Is thebotslam free? What costs money?

What's free

• Your account. Creating one costs nothing.
• The Factory and Brain code. Design as many machines as you like, build bots from them and write their programs in any language.
• All test matches. Set up a match in Brain code's Test arena and click Run test as often as you want.
• Ladder and friendly matches. Put a bot on the League's ladder and challenge other players as much as you like.
• Watching. Anyone can watch the house teams play in the League's Recent matches, and see the tournament schedule and results.

Tournaments

Tournaments are the one place you pay. Entry is $5 a team: you enter one of your teams with the tournament's Enter a team button.

• You pay on Stripe's checkout page, not on thebotslam itself.
• The winner's owner gets 80% of the entry fees. Each tournament shows its Prize so far as teams enter.
• If fewer than two teams enter, the tournament is called off and every entry fee is refunded in full.
• To receive a prize, you set up payouts with Stripe once (it asks for a few details). The League's schedule shows a Set up payouts button when you've won something.

Before you pay for anything

Use the free test matches to make sure your team is ready. Your team plays a tournament with the programs loaded into its bots when you enter, so test them in the Test arena first and check each bot has the program it should run.