AWS DeepRacer Championships 2023: Celebrating 5 years of racing

It’s a wrap on the 2023 Season of DeepRacer. Let’s have a look at how the finals have played out.

67 racers came to Las Vegas from 28 countries showed up for the racing this year. Some came in person, some couldn’t, and the AWS DeepRacer Community has worked with AWS to make sure they could. To us AWS re:Invent is about learning, networking and fun, but it all is based on top of the community.

But in the end it is a competition, and the winner gets $20,000 cash prize, so let’s see how that has worked out. Below you will find a brief summary of each even of the championships.

AWS DeepRacer

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Round 1

On Monday Morning we have met at the Brooklyn Bowl for the first stage of the competition. This year we started with a virtual race. This allowed to have six parallel races running, one for each of the regions. Top five racers from each region qualified to round 2.

While we’ve seen virtual races happening all year, this has proved to be a challenge to some finalists, especially those who qualified through physical races at AWS Summits.

Below are results for each region:

Asia Pacific

Rank	Racer	Country	Time
1 Q	CodeMachine	AU	21.731
2 Q	TonyJ	NZ	21.798
3 Q	Version-Infinite	AU	22.197
4 Q	JPMC-SmartAccelerators-HYD	IN	22.734
5 Q	patelaniket	IN	23.063
6	RayG-DBS	SG	23.137
7	Deepak-dpk	IN	23.402
8	BSi	ID	24.002
9	RobinCastro-DBS	SG	24.663
10	kashi	JP	26.47
11	PITS-2	JP	39.802
12	m45	JP	50.207

Europe

Rank	Racer	Country	Time
1 Q	DBro	GB	21.743
2 Q	MattCamp	FR	21.867
3 Q	Duckworth	DE	22.065
4 Q	Ensono-Ernesto	GB	22.131
5 Q	Marco-Eviden	GB	22.134
6	JPMC-London-Griffc	GB	22.136
7	IcePandaBoom	FI	22.2
8	Eviden-Mark-Ross	GB	22.399
9	DaVinciDriver	NL	22.593
10	LeadingAI	CA	22.799
11	Jochem	NL	23.331
12	Rober-rNiubo	ES	23.867
13	JPMC-LONDON-HandsFree	GB	24.727
14	ZoD	CH	26.264

Middle East & Africa

Rank	Racer	Country	Time
1 Q	Echo1911	CN	24.935
2 Q	XMaroRadoX	EG	26.001
3 Q	FiatLux	LU	27.466
4 Q	JPMC-RacingRhino-SG	SG	28.136
5 Q	mericex	TR	32.596
6	sivas	TR	32.996
7	Yuliya	KZ	37.129
8	SilEye	SN	41.933
9	Gr1zzli3	UG	50.398
10	WernerOscar	GH	54.136

Greater China Region

Rank	Racer	Country	Time
1 Q	CYC-NYCU	TW	21.267
2 Q	dcongtinh	TW	21.477
3 Q	Yi-LI-NYCU-CGI	TW	21.666
4 Q	BennyLBS	CN	22.733
5 Q	nickyl	CN	22.995
6	Ele1	CN	23.005
7	DecisionTransformer	TW	23.53
8	Hins	CN	23.594
9	LIZHI	HK	24.337
10	MadCross	CN	24.531
11	HK-WilliamLeung	HK	42.67

North America

Rank	Racer	Country	Time
1 Q	rosscomp1	US	20.333
2 Q	JJ	CA	20.942
3 Q	Off-track	US	21.732
4 Q	ferrite	US	22.14
5 Q	AJM-Model-1	US	22.334
6	PolishThunder	US	22.337
7	JPMC-Rogue-COL	US	22.411
8	AIDeepRacer	US	22.609
9	DoomBuggy	US	22.665
10	Jerec	US	22.867
11	JPMC-C0nf1ckr3	US	25.601
12	raj-1205	CA	48.597

South America

Rank	Racer	Country	Time
1 Q	JPMC-BA-MiguelG	AR	24.134
2 Q	JPMC-Speedy-Gonzales-LATAM	CL	24.867
3 Q	MattKreder	AR	25.395
4 Q	JPMC-BA-D3	AR	25.671
5 Q	C3R0	CO	35.929
6	DelarMonst	CO	38.732
7	londoso-monst	CO	51.062
8	DaeMonst	CO	62.803

Wildcard race

In the evening there was a chance to grab the last two places to join the qualifying 30. All the non-finalists have had a tough challenge ahead, having to race with many of the Round-1-eliminated racers. And indeed, while a third of participants did not participate in round one and some of them had pretty competitive times such as F1DevelopersIO, it was LIZHI (杜键文, Jianwen Du) and Jerec (Daniel Morgan) who have proven they had more to show in Las Vegas.

