Pattern of the Year 2025 Nomination Thread

[b-engine]

It's 2026 in 23 time zones as of time of creating thread, so guess I'll make the nomination thread.

Rules:

• The pattern in question must work in B3/S23.

• It must be discovered before January 1, 2026.

To nominate, simply post the name or reference to the pattern(s).

[77551enpassant]

To start:

• The Solifuge
• The (28,7)c/448 spaceship
• 23-bit still life syntheses
• Unidimensional spaceship
• 5c/9 signal loops and more 2c/3 technology
• True period-14 glider gun

[Entity Valkyrie 2]

To start:

• The Solifuge
• The (28,7)c/448 spaceship
• 23-bit still life syntheses
• Unidimensional spaceship
• 5c/9 signal loops and more 2c/3 technology
• True period-14 glider gun

I would like to request to replace "Solifuge" with "(12,4)c/62 technology", as the solifuge doesn't refer to just a single spaceship and other (12,4)c/62 technology were also made (e.g. puffers, rakes, synthesis/gun etc.)

Along the same vain, I would also like to add "31c/240 technology", with the new smaller spaceships like mannaz, water strider, and the many variants of Leaf bug 2.

EDIT: And how can I forget about the numerous oscillators discovered in 2025? (collection here)

[WhiteHawk]

Not necessarily a pattern, but besides the Solifuge, Giraffe Weevil, and 31c/240 tech, I think 2025 has been a good year for work on other climbers (if not completions), like 23c/83 and (15,11)c/107.

Also the period-18 glider gun and the numerous amounts of gun reductions may be noteworthy as well (guns of periods 35, 47, and many high-period guns got some fairly decent reductions this year).

[Anivec]

I nominate the 23-bit still life synthesis project.

[WhiteHawk]

I nominate the 23-bit still life synthesis project.

77551enpassant already nominated that

[synperiplanar]

i wanna nominate all the "there are no oscillators/spaceships of this period/speed below this population" or "this/these are the only oscillators/spaceships with this period/speed below this population" confirmations

i think inexperienced people dont know how useful this is just in general, because if another oscillator were to exist that could lead to a whole lot of SKOP reductions and if another spaceship were to exist then well the small spaceship finding scene is competitive so that too

[Sokwe]

i wanna nominate all the "there are no oscillators/spaceships of this period/speed below this population" or "this/these are the only oscillators/spaceships with this period/speed below this population" confirmations

I also greatly value these contributions, but to include them in the competition we would need to expand the scope to allow discoveries that aren't patterns (perhaps similar to the OCA "Discovery of the Year" competition). We didn't included the proof that all phoenix oscillators have period 2 in the 2024 POTY competition, even though I view it as one of the most interesting recent achievements in Life research. I would support such an expansion, and I'm curious what others think.

Does anyone have strong opinions on whether we expand the POTY competition to include Life-related proofs? If we did so, should the name be changed from "Pattern of the Year" to something else, like "Discovery of the Year"?

[b-engine]

Does anyone have strong opinions on whether we expand the POTY competition to include Life-related proofs? If we did so, should the name be changed from "Pattern of the Year" to something else, like "Discovery of the Year"?

1. Make a separate DOTY, but we don't have OCA Pattern of the Year and OCA of the Year.
2. Rename this thread to DOTY, but I won't do the job until there's a consensus.
3. Just straight up nominate nonpatterns or absence of patterns.

[Neocaridina]

.

[Sokwe]

1. Make a separate DOTY, but we don't have OCA Pattern of the Year and OCA of the Year.

I don't see how we would have enough non-pattern nominees for a completely separate competition, and it's already difficult enough to get just one competition to happen.

I disagree, because patterns and proofs have much different purposes.

That's an interesting perspective. Can you give more detail? What do you view as the purpose of each? Why does this difference, in your view, mean that we should not include proofs in the competition?

[qqd]

I nominate the following (unformatted and in no particular order):

1. The Thessalonic Demonoid constructed by PK22, as well as its successor, Thessalonic Demonoid 2, the first known self-constructing spaceships with permanent circuitry made up of only blocks and fishhooks (Thessalonic Demonoid 2's temporary circuitry is also made up of blocks and fishhooks.)

2. The new oscillator periods of 66 and 92 that have appeared in soup for the first time in 2025, the respective oscillators discovered are Hilton's p66 and Four_twin_bees_shuttles_flipping_two_ships, discovered by C.R. Hilton and siffrin normal via soup search respectively.

