Four athletes 路 one connectome
Fruit Fly
Strongman Classic
Buzz, Wingo, Maggie and Drosophilippa are the same complete FlyWire fruit fly brain, 138,639 spiking neurons simulated with the Shiu et al. (2024) model. They differ only by neural noise. Nothing is trained. Each event wires a stimulus into real sensory neurons and scores the spikes of real motor or descending neurons, 100 ms at a time.
Both parts 路 points from the six scored events
| # | Athlete | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wingo | 19 |
| 2 | Drosophilippa | 15 |
| 3 | Buzz | 14 |
| 4 | Maggie | 12 |
The two finals crown each part's champion and are not scored. Part 1: Drosophilippa. Part 2: Drosophilippa.
Fruit Fly Strongman Classic
Part 1
Part 1 champion
Winner of the tug-of-war final. Points from the first three events set the bracket seeds.
Part 1 points 路 first three events
| # | Athlete | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wingo | 10 |
| 2 | Buzz | 8 |
| 3 | Drosophilippa | 7 |
| 4 | Maggie | 5 |
4, 3, 2 and 1 points per event.
Part 1 路 event 1 of 4
Atlas Stones
The stone in front of the fly drives its looming neurons (LC4 and LPLC2) at 40 Hz. The lift is the giant fiber, DNp01, the neuron behind a fly's escape jump. A stone goes up only in a 100 ms window where the giant fiber fires at least that stone's number of spikes, from 20 for the first stone to 26 for the eighth. Between stones the fly walks for 1.2 s with no stimulus. Load all eight within 20 s, or be ranked by stones loaded and then by the time of the last lift.
| # | Athlete | Result | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buzz | 8/8 in 12.3 s | +4 |
| 2 | Wingo | 8/8 in 12.9 s | +3 |
| 3 | Drosophilippa | 7/8, last lift at 10.3 s | +2 |
| 4 | Maggie | 7/8, last lift at 14.9 s | +1 |
Part 1 路 event 2 of 4
Sugar Cube Lift
Sugar on the legs drives the sugar and water taste neurons (LB3) at 70 Hz. Those reach the feeding motor neurons (MN10 and MNx01). A rep counts in every 100 ms window where they fire 32 spikes or more. They are noisy: the same input gives anywhere from a dozen to forty spikes, so every rep is a real coin flip weighted by that fly's brain state. Most reps in 12 s wins.
| # | Athlete | Result | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wingo | 42 reps | +4 |
| 2 | Maggie | 42 reps | +3 |
| 3 | Buzz | 38 reps | +2 |
| 4 | Drosophilippa | 37 reps | +1 |
Part 1 路 event 3 of 4
Truck Pull
The truck looms in front of the fly at 150 Hz. That drives MDN, the "moonwalker" descending neuron that makes real flies walk backward away from things looming ahead. Every MDN spike drags the truck 3 cm. Fastest to 20 m wins. The video plays the heats at 1.5x speed.
| # | Athlete | Result | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Drosophilippa | 16.5 s | +4 |
| 2 | Wingo | 16.6 s | +3 |
| 3 | Buzz | 16.8 s | +2 |
| 4 | Maggie | 17.4 s | +1 |
Part 1 路 event 4 of 4
Tug of War
The final event is a bracket seeded on points: 1st plays 4th, 2nd plays 3rd, and the winners meet in the final. Both flies see the other looming and both drive MDN. The rope marker moves 5 cm for every spike of difference between the two MDNs in each 100 ms. First to drag it 1.5 m wins; after 20 s, whoever is ahead.
| Bout | Result | How |
|---|---|---|
| Semifinal 1 | Wingo beat Maggie | 1.5 m in 5.8 s |
| Semifinal 2 | Drosophilippa beat Buzz | 1.5 m in 5.2 s |
| Final | Drosophilippa beat Wingo | ahead on position after 20.0 s |
Fruit Fly Strongman Classic
Part 2
Part 2 champion
Winner of the arm-wrestling final. Points from the first three events set the bracket seeds.
