The winners are in! Surprisingly three of them were actually from my corp, including my first ever Foxholer and one of my directors! I wanted to write up this post quickly though to share the winners and the method I used. I’ve also got some fun data on the extra question I asked which was ‘What is your favourite animal?’
Future giveaways won’t have a full post like this to explain things, I’ll simply be adding them onto the end of the original Fit Kitchen article that the giveaway came with.
The Winners
There were 19 winners from a total of 214 who filled in the form between 13/12/2020 01:54:42 and 18/12/2020 09:21:17 with the form having closed at downtime today. Here they are with their favourite animals 😀
- Tai Creire-Geng – “Eagle”
- sonic distortion andedare – “duck”
- Rhys Andrard – “I’d say fox but I actually just love every single frog ever”
- Elvish legion – “Penguin”
- Garbothot214 – “monke”
- Deities Krik – “Fox”
- Mark vernus – “Either a sugar glider or an arctix fox”
- Kitai Kyo – “Thelenota ananas”
- Rex Reynolds – “Me”
- Abu Ahmed Al-Kuwaiti – “Wolf!”
- Killermane94 – “Fox ;)”
- Othyelska Saugora – “The maned wolf :)”
- KionGreenEye – “Fishes”
- Zaakary Barnes – “Polar Bear, probably :)”
- Exo Saken – “Alpacas :D”
- Requiemsorn – “Platypus”
- Chandler Solo – “Dog”
- Siebel Mandrake – “Ocean sunfish”
- Ozelot Arji – “Pig”
Some stats about the animal question:
28 people (13%) included the word Fox in their answer.
33 people (15%) included the word Cat in their answer.
There are 28 dog lovers out there, including one person who cannot decide.
One Person’s favourite animal is “AFK Miners”. I like you.
Another person provided a specific age and weight of their dog.
The Kinkajou is a kinda cute rainforest mammal with a massive tongue.
JamDunc and Kaylee Syntax both love the sloth. Get a room.
Someone’s favourite pet is The Initiative.
Another person should be afraid of the very real Space Whales that NASA has to fight.
Overall, there were some great fun answers from you guys there. There are also quite a few Panther and Penguin fans in particular and my favourite bird choice from the lot was the Ruffled Grouse.
I’ll ask a new question in the next giveaway so that should be fun. It actually turned out to be useful when verifying one of the winners since they forgot which character they had signed up with. I was able to verify by their correct animal answer.
Random Sample Method
I wanted to make sure that any method i chose to pick winners was completely transparent and not possible for me to rig. Initially I had thought to simply use an Excel or Google Sheets random formula, but that isn’t repeatable. I could also keep running it until I get “people I like” or something like that. No good.
The next thing I tried was the random() function in Python for which I can provide a seed and create a pseudorandom sample that is repeatable. That seed can be the current time of the giveaway so it isn’t rigged, right? Well, not exactly. Theoretically, I could have fiddled the time and changed format seven or eight times until I arrived at another list that I liked the look of. and none of you would know the difference. That wouldn’t do either.
What I ended up doing was posing a question to a few CCP’ers on Twitter and taking their answer in the format of ‘AnswerAnswerAnswer’ for however many answers I get. In this case, I only received an answer from CCP Aurora in time, with CCP Dopamine just slightly after the cutoff. The question was “What is your favourite battleship?” with the answer being “Nightmare”. Good enough for me!
So what I’ve done is use that seed of “Nightmare” on it’s own with a list of names ordered by entry time. This eliminates any impact that I could have had on the outcome. I’ve determined the next seed in the same way and CCP Convict sent me his privately so you won’t know that one until the next giveaway 😉
The code I used is below and you can run it at your leisure to check the outcome. If you’re wondering why it’s 19 and not 20, I have the last one applied to my main.
