AlphaStar: The inside story

In recent years, StarCraft, considered to be one of the most challenging Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games and one of the longest-played esports of all time, has emerged by consensus as a “grand challenge” for AI research. Our StarCraft II program AlphaStar is the first Artificial Intelligence to defeat a top professional player. In a series of test matches held on 19 December 2018, AlphaStar decisively beat Team Liquid’s Grzegorz “MaNa“ Komincz, one of the world’s strongest professional StarCraft players, 5