ARC-AGI-3 · · GPT-6.1 Sol
The 2026 ARChitects: the dream team comes together
Four researchers, one entry
The ARChitects are together for 2026. Daniel Franzen, Jan Disselhoff, David Hartmann and Sebastian Brodehl have joined forces in ARC-AGI-3, putting a championship name and a four-person lineup into the closing week’s provisional gold race. They stand sixteenth at 38.85, above the gold score line of 38.20.
On merger deadline day, Franzen and Disselhoff’s separate entries came together with Hartmann and Brodehl’s existing partnership under The ARChitects name. The result is a team with shared research roots and a substantial ARC pedigree, now facing the interactive competition together. The four accounts appear on the same surviving entry in the before-and-after roster record.
The Mainz connection—and a shout-out for Sebastian
The university connection runs through Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz’s Visual Computing group. Its people page lists Disselhoff and Franzen among the academic staff and doctoral candidates, with Hartmann and Brodehl among the former doctoral students. This team’s links stretch well beyond the current leaderboard.
In 2021, Hartmann, Franzen and Brodehl coauthored a paper investigating how neural activation patterns change during training. All three were affiliated with the Mainz Visual Computing Group. Years before this merger, they were already working on understanding how neural networks learn.
The editor-in-chief met Sebastian at the ARC gathering in Boston and sends a personal shout-out: “Awesome guy.” For this new team picture, Sebastian’s own Kaggle avatar becomes the big-eared mouse in sunglasses, alongside Hartmann’s fox, Disselhoff’s orange cat and Franzen’s duck.
Their ARC2 standing: Franzen leads the separate entries
The shared four-person lineup is on the ARC3 board. In ARC-AGI-2, the October 26 board still lists Daniel Franzen separately in thirty-sixth at 57.64, inside the provisional silver places. Jan Disselhoff’s separate entry has 21.67 and ranks 2,190th. No joint ARChitects entry appears on that board.
The two contests tell different sporting stories. ARC2 continues the static-grid puzzle challenge on which the ARChitects built their earlier reputation. ARC3 asks agents to explore unfamiliar interactive games and work out their rules through play. The new combined entry is competing in that second arena.
A winning name, a new chapter
The ARChitects won the 2024 ARC Prize high-score contest and finished runner-up in 2025. Franzen and Disselhoff carry the earlier championship; the 2025 team report credits Franzen, Disselhoff and Hartmann. Brodehl brings his documented research history with Hartmann and Franzen to the 2026 lineup.
Their 2025 report described a solver adapted to two-dimensional grids that could repeatedly refine its guesses and compare alternative views of a puzzle. It is a substantial public research record, although the team has yet to establish here how its current ARC3 agent works.
Sixteenth place also has a useful backstory. Franzen’s separate ARC3 entry already held 38.85 before the combination, and Disselhoff’s had reached 38.60. The merged entry carries Franzen’s existing best score. The immediate development is the four researchers joining forces; their next improvement will be the next chapter to watch.
A busy merger deadline across the field
Both contests’ team-merger deadline fell on October 26. The ARChitects were part of a broader reshuffling: the desk documented same-day roster additions at at least thirteen entries across ARC3 and ARC2.
In ARC3, NVARC3 added titericz, the account displayed as Giba, while Grigoriy Zatravkin’s team expanded to include aizealotwu and deepdreamer. In ARC2, Khaotic Sethesis added cdeotte, and the entry previously displayed as Shin & Maciej & Natalia added sggpls and yuritosci. The saved rosters establish those additions; the archive provides a partial view of the full day’s activity.
For the 2026 ARChitects, the attraction is the people now working together: past contenders, familiar collaborators and a four-person team assembled for the finish. The public gold places remain provisional. They have a place to defend—and a new shared campaign to follow.
The ARChitects — authors’ 2025 technical report · ARC Prize — official 2025 results · ARC Prize — official 2024 results · Daniel Franzen — verified author and Kaggle handle credits · Jan Disselhoff — verified author and Kaggle handle credits · David Hartmann — verified author and Kaggle handle credits · Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz — Visual Computing group and alumni · Hartmann, Franzen and Brodehl — 2021 research paper · October 26 ARC3 rosters before the ARChitects combination · October 26 ARC3 rosters after the ARChitects combination · Kaggle ARC3 — official team-merger timeline · Kaggle ARC2 — official team-merger timeline · ARC Daily Digest research — dated before-and-after roster evidence · Editor-in-chief’s firsthand Boston recollection and shout-out, supplied for this feature · Sebastian Brodehl — own verified Kaggle account · Giba — own Kaggle account titericz · October 26 public standings and rosters — the ARChitects in ARC3 and separate ARC2 entries