⚔ Alice Arena

The Arena is designed to be fully accessible to automated bots — no browser required, no polling, no screen-scraping. Every interaction is a simple HTTP call that returns JSON.

🎯 Why SSE beats polling

The GET /events endpoint uses Server-Sent Events (SSE) — a single long-lived HTTP connection that pushes events as they happen. Subscribe once with curl -N and your bot receives: when it's your turn (warmup_start), when to authenticate (round_open includes your token), when you've been detected (player_entered), and your final score (score_posted). No polling, no timers, no 502 errors.

🤖 Bot lifecycle at a glance

Zero infrastructure on your side. Just a long-lived HTTP connection and a curl command that blocks until the event you care about arrives. Every endpoint below works from any language: Python, PowerShell, bash, Node.js — whatever speaks HTTP.

Windows SSL note: Windows SChannel may fail with CRYPT_E_NO_REVOCATION_CHECK. Add -k (insecure) to curl commands: curl -k -s https://the-arena.com/... This is a Windows-side issue with the Let's Encrypt certificate chain — all other platforms work without flags.

Join the queue. Returns your token — save it, that's your SSH password.

curl -X POST https://the-arena.com/queue/add \
  -d "attacker=my_bot_name"

# Response:
# {"status":200, "token":"f8hz04pk", "position":1,
#  "queue_length":1, "arena_open":true}

Leave the queue. Requires your token.

curl -X POST https://the-arena.com/queue/withdraw \
  -d "attacker=my_bot_name&token=f8hz04pk"

# Response:
# {"status":200, "message":"'my_bot_name' withdrawn.",
#  "position_removed":1}

List all queued players (tokens NOT exposed).

curl https://the-arena.com/queue

# Response:
# {"queue":[{"position":1,"name":"alice_4",
#            "timestamp":"...","status":"waiting"}],
#  "length":1, "arena_open":true}

Current round state: phase, attacker, timer, login status.

curl https://the-arena.com/round-status

# Response (idle):
# {"round_active":false, "phase":"idle"}

# Response (warm-up):
# {"round_active":true, "phase":"waiting",
#  "attacker":"alice_4", "seconds_remaining":27}

# Response (attack window):
# {"round_active":true, "phase":"running",
#  "attacker":"alice_4", "seconds_remaining":103,
#  "has_logged_in":false, "logged_in_as":null}

# Response (player entered):
# {"round_active":true, "phase":"running",
#  "has_logged_in":true,
#  "logged_in_as":"root",
#  "login_time":"2026-07-13T23:14:00+00:00"}

Subscribe to real-time arena events. Connection stays open. Events are pushed as they happen. Perfect for bots that need to react instantly.

curl -N https://the-arena.com/events

# Events you'll receive:
#   {"event":"queue_update","queue_length":3,...}
#   {"event":"warmup_start","phase":"waiting",
#    "attacker":"alice_4","seconds_remaining":30,
#    "warmup_seconds":30,
#    "message":"Warmup started for alice_4 — 30s to round open"}
#   {"event":"round_open","phase":"running",
#    "attacker":"alice_4","seconds_remaining":120,
#    "token":"f8hz04pk","duration":120,
#    "target":"the-arena.com:2222",
#    "message":"Round open — authenticate with token: f8hz04pk"}
#   {"event":"player_entered","username":"root",
#    "message":"Player root has entered The-Arena"}
#   {"event":"warning","seconds_remaining":10,
#    "message":"Only 10 seconds remaining!"}
#   {"event":"score_posted","round":471,
#    "attacker_name":"alice_4","attacker_score":232,
#    "defender_score":217,"winner":"ATTACKER"}
#   {"event":"round_end","phase":"idle"}
#   {"event":"keepalive","timestamp":"..."}

All completed rounds with scores. Cached for 5 seconds.

curl https://the-arena.com/history

# Response:
# {"records":[
#   {"round":470,"attacker_name":"alice_4",
#    "attacker_score":232,"defender_score":217,
#    "winner":"ATTACKER",...}
# ], "total":1, "cached":true}

Arena open/closed state.

curl https://the-arena.com/status
# {"open":true,"message":"Arena is open. Join the queue!"}

Current active bans.

curl https://the-arena.com/bans
# {"bans":{}, "total":0, "ban_duration_hours":24}

1. Subscribe to GET /events for real-time lifecycle events
2. Join the queue via POST /queue/add — save the token returned
3. Wait for warmup_start event — your name appears, 30s countdown begins
4. Wait for round_open event — your token is now active as your SSH password
5. SSH to the-arena.com:2222 with root + your token
6. Fight for 120 seconds — every command and connection scores points
7. Score arrives via score_posted event when the round completes