Prizes
The winning team and runner-up teams are announced shortly after the close of the competition window.
Historically, the top three winning UK teams have received prize money. However to encourage wider participation we now split the prize money into 3 categories: UK region 1 non-selective, UK region 2 non-selective and UK selective (grammar, independent or coding clubs). For non-selective schools, Region 1 is defined to be latitude 52 degrees North and above with Region 2 below this latitude. Google Maps can be used to find your latitude by right-clicking: Bletchley Park lies almost exactly on the 52 degrees North line!
For each category, winning Round 2 teams will receive £150, second place teams £90 and third place teams £60 to split between team members.
The names and school of the winning team from each category will be inscribed on the physical Braben Cup, which will remain at The Perse School. Photographic mementos of the inscribed cup will be digitally sent to the winning school.
Please note that whilst international schools can participate in both rounds of the competition and receive digital certificates, the prize money and cup inscription is reserved for UK teams only.
Competition Prize Restrictions
Geographical
UK only. (International schools may register to sit the competition and receive digital certificate awards, but final prize money/Braben Cup eligibility is only open to teams of UK students, who are also sitting the competition in the UK).
Ages
All students must be in Years 7-11 (Scotland P7-S4). International students should use the student’s age on 1 September (for example, age 14 would be in Year 10).
Technical
Submissions must be made online to the competition coding site, hosted on pctc.cuttle.org and strictly invigilated by a teacher.
The promoter’s full name and business address:
The Perse School, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 8QF
Our Sponsor
This competition is sponsored by Dr David Braben OBE. David has kindly donated the Braben Cup trophy and also provides the annual prize money.
David is a British game developer, game designer, founder and CEO of Frontier Developments, co-creator of the Elite series, space trading computer games, which was first published in 1984. He is also a co-founder of and works as a trustee for the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
David has been called “one of the most influential computer game programmers of all time” (The Telegraph, 2014), based on his early game development with the Elite series. David was appointed an OBE in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to the UK computer and video games industry. In 2015, David was awarded the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award in video gaming at the British Academy Games Awards.
Register for the competition
A supervising teacher does not require any coding expertise to host this competition at their school.
All you need to do is sign up to our teacher mailing list, recruit your school teams, encourage practice with the material provided and arrange an invigilation session within the competition window.
