Eyewire Competition Updates for 2023
HQ is counting down to 2023, and with the new year has come one of our semi-annual adjustments to our competitions on Eyewire! This is a simpler update than some, but if you like participating in as many competitions as you can, please have a gander at the following to see how plans are changing. Our aim once again is to focus on the events where we have the best engagement and otherwise to streamline certain things to account for our team’s and certain players’ commitments to other Seung Lab projects. Of course, even with those factors involved, we hope you’ll have a great time with what we’ve laid out!
Monthly VS Updates
Monthly VS face-offs are making a comeback! Outside of challenge weeks, you can expect a 48 hour VS during the last full week of the month, on the Monday through Wednesday. Expect these VS themes to be… colorful. 😉 Please note, however, that explanatory/reminder blog posts about VS events are discontinued for the time being, so check your notifications directly on Eyewire to see whether there’s a live VS to join. You may also still see reminders on Facebook.
If you’d like to plan ahead, these specific dates are our anticipated VS windows in non-challenge week months:
January 23-25
March 27-29
April 24-26
June 26-28
July 24-26
September 25-27
Marathons: Now a Challenge Week Exclusive
Monthly marathons are, at last, being discontinued because of the amount of advanced player participation required and how our research directives at the moment need maximum advanced player involvement on FlyWire when possible. That said, never fear, you will still get to do marathons a few times a year during challenge weeks! (See below.)
What to Expect for Other Competition Events
The rest of our competition calendar should be familiar to you, as we’re making no notable changes. Happy Hours will still be happening three times a week (8 AM Thursdays, 2 & 10 PM Fridays), with Accuracy Happy Hours still applying to generally the second-to-last week of the month. Challenge weeks (with all their usual components) will still take place at the end of February, May, and August, with a special end-of-year event to cover October-December; and during these major multi-day competitions, you can still expect full blog posts with detailed information and in-depth science lessons or narrative journeys!
Other Updates Possible
Although it’s reasonably likely that the above schedule will hold, sometimes science moves slowly and sometimes it moves very fast; therefore, while we’ll provide maximum notice if we need to change what we’re doing, consider this advanced warning that changes are always possible depending on what our research goals become over the course of this next year. Thanks for your patience and flexibility with past changes!
As usual, if you have any questions or concerns about these new developments, please feel free to contact the GMs either in chat or by e-mailing support@eyewire.org. We’ll catch you again after New Year’s! For science!