import random
entries = ["gale kautsuo",
"Katyos Shahni",
"Amy Austrene",
"Julius Mordan",
"Groudon Mango",
"Tai Creire-Geng",
"Tempest latitan",
"Erutor",
"Tommy TuoTone",
"Kaliwen",
"Carbon Based Life",
"shone",
"Infidelc Miromme",
"Lou Sunji",
"xph mnk",
"Reginald Sakakibara",
"sonic distortion andedare",
"Tango Tangerine",
"Rhys Andrard",
"Callum Dex",
"Tiberyya Za",
"Kraid Dorf",
"Alecks Kautsuo",
"Darth Marsan",
"Marc Solomon",
"MuraSaki Siki",
"Waddlefarts",
"Sophie Comptant ",
"Elvish legion",
"Otaks",
"Telah Mhetioh",
"Mao Kwikowski",
"Koh Sehkutor",
"Josherino Harrison",
"Garbothot214",
"Thoroughbreed",
"Solano",
"Silas Ehlonite",
"Paddy Concannon",
"Deities Krik",
"TitaniumCodex",
"Saya Togenada",
"Zoltan Thor",
"Abnutzungskrieg",
"Orlandine Jain",
"Jack Starkid",
"Liander",
"Kane SonofAdam",
"Vaeltek",
"Kurtisthe1st",
"Itaer",
"Cerenity Elentar Hiigaran",
"Nuhdi Izia",
"Joey Belvar",
"Bia virpio",
"Trudeaux Margaret",
"Ching Chickenwing",
"The Rednutter",
"Kirith Darkblade",
"Kinuyo",
"Suto",
"Kona Kai",
"Ingunn Vikings",
"expOpular",
"Marks vernus",
"Keiphth Naskingar",
"Wersx",
"Dooken Thelerre",
"Carpet3",
"Kitai Kyo",
"Jumbonaught Semah",
"Eddie Deepneau",
"Rex Reynolds",
"Kylo Zen ",
"Dimreeper Ahishatsu",
"Danny Algaert",
"Thror Steinleber",
"Abu Ahmed Al-Kuwaiti",
"Brk",
"Stephe Auduin",
"Ranshe",
"Killermane94",
"Cayenne Plapp",
"Othyelska Saugora",
"Mirsa Attor",
"Hakufu Momaki",
"Pmdd",
"Reynauld Lachapelle",
"Larkvi",
"Tarrik Koskanaiken",
"California Woozanga",
"Elo Spektrum",
"KionGreenEye",
"Aquilia Concordia ",
"Stilje",
"Xeromus Plague",
"Kvasir-a Xadi",
"Cahir",
"Larynx Austrene",
"Grimsool ",
"Stavblest",
"Suzi Uljanow",
"Ara Moliko",
"Phoebius Aurilen",
"rex namespace",
"Vratyas Arsten",
"Harry Pottah",
"Marcel en Distel",
"Ragn azure",
"Jakal Killman",
"Viz Talvanen",
"DjRobin",
"Specter Akiga",
"Jamroar Pava",
"Caffeine Coma",
"Adrian Navale",
"Sarah Tserah",
"Ketorianas",
"Viralius",
"Firebon Orlenard",
"Thelamos Radamicus",
"Andh'ol Roin",
"Yeeshani",
"Ulth Idraelli",
"shrecken",
"Charles Decard",
"VampireDeluxeVWB",
"Hanous Maken",
"Monster Cookie",
"Zap InSpace ",
"Fratley nohim",
"Zaakary Barnes",
"Exo Saken",
"Jack Lennellut",
"Helena Tremere",
"teddy gbyc",
"Krye Persat",
"DanielC Onzo",
"Cactus Juice",
"Davor Stormborn",
"Prime Codex",
"Zernin",
"Zhou ZI Yu",
"Hideo Date",
"Taldarin",
"Spaceslut 3000",
"Aels Adoudel",
"sea'er",
"erack khamal",
"Roxanne Valentine",
"Rowenor",
"LilJerry Sizzler",
"Inae Viliana",
"Taylor Corveau",
"Alex Picaro",
"Adam Verkalen",
"Galgarak",
"Vinnegar Douche",
"Kaliwen",
"Sin Dekko",
"Satek-Oreye",
"Markeeplier",
"Requiemsorn ",
"Anaxagoras Boloskarl",
"Jacen Zar",
"Super Schinken",
"Jakal Killman",
"H3110kittyminer",
"Jaketh Shae",
"Chandler Solo",
"Eyra Stetille",
"Ackbad Pappotte",
"Entelligente Ente",
"Deltacharlie",
"Rakos Vissar",
"Olualy",
"Ruubz Raubzen",
"Jezus3d",
"xyienced",
"Tolkeu Otsolen",
"Kaylee Syntax",
"Hailey the Carnage ",
"poisonedblood71",
"Khaliss Mgambogo",
"Fudster ",
"Morgan Freistat",
"Aether Alar",
"Name them",
"Cakethulhu",
"Que Omaristos",
"Dante Hakomairos",
" Bellio Buelle",
"Seraphina Sansil",
"Migs Dank",
"Noro Otomeya",
"JamDunc",
"Kaliwen",
"Ciena rei",
"Acid Katelo",
"John Ludus",
"Sgt Miggy",
"gnusal",
"Eddie Knight",
"Shikkoken Kishunuba",
"Loki Nightsahde",
" Bellio Buelle",
"S-089 Anvaurd",
"Siebel Mandrake",
"Lightsong the Bold",
"Waruiru ",
"Jiraky Nakrar",
" Bellio Buelle",
"Ozelot Arji",
"TangoTango"]
seed = "Nightmare"
random.seed(a=seed)
winners = random.sample(entries,19)
print(f"seed = {seed}")
print(f"List of winners = {winners}")
great astero