Overall, we have seen 31 racers from 10 countries on 4 continents participate in the wildcard race, here are their results:

Rank	Racer	Country	Fastest Lap Time	Average Time	Lap completion ration	Attempts
1 Q	LIZHI	CN	13.788	21.989	100.0%	1
2 Q	Jerec	US	14.112	21.401	100.0%	1
3	rogue0197	US	14.248	15.99	100.0%	1
4	F1DevelopersIO	JP	14.574	22.895	80.0%	1
5	MadCross	CN	14.726	20.504	100.0%	1
6	EvidenMarkRoss	GB	15.257	21.456	100.0%	1
7	jcron	US	18.155	27.407	100.0%	1
8	conficker	US	18.367	32.295	80.0%	1
9	Atp6379	US	19.016	25.438	100.0%	1
10	skarlekar	US	21.105	30.853	100.0%	1
11	Berbbobs	GB	21.313	26.837	100.0%	1
12	Hins	CN	21.798	30.647	100.0%	1
13	aha	CN	22.272	27.391	100.0%	1
14	BSi	ID	22.835	30.066	100.0%	1
15	RayG	SG	22.847	26.154	100.0%	1
16	AIDeepRacer	US	23.53	32.862	100.0%	1
17	DT	TW	23.75	31.484	100.0%	1
18	PolishThunder	US	24.089	36.753	100.0%	1
19	paradesi	US	24.238	29.445	40.0%	1
20	Shan	US	26.695	36.105	100.0%	1
21	robincastro	SG	26.695	30.046	100.0%	1
22	kashi	JP	27.023	32.943	100.0%	1
23	JPMCLondonGriffc	GB	27.149	44.063	100.0%	1
24	PITS_2	JP	28.711	47.425	100.0%	1
25	leadingai	CA	33.725	38.025	100.0%	1
26	londoso_monst	CO	34.458	38.661	100.0%	1
27	m45	JP	36.767	42.527	80.0%	1
28	andreology	US	37.047	45.162	100.0%	1
29	makit	GB	42.283	52.606	100.0%	1
30	maarten	US	45.303	55.797	70.0%	1
31	IcePandaBoom	FI	57.527	57.773	100.0%	1

Thanks to the DeepRacer Event Manager, here are some wildcard race stats:

Total laps: 125
Total resets: 255
Avg resets per lap: 2.0
Avg laps per race: 4.0
Avg lap time: 00:30.746
Fastest lap time: 00:13.788
Slowest lap time: 01:11.063
Number of unique racers: 31
Number of races: 31
Most races by user: 1
Avg no. of races by users: 1.0

Round 2

32 Racers competed over two days. Each of the racers had two runs in which they were attempting to get the best time. In this round however, the times that mattered weren’t fastest laps. The result was taking three consecutive laps into account, calculating the average time. For instance, if the racer completed six laps, the best of average over laps 1-3, 2-4, 3-5 and 4-6 is their final result.

Let me just mention here how smooth the whole racing was at the Expo this year. A lot of attention has been dedicated to ensure good flow of the competition and on both days racers were done with their runs before time which in turn allowed non-competitive racers to have a bit more practice on the track, and that was highly appreciated.

The new timing format turned out to be much kinder to the cars and the pit crew. Having off tracks was so costly that racers did not risk pushing the limits unless the model showed sufficient stability. And even with that results were very impressive. Here they are:

Rank	Racer	Country	Fastest Lap Time	Fastest Average Time	Lap completion ration	Attempts
1 Q	rosscomp1	US	14.212	14.574	100.0%	2
2 Q	DBro	GB	13.489	14.633	100.0%	2
3 Q	FiatLux	LU	14.473	14.791	100.0%	2
4 Q	ILEE	TW	14.384	15.3	100.0%	2
5 Q	JPMC-HYD-SmartAccelerators	IN	14.873	15.566	100.0%	2
6 Q	nickyl	CN	15.281	15.628	100.0%	2
7 Q	Jerec	US	15.432	15.745	100.0%	2
8 Q	LIZHI	CN	14.938	15.911	100.0%	2
9	Echo1911	CN	14.788	15.952	100.0%	2
10	CodeMachine	AU	16.245	16.625	100.0%	2
11	Duckworth	DE	16.719	17.22	100.0%	2
12	aniketvp24	IN	15.846	17.311	100.0%	2
13	jcoronelcortes	CL	16.805	17.339	100.0%	2
14	AJM-Model-1	US	15.168	17.873	100.0%	2
15	dcongtinh	TW	17.266	18.594	100.0%	2
16	JJ	CA	14.421	19.286	100.0%	2
17	mgugliatto	AR	18.494	19.585	100.0%	2
18	kadermeera	SG	17.906	19.776	100.0%	2
19	YuchengChen	TW	17.835	20.633	100.0%	2
20	JPMCBAD3	AR	18.358	20.746	100.0%	2
21	BennyLBS	CN	15.735	20.793	100.0%	2
22	OffTrack	US	18.745	22.282	100.0%	2
23	Ernesto	GB	18.872	22.299	100.0%	2
24	TonyJ	NZ	17.506	23.306	100.0%	2
25	VersionInfinite	AU	20.363	24.129	100.0%	2
26	C3RO	CO	21.67	24.876	100.0%	2
27	marcoeviden	GB	27.338	27.86	100.0%	2
28	MattCamp	FR	19.987	28.097	100.0%	2
29	MattKreder	AR	28.77	29.432	100.0%	2
30	XMaroRadoX	EG	31.285	35.032	100.0%	2
31	ferrite	US	23.411	40.642	100.0%	2
32	mericex	TR	DNS	DNS	DNS	0