3. The new stable MWSS-to-HWSS hammer by Entity Valkyrie as well as a similar LWSS on MWSS 3 to Coe Ship hammer.

4. A very fast direct glider to traffic jam signal converter by P1GG with repeat time 78 with an optional Herschel output.

5. Faster stable signal duplicators, such as an LWSS on LWSS duplicator of repeat time 58 by Entity Valkyrie, and a glider triplet duplicator of repeat time 57 by Luka Okanishi.

(3,4 and 5 may be merged into a single entry titled 'New stable signal converters')

6. An exponentially spaced binary counter by FWKnightship.

EDIT: Added forum links to nominations without an article.

[I6_I6]

Don't forget that Tarantula was discovered this year by Frank Everdij.
I also nominate:
Faster highway robbers (various people, final one by Entity Valkyrie 2)
Smaller unsynthesizable still life (400spartans)
Leaf bug 2 (Gustone)
Speed demonoid gun (enofet)
Faster 2c/3 receivers (TigerCub414, Entity Valkyrie 2)
Leaf bug 2 gun (Entity Valkyrie 2, reductions by Hippo.69)
Gliderless guns for nonstandard spaceships (PK22)
p3 bouncer (Matthias Merzenich, based on partial by James Pascua)
(Edit: Added links, as per dvgrn's suggestion below)

[dvgrn]

It will be really helpful if as many nominations as possible can contain links to what they're nominating -- generally forum links.

In case it's useful to people doing nominations of things that were mentioned in LifeWiki CurrentNews, I've just posted to the NewLifeCA Back Issues thread every CurrentNews item from 2025.

The forum message link is usually the second link in each news item, i.e., the verb: "discovers", "invents", "creates", "uses", "synthesizes", etc.

This might make it a little easier to reach the primary source material without wrestling with the LifeWiki, which has been rather unreliable lately.

Some nominations might need LifeWiki links or Catagolue links. Many of those can also be found in the relevant CurrentNews item(s). Please take the time to copy them out and include them in nominations, when you can -- it can really cut down on the confusion about what exactly is being nominated and where exactly to find it.

[dbell]

I suppose I should submit some of the sawtooths that I made in 2025. Perhaps one or two of them could have their own entry, but I'm happy to lump them all together in one entry.

I made a separate entry for the pattern having multiple contributors.

----

A new record minimum repeating population of 168 cells, superseding Sawtooth 177 which was found in 2015. (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6258#p209381)

Two new record minimum repeating population of 374 cells expanding sawtooths.
(viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6258&start=25#p214346)

A new record minimum repeating population of 690 cells sawtooth spaceship based on a small adustment of the previous population 707 sawtooth spaceship that was found in 2011. (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6258&start=25#p215296)

A very slow sawtooth spaceship whose front end moves at c/12 and whose back end moves exponentially slowly. (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6258&start=25#p216504)

A sawtooth which contains no gliders.
(viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6258&start=25#p218322)

----

A sawtooth with an initial bounding box of 48 x 50 cells (by EvinZL, Entity Valkerie, and David Bell). (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6258&start=25#p212057)

----

BCNU,
-dbell

[Entity Valkyrie 2]

Leaf bug 2 (Gustone)

Leaf bug 2 gun (Entity Valkyrie 2, reductions by Hippo.69)

Suggestion: I think that Leaf bug 2 and Leaf bug 2 gun (along with spaceships like mannaz and water strider) should be merged together into a single "new 31c/240 technology" entry.

(same goes with "(12,4)c/62 technology")

[dbell]

Here is an entry for "New Cordership Technology" for some patterns I made in 2025. I am happy for these to be lumped together.

----

A period 96 sideways rake with a record minimum population of 186 cells.
(viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4713&start=150#p214761)

A period 96 backward rake with a record minimum population of 182 cells.
(viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4713&start=150#p214345)

An adjustable high period Cordership with a record minimum population of 216 cells.
(viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4713&start=175#p220169)

An adjustable high period rake with a record minimum population of 388 cells.
(viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4713&start=150#p212762)

Many period 96 or 192 Corderships producing useful sparks on their edges based on
one or two switch engines attached to a three-engine Cordership.
(viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4713&start=150#p215109)
and (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4713&start=150#p215109)

Many period 96 puffers producing various objects at the edge of the puffers.
(viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4713&start=175#p216783)

Variable period backward edge-rakes allowing for the construction of closely packed backward glider convoys.
(viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4713&start=150#p216009)

----

BCNU,
-dbell

[Goldtiger997]

I nominate the synthesising of all known spaceships up to 35 bits.

