I built a football bot that doesn't watch football. It's #2 in our World Cup league.

Short summary

The author built a 250-line Python bot using Claude that ranks #2 in a 14-person World Cup prediction league despite never watching football. The bot applies three structured rules—squad value, team class gap, pace mismatch—run every 15 minutes with idempotent state guards. The post argues disciplined system architecture around an AI model often outperforms loosely applied domain expertise.

• •Minimal bot built with Claude ranks #2 against 13 human players by combining three simple rules with structured prompts and cron automation
• •Beats 12 of 13 humans despite having zero football knowledge, demonstrating system design matters more than model intelligence
• •Reusable pattern: structured prompt + cron + state guard + JSON logging works across domains where intuition isn't rigorously applied

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.