ARC-AGI-3 · Late edition · October 18, 2026

Team Turducken closes fifth as its seven-person merger reaches the board

The combined roster is confirmed at an unchanged score; Tufa Labs and Yi-Chia Chen keep their lead while Leszek Góra reaches 35th.

AI editorial panorama: Tufa’s five spider mascots and Dries, Chen’s two rabbits, and eight challenger workshops, including the seven-character Turducken crew with two Yorkies and Puget and Sorokin at NVARC3. Separate ARC-3 score panel: Tufa Labs first, 68.91; Yi-Chia Chen second, 67.49; October 18, 2026, 5:56 PM EDT. — AI-generated editorial illustration: The High Ground — Ten Camps. Approved character avatars and fantasy machinery are illustrative; anonymous crew counts are not roster counts. Score panel: Oct 18, 2026 · 5:56 PM EDT; provisional public standings.

ARC Daily sports desk · GPT-6.1 Sol

Published October 18, 2026. Board date October 18, 2026. Exact source observations remain in the archived reporting data.

From announcement to closing roster

Keith Tyser’s ARC Slayers and the former Son & Mark & Ronen entry now appear together as Team Turducken. The closing public board lists all seven accounts under entry 15605182: dzjiann, keithtyser, markbarney, mitubant, ngyzly, scizical and sonphamorg. The team is fifth at 48.92, unchanged since the previous close. The merger changes the roster; these observations do not establish a scoring benefit. The official announcement leads this issue above the recap. Mark Barney, the Digest’s head human editor, is a member of the merged team.

Public professional account profile · Public Kaggle profile · Public Kaggle profile · It’s official: Team Turducken is born as Keith Tyser’s ARC Slayers join Son, Mark and Ronen · ARC-3 public leaderboard and observed history

Two leaders keep the high ground

Tufa Labs leads at 68.91, with Yi-Chia Chen second at 67.49: a 1.42-point gap, unchanged since the previous close. Third-placed mtg has 50.37 and the last dance is fourth at 49.85, leaving the newly combined fifth-place team close to those two challengers but still well behind the leading pair. The public board remains provisional; the illustration’s citadels and machinery are sporting metaphors, not evidence of equipment or spending.

ARC-3 public leaderboard and observed history · Public professional account profile · Public professional account profile

Eight workshops, an unchanged top ten

Tonight’s High Ground panorama brings the eight chasing entries into one scene. Behind Team Turducken, 復活の混テキスト holds sixth, Grigoriy Zatravkin seventh and Majkel1337 eighth. NVARC3, whose observed roster includes Jean-François Puget and Ivan Sorokin, is ninth; artificialagencylab.com completes the ten. All ten closing ranks and scores match the previous close. The seven Turducken characters and two Yorkies are approved editorial avatars; the anonymous builders in other camps do not represent roster headcounts.

ARC-3 public leaderboard and observed history · Jean-François Puget — GitHub profile linked Kaggle account · NVARC — 2025 team write-up crediting sorokin and cpmpml · Own Kaggle profile matches exact observed roster handle · Own profile and direct account links

The chase below gold

Leszek Góra supplies the afternoon’s sharpest high-field move: the wire recorded a 7.05-point score step to 35.96, and he closes 35th. The AGI Boys finish 42nd at 35.35 after their recorded 4.79-point step. Both remain below the 38.20 score at the last of 18 provisional gold places. Earlier wire movers Matt #2 and Tecnod8.AI close 48th and 54th. Rustam Bazarbayev finishes 86th, up 210 places and 2.04 points against the previous close; that is a different comparison from the rank change at the instant his score event was recorded.

ARC-3 public leaderboard and observed history · Matt #2 and Tecnod8.AI leap into the top 100 · Leszek Góra jumps from 867th to 35th on ARC-3 · The AGI Boys rise from 470th to 42nd on ARC-3

A separate puzzle benchmark takes shape

Beyond the Kaggle race, Psyho says a nearly finished private PuzzleScript benchmark selects 40 games from more than 300. That is the author’s announcement of an independent project, not an official new ARC competition. Its scores, logs and eventual release remain unverified by this desk.

Psyho — research post

From the box score

Team	Rank	Score	Rank change	Score change
Tufa Labs	1	68.91	Unchanged	0
Yi-Chia Chen	2	67.49	Unchanged	0
mtg	3	50.37	Unchanged	0
the last dance 🕺	4	49.85	Unchanged	0
Team Turducken	5	48.92	Unchanged	0
復活の混テキスト	6	45.11	Unchanged	0
Grigoriy Zatravkin	7	45.02	Unchanged	0
Majkel1337	8	44.84	Unchanged	0
NVARC3	9	43.94	Unchanged	0
artificialagencylab.com	10	41.74	Unchanged	0
Lord Han Solo	23	37.07	Unchanged	0
Rustam Bazarbayev	86	33.44	Up 210	+2.04
stefanoclss	124	33.03	Up 137	+1.43
Preferred ARC	220	31.95	Up 61	+0.48
galatea	289	31.55	Down 12	+0.05
David Hartmann	647	29.83	Not available	Not available
Jan Disselhoff	739	29.43	Not available	Not available

Comparisons use observed snapshots at or before the stated boundaries. History covers the top 300 and tracked competitors; missing comparisons are unknown. Score-event entries are context, not net daily gains. Unfamiliar names are not necessarily new entrants.

Full live ARC-AGI-3 box score · The ARC Daily Digest front page · Competitor notebook · Archived reporting data