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Marathon Match Finals 2025 Recap

 

DaraKDecember 15, 2025

On November 22, 2025, Topcoder hosted the Marathon Match Finals 2025, bringing together 12 of the world’s strongest Marathon Match competitors for a demanding 24-hour competition to determine this year’s champion.

The Finals represent the highest level of Marathon Match competition. Beyond algorithmic skill, they require long-term strategic thinking, adaptability under uncertainty, and the mental endurance to continuously refine solutions over an extended period. This year’s event featured a compelling mix of seasoned veterans and first-time finalists, making it one of the most competitive Finals to date.

 

Meet the Marathon Match Finalists

This year’s Finals brought together an exceptional group of competitors from around the world:

Reaching the Finals is a significant achievement on its own, and this group represented the very best of Marathon Match talent in 2025.

 

The Finals Challenge: Number Puzzle

Competitors were presented with a puzzle game played on an N×N grid, where the objective was to place square tiles so that their edges matched and the total score was maximized.

Each tile had four numbers (from 0 to C) — one on each edge. All tiles were placed in a hidden queue, with the first T tiles added to a player’s hand at the start. On each turn, competitors could either discard a tile (if discards remained), sending it to the end of the queue, or place a tile into an empty cell on the grid.

When two adjacent tiles shared the same number k on their touching edges, the solution earned k³ points. After each placement or discard, the next tile from the queue replaced the tile used. Once the queue was empty, no more tiles were drawn. The puzzle ended when all tiles were placed, with the goal of scoring as many points as possible.

Gif numbers

 Check out the full problem details here.

 

Live Broadcast and Community Engagement

To bring the community closer to the action, Topcoder hosted two live broadcasts during the Finals weekend:

The broadcasts were hosted by an outstanding group: TonyJ (Head of Topcoder), dimkadimon (Marathon Match problem writer and manager), JacoCronje (problem tester), kaasanerinn (who has run many Marathon Match Finals in the past and coined the term “Marathon Match”), and gorynich, an expert in data science and innovation challenges.

The first session introduced the Finals problem and explored its mechanics and strategic depth. The second session, held near the end of the match, provided progress updates, strategy discussion, and interviews with finalists - offering valuable insight into how the finalists approached the 24-hour Marathon Match.

 

🏆 Official Results

After 24 hours of intense optimization and iteration, the Marathon Match Finals 2025 concluded with an exceptionally close leaderboard.

🥇 Champion

wleite (Wladimir Leite) - Brazil
Final Score: 96.50406762453507

A true Topcoder veteran, wleite has competed the Topcoder Open Finals 13 times, coming close to the championship on multiple occasions. This year, his consistency, patience, and strategic depth paid off — earning him his long-awaited Marathon Match Finals title. A milestone victory and a well-deserved championship.

🥈 2nd Place

Daiver19 (Dmytro Kovalenko) - United States
Final Score: 96.28012606883388

Just fractions behind the champion, Daiver19 delivered a remarkably strong performance, keeping the competition tight until the very end. He was first within the provisional scores.

🥉 3rd Place

sullyper (Benjamin Butin) - United States
Final Score: 95.11713424850961

Rounding out the podium, sullyper demonstrated impressive strategic consistency across the full 24-hour match. He shared his strategy in the live broadcast.

During the Finals, we encountered some challenges related to testing and validation. We’re grateful to the finalists for their patience as we ensured that all submissions were ultimately evaluated fairly and consistently.

Winner Announcement

 

Check out the Marathon Match Tournament homepage to see all the finalists placements.

 

Congratulations to All Finalists

Reaching the Marathon Match Finals is an achievement in itself. Competing at this level requires not only technical excellence but also resilience, discipline, and the ability to make smart decisions under sustained pressure.

We extend our sincere congratulations to all 12 finalists, and our thanks to everyone involved in designing, testing, reviewing, and running this year’s event.

The Marathon Match Finals continue to represent the highest level of long-form competitive programming at Topcoder - and the 2025 tournament was a powerful example of what makes this competition so special.

 

Prizes

The Marathon Match Finals awarded cash prizes to the top-performing competitors in recognition of their performance across the 24-hour competition:

  • Champion: $6,000

  • 2nd Place: $2,000

  • 3rd Place: $500

  • 4th–8th Place: $200 each

Special swags will be sent to all finalists.

 

A Special Thank You

A special and heartfelt thank-you goes to dimkadimon / Dmitry Kamenetsky for his continued dedication to the Marathon Match Tournament and his close collaboration and communication with both the Topcoder team and the finalists.

Throughout the Finals, Dmitry played a key role in supporting competitors, answering questions, and helping ensure a fair and well-run event. His ability to balance the needs of the competition with the experience of the participants reflects a deep understanding of what makes Marathon Matches successful.

Beyond this year’s Finals, Dmitry’s long-term commitment to the community and to maintaining the high standards of Topcoder competitions and problems continues to make a real impact.

Thank you, Dmitry, for the time, effort, and passion you bring to the Marathon Match Finals and to the Topcoder community as a whole.

We also extend our thanks to the other community members who supported the tournament by writing and testing Marathon Match problems. Their contributions helped ensure a strong and consistent experience for all competitors: JacoCronje, sullyper, CutterTheCat, nika and eulerscheZahl.

 

The Marathon Match Finals 2025 once again highlighted the talent and dedication of the Topcoder community. We look forward to coming together again in future Marathon Match competitions.