The following key spaceships were synthesised in 2025:

• 32P4H2V0 by TigerCub414.
• All four variants of weightship pulling unnamed tagalong 23P4H2V0 by Entity Valkyrie 2, Goldtiger997, and Dave Greene.
• xq4_w6vfgzgfvs13wevnoz131y31 and xq4_04eb776zy1cdeceeecz27deee6 by vilc.
• 34P5H2V0 by Goldtiger997 and KtT.
• 35P4H1V1 by Goldtiger997 and KtT.

Below is a pattern containing the activation steps for each of the above spaceships (excluding variants):

Code: Select all

x = 351, y = 71, rule = B3/S23
335bo$335bobo$335b2o5$274bo$275b2o$274b2o49bo$205bo119bobo$203bobo119b
2o$204b2o38bo$243bo$148bobo92b3o$149b2o145bo$149bo71bo72bobo$200bo21b
2o71b2o$196bo4b2o18b2o$65bo87bobo41bo2b2o33bobo$63bobo19bo62bo4b2o40b
3o37b2o112bo$5bo58b2o18bo64b2o3bo81bo45bo44bobo18bo$6bo53bo23b3o61b2o
65b2ob2o60bobo44b2o19b3o$4b3o54b2o70bobo26bobo50bo3bo61b2o4bo40bo14bo$
60b2o8bo4bo58b2o26b2o52b3o69bo52b2o$13bo55bo4bo59bo28bo53bo68b3o53b2o$
11b2o9bobo44b3o2b3o140bo$7bo4b2o8b2o105bo31bo54b3o$5bobo15bo106bo28b2o
54bo3bo5b2o103bo$6b2o112bo7b3o19bo9b2o53b2ob2o4bo2bo15bobo84bobo$2bo
76b2o37bobo28bobo64bobo6bobo15b2o85b2o$obo55bo20b2o38b2o29bo62b3o2bo7b
o17bo70b2o$b2o8b2o46bo14bo137bo5bobob2o90bo2bo19bo$10bo2bo5b2o36b3o8b
2o3bobo51bo12b2o69bobo5b2obo91b3o13b2o4bo$10bob2o4bobo48bo3bobo52b2o9b
obo2bob2o64bo9bo89b2o15b2o5b3o$7b2obo3b2o3bo49bob2o2bobo49b2o9bobo3b2o
bo74b2o84b2o3bob2o14bo$7bo2bo3bobo49b2obo2bobobobo60bo100bo66bobo3bo2b
o$8b2o5bo50b2ob2o3bo2b2o9bo150b2o65bobo5b2o5bo$12bo12b3o45b2o12b2o150b
obo63bobo11b2o$12bo12bo61bobo67bo6bo139bobo14b2o$2b2o8bo13bo37bo91b2o
5b2o33b2o103bobo14bo$bobo15b2o42b2o81b2o8bobo4bobo33b2o102b2o11b2o$3bo
14b2o43bobo73b2o5bobo49bo41bo41b2o31bo2bo$20bo111bo7b2o4bo92b2o42b2o7b
o23b2o$15b2o62b3o50b2o5bo20b3o43b3o13b2o15bobo40bo9b2o$14bobo62bo51bob
o17b3o6bo40b2o5bo14b2o66bobo$16bo63bo4b2o64bo9bo40b2o3bo14bo$84b2o66bo
48bo$76b3o7bo139b2o115b2o$78bo147bobo9bo47bo55b2o$77bo143b2o3bo10b2o
47b2o56bo$220bobo14bobo45bobo$222bo3$214bo72b3o9bo22b2o$214b2o73bo9b2o
21bobo$213bobo72bo9bobo21bo11b2o$333b2o$335bo$297b2o40b2o$296bobo39b2o
$298bo29b2o10bo$327b2o$329bo4$336b2o$336bobo$336bo!

Another key piece of work from 2025 was Matthias Merzenich's proof that all OWSS flotillas consisting of a single OWSS supported on each side by a single standard spaceship can be synthesised.

[WhiteHawk]

I think we should probably get on this soon, so we don't avoid a fiasco like last year where voting ended up coming in December