winter Olympics, eventually followed by the Chemical Z competition for Halloween that year. With the help of our own players, we have now developed these events into more regular occurrences. Challenge events usually include Accuracy Happy Hours, a Hunt, Trivia, a VS Challenge, and a Marathon. Some events work just like they always do, but the Hunt and Trivia only happen during challenge weeks.

  • The Hunt: HQ launches a special cell with 12 mergers; players have 24 guesses to send a chat bot about where they think the mergers are located. Bonuses are allocated based on how many mergers a player finds and how close their coordinates were. Full Hunt rules and guidelines can be found here. A few Scythes typically assist with preparing the Hunt cell.
  • Trivia: For just over 48 hours, a chat bot asks questions on the hour (and every two minutes in the last hour). These questions may be about neuroscience, other science topics, Eyewire facts, or topics related to the challenge week’s theme. Bonuses are allocated based on the first three players to answer correctly, or in the case of numerical questions, how close to the correct number someone guessed.

Our challenge weeks used to involve an event called Evil Cubes, but this has now been transitioned into a separately scheduled educational activity.

Bracket/Elimination Tournaments

With the beta Eyewire Cup in 2014, a full-blown version in 2018, and the 12 Days of Grim-mas in 2019, we have experimented in how to compete with VS tournaments just like for sporting events. These events are irregularly scheduled but, like others, will be publicized widely before they begin.

Past VS Competitions

You can view the results of previous VS competitions in the “VS” category here on our blog!

Past Challenge Weeks & Brackets/Elimination Rounds

1. The EyeWire Winter Games (February 7-23, 2014)
2. Chemical Z (October 24-30, 2014)
3. Titan Wars (January 15-23, 2015)
4. The Great Spring Creature Feature (March 20-27, 2015)
5. The Wizard of Neuropia (May 22-29, 2015)
6. Camp Eyewire (July 24-31, 2015)
7. Time Travel (September 24-October 2, 2015)
8. Mecha Santa vs. Werewolves (December 3-11, 2015)
9. Eyewire Hero (February 19-25, 2016)
10. Space Dinosaurs (April 22-29, 2016)
11. Cap’n Grim’s Treasure (June 24-July 1, 2016)
12. Eyewire Summer Games (August 19-26, 2016)
13. Whodunnit? (October 21-28, 2016)
14. Candyworld (December 9-16, 2016)
15. Skywire: A Steampunk Adventure (February 17-24, 2017)
16. Neuroquest (April 21-28, 2017)
17. Mystics Rising (June 23-30, 2017)
18. Operation Spywire (August 18-25, 2017)
19. Grim’s Haunted Mansion (October 20-27, 2017)
20. A Visit From St. Grim (December 8-15, 2017)
21. Eyewire Winter Games 2018 (February 16-23, 2018)
22. Alice in Neuroland (April 20-27, 2018)
23. Eyewire Cup (June 25-July 13, 2018) — special bracket tournament, with Trivia & Hunt as well
24. Eyewire Zoo (August 24-31, 2018)
25. Grim’s Haunted Carnival (October 19-26, 2018)
26. How the Grimch Stole Eyewire (December 14-21, 2018)
27. Undersea Odyssey (February 15-22, 2019)
28. Night at the Eyewire Museum (April 19-26, 2019)
29. The Great Galactic Voyage (June 21-28, 2019)
30. Eyewire Academy (August 23-30, 2019)
31. Grim’s Trick or Treat (October 18-25, 2019)
32. The 12 Days of Grim-mas (December 9-20, 2019) — special elimination round tournament, with Trivia included

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