Here are the stats:

Total laps: 347
Total resets: 293
Avg resets per lap: 0.8
Avg laps per race: 5.6
Avg lap time: 00:23.076
Fastest lap time: 00:13.489
Slowest lap time: 01:12.551
Number of unique racers: 36 (involves some practice runs not recorded above)
Number of races: 62
Most races by user: 2
Avg no. of races by users: 1.7

Round 3 & The Final

Once the top eight racers have been established the championships have entered the deciding phase involving a double elimination bracket. Racers have been joined in competing pairs in which each racer had two runs, first runs were ordered based on the seeding and the second ones based on the times in first runs. If the slower racer would not improve in the second run, the faster racer would be through without theirs.

The top eight has had a great combination of racers:

rosscomp1 – Ross has been racing for quite a while and always on top level. After dominating the virtual racing and winning in rounds one in North America and round two, expectations were set very high
DBro – just like Ross, he’s always presented solid results both virtually and physically. While second in round two, Darren’s best lap was much faster
FiatLux – Joussef was the Accenture Wildcard racer who could not come to Las Vegas and was raced through a proxy racer, his colleague Doug Wozniak. Apparently Joussef was not expecting to make it to round two and trained his model after the Monday round one results
ILEE (Yi-LI-NYCU-CGI, 李頤) – last year’s title defender. While the NYCU students did not dominate the physical racing this year, qualifying form the fourth spot and with the third fastest lap is a clear statement of abilities
JPMC-HYD-SmartAccelerators – representing JPMC, Tarun was the only racer to make it through both rounds of the championship for his company. He also qualified through the Mumbai summit which proved he had a lot to show
NickyL – Yaojin Liang, Nicky, has managed to go much farther compared to 2022. Having to stay home last year and only being able to participate as a proxy has clearly increased his appetite for the title
Jerec – Daniel has stumbled in round one but corrected course in the wildcard race and topped it in round two
LIZHI – 杜键文 (Jianwen Du) completed the final eight just like Daniel, showing that the wildcard race is a gateway for amazing racers to have one last try if virtual holds them back. LIZHI also could not come in person and raced through a proxy racer, Yiwei Huang.

The competition was fierce and many races required all four runs to determine the winner. In the end we reached the three last racers:

DBro
FiatLux
JPMC-HYD-SmartAccelerators

Final 8 stats:

Total laps: 215
Total resets: 164
Avg resets per lap: 0.8
Avg laps per race: 6.0
Avg lap time: 00:21.018
Fastest lap time: 00:13.854
Slowest lap time: 01:24.141
Number of unique racers: 8
Number of races: 36
Most races by user: 6
Avg no. of races by users: 4.5

The Final

The final was carried out in the same format as in 2022. Each racer was given one lap to complete with a running start. No retries, no retakes, no second laps. If there’s a reset, chances for a fast lap are ruined.

Thanks to the wonders of technology, let’s enjoy the final as it unfolded:

AWS DeepRacer Championships 2023 final

What an amazing final. FiatLux, racing for the first time, as a proxy, beating the track record in the final single lap of the tournament, has become the 2023 AWS DeepRacer League Champion, grabing the winner trophy and $20,000 prize. Congratulations Youssef, and see you in Las Vegas in 2024!

Let’s just finish this write-up with the winners ceremony:

And here are the final stats:

Total laps: 3
Total resets: 2
Avg resets per lap: 0.7
Avg laps per race: 1.0
Avg lap time: 00:17.613
Fastest lap time: 00:13.393
Slowest lap time: 00:21.145
Number of unique racers: 3
Number of races: 3
Most races by user: 1
Avg no. of races by users: 1.0

The Community

Sure, in the end someone will take the first prize, the trophy and all the bragging rights. And sure, I might sound a little bit as if what I am trying to say is because I’m too bad at racing to actually compete. But to me the best thing about AWS DeepRacer is the community. We get to celebrate each other’s accomplishments, share learnings, support the new curious minds. We try really hard to support those who could not be there in person and enjoy every second of being together and share the excitement of an amazing show put on hand in hand by the AWS DeepRacer Pit Crew and the racers.

And this is not all. I bring to you the on last show by the top four racers:

Summary

It’s amazing what we have achieved since 2018. We’ve just had our 45,000th community member, the racing keeps getting better, more and more new approaches to competing and learning keep popping up.

Now it’s time to give the proven and cherished EC2s and home computers a well deserver rest. As we approach the end of year, new question to answer is: who will join Youssef (and Daryl Jezierski, more on that in another post) in the fight for the 2024 AWS DeepRacer League title?

Will you?