More than 100 projects and 48 hours of work – how was the first online hackathon #USGH
From August 7 to August 9, the PMHUB event hall hosted a two-day online Universal Sports & Games Hackathon (#USGH). AIN.UA talks about its participants and winners.
Universal Sports & Games Hackathon
Universal Sports & Games Hackathon (#USGH) — an online hackathon that lasted 48 hours. Gaming became its theme. Among the directions – games for all platforms, content services, tools for collecting and analyzing statistics, marketing solutions, extensions for social networks and much more.
The participants had the opportunity to find colleagues right during the hackathon or to apply with a team already formed. Each team was accompanied by mentors – they helped with the creation of the business model, project direction and decision making.
The hackathon was organized by the developer in the field of Gaming & Entertainment Parimatch Tech, together with the investment company JKR and with the support of Amazon Web Services and the startup accelerator Sector X.
Who took part
#USGH gathered 416 members who came up with 111 ideas. 58 teams started at the hackathon, of which 37 submitted projects, and 12 advanced to the final. Participants worked from various regions: Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Spain, etc. In total – 9 countries and 57 cities.
“The online hackathon was the first in our experience with a 48-hour engagement. All the efforts were worth it – the result exceeded expectations. Thanks to the virtual format, we were able to expand the boundaries of the hub, unite participants from different parts of the continent, and create so many cool ideas”, – Olga Safina, art director of the event hall PMHUB.
What projects became winners
Prizes at the hackathon were divided as follows:
3rd place, PixelGaming team – a mobile game in the MOBA genre (popular representatives are Dota 2 and League of Legends) with a clicker mechanic. Prize – $ 500.
2nd place, Narwhal – a tool for multi-character sports events, which works on the basis of a generative adversarial neural network. The user uploads a video (for example, a boxing fight) to the service and receives a picture stylized for a specific cartoon – for example, “SpongeBob”. Prize – $ 1000.
1st place, Dragon’s – RunOut, a runner-platformer game with logic elements, made in the stylization of pixel art. Prize – $ 1500.
“Before that we had an idea for the game and the first developments, but they were very raw. We decided to take part in the hackathon in order to bring the idea to a certain stage and, of course, get feedback. It was very important – thanks to the event, we understood what we were capable of. Plans for the near future are to continue developing the game. Now we have one biome (game world), we want to make 9 more and each will have 8-10 levels. We will also start negotiations with the publisher shortly”, – Mykola Ursatiy, Dragon’s team lead.
In addition, as part of the hackathon, some of the teams carried out challenges from the organizers. The teams Team B (an extension for viewing statistics of Dota 2 matches) and KodoKlyaksa (a service for analytics and forecasting sporting events) reached the final. Here the jury did not identify the winner, both teams received incentive $ 500. In addition, KodoKlyaksa will be awarded a special prize from JKR.
“In today’s world, even the most ingenious idea is not an asset. Therefore, partnership in such hackathons is a real event for JKR scouting. We are primarily interested in strong teams ready to implement ingenious ideas”, – Konstantin Karpalov, JKR Venture Manager.
JKR also singled out another finalist, Team PolyRef. The team has created a tool for collecting sports statistics in real-time using neural networks and computer vision algorithms. JKR stressed that the solution fits their criteria for investment attractiveness and invited the participants to negotiate.
“The hackathon was definitely a success: we gathered a lot of teams and ideas. I was pleasantly surprised by the versatility of solutions, it is always very interesting. In general, the level of the participants was very high. The winners are developers with already successful titles, they understand very well what they are doing and understand the industry in which they work. And nevertheless, they are ready to focus on a small task and solve it within the framework of the hackathon, investing time in their development. This is why we did the hackathon – to give active people the opportunity to realize their ideas”, – Stepan Shulga, director of the eSports direction of Parimatch.
Future plans
During the selection of the finalists, the judges made an unexpected decision: during this week they will once again look at all the ideas and give feedback to interesting projects. The results will be announced on August 19 at a special online event.
“In the hustle and bustle of the 48-hour selection, it was not only difficult to see the idea, but also to understand its potential. For example, our silver medalist is strong not so much in the solution here and now, but in technical potential. Therefore, I hope that we will be able to revise all the videos to see what the idea is now and, no less important, how it can be changed”, – CPO Parimatch Tech, Sergiy Berezhnoy.
“Looking ahead, we are now considering the format for launching quarterly challenges. We want to collect more working ideas with a large prize pool. We will consider solutions, provide acceleration capabilities and invite you to Parimatch Tech infrastructure. Competent implementation of this idea can serve as an additional channel for recruiting talented Ukrainian specialists”, – summed up the company’s plans Ivan Bilash, R&D manager at Parimatch Tech.
The organizers note that in the future they will regularly hold events of this format.
“This is the first, but definitely not the last event of this format for Parimatch. We position ourselves as a technology company, and hackathons are a logical continuation of our development. It is a rewarding educational process that we value. Therefore, the company will strive to help active people in the implementation of their ideas”, – Stepan Shulga.
Source: ain.ua