Part 2 points 路 first three events
| # | Athlete | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wingo | 9 |
| 2 | Drosophilippa | 8 |
| 3 | Maggie | 7 |
| 4 | Buzz | 6 |
4, 3, 2 and 1 points per event.
Part 2 路 event 1 of 4
Keg Toss
Each throw is one 100 ms flash of a looming keg (LC4 and LPLC2, both eyes, 110 Hz). The giant fiber answers with a burst, and every spike throws the keg 15 cm higher. The bar starts at 29 spikes (4.35 m) and rises one spike per round. Three tries per height; miss all three and you are out. Ranked by the highest bar cleared, then fewer misses, then the biggest single throw.
| # | Athlete | Result | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maggie | 4.80 m, 4 misses | +4 |
| 2 | Drosophilippa | 4.80 m, 6 misses | +3 |
| 3 | Wingo | 4.65 m, 4 misses | +2 |
| 4 | Buzz | 4.65 m, 5 misses | +1 |
Part 2 路 event 2 of 4
Car Push Slalom
Push a car through six cone gates. A cone the fly is heading for looms on that side of its eyes, which fires the turning neurons (DNa01 and DNa02) on the other side and steers it away. Each spike of left-minus-right turns it 0.02 rad. The pace is set by the game, 3 m/s, slower in hard turns. Passing a gate outside its cones knocks one over: +3 s.
| # | Athlete | Result | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buzz | 14.49 s + 1 cone = 17.49 s | +4 |
| 2 | Wingo | 14.57 s + 1 cone = 17.57 s | +3 |
| 3 | Drosophilippa | 14.73 s + 1 cone = 17.73 s | +2 |
| 4 | Maggie | 15.12 s + 2 cones = 21.12 s | +1 |
Part 2 路 event 3 of 4
Hercules Hold
Sugar on the legs (LB3, 55 Hz) keeps the feeding motor neurons firing, and their 1 s running average is the grip. The pillars get heavier every second: the grip must stay above 10 spikes per 100 ms plus 0.8 for every second held. When it dips below that rising line, the pillars fall. Longest hold wins.
| # | Athlete | Result | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wingo | 13.4 s | +4 |
| 2 | Drosophilippa | 11.8 s | +3 |
| 3 | Maggie | 11.3 s | +2 |
| 4 | Buzz | 10.7 s | +1 |
Part 2 路 event 4 of 4
Arm Wrestling
The final event is a bracket seeded on Part 2 points. Each fly sees its rival's fist loom on one side at 80 Hz, which fires its turning neurons on the other side. The locked arms move 2.5 degrees for every spike of difference each 100 ms. Pin at 45 degrees; after 20 s, whoever is ahead.
| Bout | Result | How |
|---|---|---|
| Semifinal 1 | Buzz beat Wingo | pinned in 9.3 s |
| Semifinal 2 | Drosophilippa beat Maggie | pinned in 18.7 s |
| Final | Drosophilippa beat Buzz | pinned in 5.7 s |
What is real and what is not. The spike counts are real outputs of the simulated connectome. The stimulus rates, the thresholds for a lift, a rep or a throw, the metres per spike, the car's pace, and every prop and animation are hand-set game rules. No brain ran away during the competition.
Music, all CC0 via OpenGameArt and Freesound. Part 1: "Last Stand Lets Go" by Noah Cedeno (Peachtea) for the atlas stones and tug of war, "Half Time Show" by code_box for the sugar cube lift, "Rock theme" by obscure music for the truck pull. Part 2: "Compressed Rock Commercial Music" by Seth_Makes_Sounds for the keg toss, "cyberpunk_metal" by Bertsz for the car push, "Apparatus Overlord" by vitalezzz for the Hercules hold, "Achilles" by Zane Little Music for the arm wrestling.