In the interest of science, I ran 10 more simulations with our submitted population. This is not to open a can of worms or to challenge the results in any way - we all knew we had to win on the first try!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mSqaNlo5KT9l9vmY3ckd8KSTXA0xOz0u/view

Some things that I observed:

• The results were highly sensitive to randomness. Almost no species survived consistently.
• Sometimes defenseless creatures survived and sometimes they didn't.
• LeavyTanky (ViktorThink) survived basically every time. Looks like there was no competition for the invincible leaf eater niche in the Rainforest (though plenty of leaf eaters abounded). I would say this is the strongest creature in the field of submissions based on my tests.
• Usually an apex predator survived (10 attack, 10 speed). Often it was the most successful creature in terms of total energy across all biomes that it spread to. I was usually seeing antivenom in an apex predator not being worth it, but the Cheetah had it and did well in several runs.
• Venomous creatures almost never survived.
• As a class, armored tanks were the majority of survivors. Occasionally a speeder would survive, but much less commonly.
• Usually, some mid-range tanks survived as well (~6 armor). This was often enough to stay ahead of predators while outcompeting invincible tanks.
• On average only about 15 species survived past generation 1000. 30 species NEVER survived this long together. If you combine species occupying the same niche, this number was barely more than 10.
• The tundra was always barren. The desert was always taken over by a single species.
• I was surprised to see the Dump omnivores survive many times (Garbage Disposal, and 2-8-0 algae-...). Creatures with more than a few food sources generally didn't do well, but the formula seemed decent in the Dump.
• Sometimes the coconuts got eaten! Not often, though.
• Often a 1 attack, 1 speed omnivore survived. Usually these took the place of defenseless creatures, but in one case they coexisted.

It might be fun to compete to design the creature that does the best against the 555-species field. I might also do some more experiments/analysis when I have some time - let me know if there's anything you're curious about.

Congrats to all the winners! Already looking forward to next year. Thanks lsusr for running this again this year!

Resolutions to my pregame prediction elicitation thingies [LW(p) · GW(p)], which I unvirtuously forgot to vote in myself:

Will at least 10 species survive to equilibrium?

True. 25 species were credited as winners in at least one biome:

Armadillo v2, Desert Tortoise1, Desert Tortoise2, Rock Beetle, Sol Invictus, Super-Armor Fish, Soonbegon, Barnacle, Spanish Beard, Tilli, Seed Beetle, Mutant Two-Headed Speed Snail, Nuclear Waste, Forest Finch, Brown Bear, Trash Slime, Snark, Booyahs, Venomoth, Locust Eater Eater, Hopsplitter, mediocre 1-3-s, Venomous Snark, Cutiefly, Forest Tribble1

Soonbegon didn't "survive to equilibrium" despite being called a winner, so I probably shouldn't count it.

Will at least 30 species survive to equilibrium?

False. You could make it true by deciding to count species that won in multiple biomes once for each biome they won in, but I'm not going to do that.

Will at least one creature exist in each biome at equilibrium?

False. Tundra has no creatures at equilibrium. Shore has no permanent residents, but it definitely looks like the other biomes supply it enough for it to always have creatures.

Will a species with no armor, weapons, or speed survive to equilibrium?

True. Three defenseless seed-eating species survived.

Will a species with an energy value of 20 or greater survive to equilibrium?

True. Booyahs just barely makes it: 2 for attack, 10 for speed, 6 for carrion, 2 for heat resistance, 0.1 base rate, total of 20.1. No other surviving species is that expensive. Soonbegon also costs 20.1.

Will a species with 1 or more armor survive to equilibrium?

True. When I was theorycrafting I thought armor was trash, but I have been proven very wrong. Armor is the cheapest way to be invincible, and every surviving species has either 0 or 10 armor.

Will a species with venom survive to equilibrium?

True. Venomoth and Venomous Snark had venom and survived. (Soonbegon also had venom). At equilibrium the only venom predation is Venomoth->Locust Eater Eater, but venom also protects these species from the Brown Bear and the Booyahs.

Will a pure predator with no foraging adaptations survive to equilibrium?

True. Brown Bear is the only one, but with little predatory competition it thrived in three different biomes.

I reimplemented the game in vanilla Python and managed to simulate it several hundred times with ~10k random species for a total of hundreds of thousands of generations.

Unfortunately, I didn't read Hylang documentation carefully and thought foragers could simultaneously eat one of every food available, instead of just the most nutritious one...

Only my throwaway locust clone survived under the real rules. :'(

In the temperate forest, the Snark is listed as extinct in generation 140 but then it appears in the table of winners. Does it mean it was reintroduced from other biomes?

Hoo, my entry Rainforest, Rainforest
When you gonna run out of time, my Rony?
Hoo, you eat both grass and seeds, grass and seeds
Two meals on which you can dine, my Rony

Hope you never stop, keep it up, such a fertile find
Try to get away from a touch predatory kind
My, my, my, my, woo!

M-m-m-my poor Rony

Flying with a speed of four, speed of four
Flying all the way to Grassland, my Rony
Find another place to thrive, place to thrive
Assuming you can survive, my Rony

Hope you never stop, keep it up, reach stability
Validate ecosys-stemic suitability
My, my, my, my, woo!

M-m-m-my poor Rony

Generation count, passing by, fourteen hundred
May be just a matter of time, my Rony?
Is it d-d-destiny, d-destiny
Or it is just a game in my mind, my Rony?

M-m-m-my poor Rony
 

Do you have the full list of submitted creatures? I'd like to poke at it myself.

I can't figure out where Soonbegons are coming from.  It looks like they have a population in the River for some time but then go extinct.  Do they exist somewhere else that I missed?