2010 Scripting Games • Technodrone

The 2010 Scripting Games are over and the results have been posted here. The scripting games is a fun little competition - well not so little. Similar to a decathlon there are 10 Events, published over the period of about 2 weeks. A huge amount of work goes into the logistics of the whole competition. Preparing the events,finding people (judges) to go over the huge amount of scripts that are submitted and grading them and so on ..

Well I really enjoyed the Games this year. Each event presented a problem that needed to be solved with a script, be it Powershell or VBScript (the amount of VBScript submissions this year were really low - which means more and more people are going over to Powershell). There were two levels - Advanced and Beginner. Now of course the criteria for grading was published and were very clear, including due dates.

From the Final Standings, I see I came in at #33 (out of 177)

Personally - I am extremely proud of my achievement, seeing that I only really started getting into Powershell only about 18 months ago. I decided to only participate in the Beginner level only - I did not submit any scripts for the advanced level

Glenn Sizemore - the winner of the contest - posted a round up of the games on his blog.

I would like to add a few more observations of my own.

I really liked the idea of presenting the events as a real world problem that needs to be solved - this added a sense of how you can use the script in your every day work.
I would separate the winners into the two different categories. A winner list for Beginner and one for Advanced Events.
People who submit entries for the Advanced Level - are people that know how to use Powershell. So the beginner events are easy for them to solve, sometimes too easy. I mean it is like putting a heavyweight boxer and a featherweight together in a ring - and expecting them to be more or less equal. - they are not - and should not be. Each should perform best in their category.
Contestants should not be able to enter both categories. Why? Well take Glenn’s score for example - he scored 81.89 (out of a possible 100) - why? Because he (and many others) submitted solutions for both categories. So of course their score was much higher than the others.
In order to win the competition then you would have to submit for both categories, otherwise you would not have a chance at 1st place.
If the contestants were to have to choose one category (and I would suggest that the Advanced category have better prizes to pull people to that category) which will make it more reflective of what the actual achievements were - quality and not quantity.

I am still going over all the solutions that are being published for each event. I am pleased to say that I am still learning things each time that I can use in my Powershell scripts - so I am happy.

I would like to thank all the judges, the contestants, and most of all - the organizers, Ed Wilson and Craig Liebendorfer.

Congratulations to all the prize winners!!

My solutions for the Beginner Events:

See you all the the [Scripting Games 2011](Monday, April 4, 2011, through Friday, April 15, 2011), Monday, April 4, 2011, through Friday, April 15, 2011 !!