I’m excited to announce that we have re-launched the Rock, Paper, Azure challenge! For the next 6 weeks Developers will compete in an online game based on rock, paper, scissors, with the opportunity to win prizes and some serious bragging rights.

The Rock Paper Azure Challenge is an online game based on rock, paper, scissors where developers code their own player “bots” to battle other competitors. But there’s a kicker – we’ve added a modern twist to this classic childhood game: dynamite and water balloons!

The “bots” are deployed into Windows Azure and compete against each other for weekly and grand prizes. You can see the full set of moves and scoring rules here. There are weekly awards for anyone who submits an eligible “bot” and grand prizes for “bots” that place in the top 10 leaderboard. We provide the baseline downloadable code for the “bots”, and include step-by-step instructional videos on how to program, troubleshoot and upload a “bot”.

Weekly Sweepstakes Drawing

Every week (December 21st through January 25th) we'll randomly select five (5) winners to receive a $50 Best Buy gift card. All participants need to do is to deploy an eligible “bot” and they qualify for the weekly sweepstakes. It’s that easy! Winners will be selected each Friday at 2pm ET. By the close of the promotion, a total of 30 winners will have been selected (5 per week for 6 weeks).

Overall Grand Prize Sweepstakes Drawing

The grand prizes consist of a 32G Microsoft Surface, Xbox 360 4GB with Kinect Bundle and a $150.00 Best Buy Gift Card. However, to be eligible for the grand prizes participant’s “bots” needs to crush the competition and place in the weekly top ten (10) leaderboard. All “bots” that finish in the top 10 leader board during the weekly competitions (run on Fridays at 2pm ET) are eligible for the grand prize sweepstakes drawing at the end of the competition. At the close of the promotion, we will randomly select three (3) winners from among all weekly top 10 finalists to win the grand prizes.

Get Your Bot In There!

1. Get A Windows Azure Account – Get your FREE trial here or activate your MSDN Subscription benefit that includes Azure services.
2. Build and Test Your Bot – Download the bits and start building a killer bot that’s ready to battle the competition. Check out the Get Started page for more details. You can enter the simple sample bot or test your strategic coding skills by building a more advanced bot.
3. Play the Game – Enter your bot into the Challenge for your chance to win. This round of the Rock, Paper, Azure challenge will run for 6 weeks through January 25^th.

This contest is open to all Developers and coding hobbyists in the US.

As always, stay tuned to my twitter feed for Windows 8, Windows Azure and other Microsoft announcements, updates, and links: @clinted