Conditions of Participation

"Beat the AutoML System" leaderboard competition · IJCAI 2026

1. Organizer

The competition ("Gewinnspiel") is organized by the L3S Research Center at Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, a corporation under public law, Welfengarten 1, 30167 Hannover, Germany ("the Organizer"). Contact: m.lindauer@ai.uni-hannover.de. These conditions are governed by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany.

2. Participation period

The competition runs from August 15, 2026, 00:00 to August 19, 2026, 12:00 noon (local time at the IJCAI 2026 conference venue). Only scores submitted to the public leaderboard within this window are eligible for a prize. The Organizer reserves the right to end the competition early or extend it for objectively justified reasons (e.g. technical malfunction); any such change will be announced on this page.

3. How to participate

Participation is free of charge; no purchase of any product or service is required.
Register in the game with your name, email address, and affiliation, and give consent to the processing of these details for organizing the competition.
Each person may participate once. If multiple scores are submitted under the same email address, only the highest score counts; registering multiple times under different email addresses to gain additional entries is not permitted and may lead to exclusion.
Ranking is determined automatically by the score displayed on the public leaderboard at the close of the participation period.

4. Prizes

Ranks 1–3: a plush toy each
Ranks 4–10: a keyring each

There is no entitlement to a cash alternative or to a different prize. Prizes are not transferable to a third party.

5. Winner announcement & prize collection

Winners will be announced in person at our IJCAI 2026 booth, "Northern AI Research Alliance," on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, at 1:00 pm.

Prizes are only handed out at this announcement. If a winner is not present in person at the stated time and location, their claim to the prize lapses. No shipping, later collection, or other substitute arrangement will be offered.

6. Eligibility & exclusion

Everyone may play the game and appear on the public leaderboard. However, members and staff of the L3S Research Center are not eligible to win a prize, even if they rank in the top 10; in that case, the prize goes to the next eligible participant on the leaderboard.

The Organizer further reserves the right to exclude participants from the prize draw, or to disqualify submitted scores, where there is reasonable indication of manipulation, automated play, exploitation of technical bugs, or other unfair means of influencing the leaderboard.

7. Data protection

Name, email address, and affiliation are collected solely to run the competition (ranking, contacting/identifying winners) and are processed under GDPR based on the consent given at registration. Email addresses are never shown on the public leaderboard. For full details, see the Privacy Policy.

8. Legal recourse

The determination of the ranking and of winners is final. Legal recourse ("der Rechtsweg") regarding the conduct of the competition and the selection of winners is excluded; this does not affect any statutory rights that cannot be excluded by agreement.

Questions about this competition? Contact m.lindauer@ai.uni-hannover.de.