

BelKor has allegedly won Netflix Prize despite being second on the leaderboard - vang3lis
http://www.netflixprize.com/community/viewtopic.php?pid=9237#p9237

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jacquesm
an .0001 difference would seem to me to be 'too close to call' and a reason to
reopen and let both teams work for another 30 days to get to a larger than .1
difference.

Just like in ping-pong, extend the game if it is that close until there is a
clear winner.

With a winner takes all contest like this there has to be a clear winner.

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davidw
Winner takes all contests seem to be zero sum games to me, in a certain sense.
The pie is a fixed size, and one guy gets all of it. I think I'd rather sink
my time into business or open source stuff.

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halo
Saying a winner-takes-all contest is "zero sum" in any sense is utterly
nonsensical, as it's clearly not zero sum since one group wins $1,000,000.

Also, "one guy" doesn't necessarily get all of it, as team co-operation is
implicitly encouraged as it increases the chances of winning. Additionally,
the game is strictly skill-based, so the more skilled you are the more likely
you are to win, which may encourage you to work in the contest. And that's
excluding all the additional externalities involved.

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jibiki
> Saying a winner-takes-all contest is "zero sum" in any sense is utterly
> nonsensical

I thought that zero sum just meant that the total score of all players is a
constant, regardless of the strategies chosen?

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joshfinnie
A contest like this one (with such a large prize at stake) should have seen
this coming and instituted a different rule for their deadline. Something like
"24 hours after the last submission." Therefore you wouldn't have someone
sniping the win like it seems has happened.

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Herring
But this isn't an auction. You can't just conjure up a better result once you
know you've been surpassed. Belkor etc was probably working just as hard all
month & the ensemble just got lucky.

