Canonical Huffman plus base64, the game decodes with this same
dependency-free code. Two dictionary schemes were tried first and both lost
to the data: run-length encoding collapsed because a solved ending is a fine
win/draw/loss mosaic rather than broad regions, and LZ77 barely beat raw
size on the 4-piece mosaics while tripping over its own match flags. Huffman
matches the actual skew (draws dominate, distances cluster near zero) with a
decoder a reader can hold in their head.
Canonical Huffman plus base64, the game decodes with this same dependency-free code. Two dictionary schemes were tried first and both lost to the data: run-length encoding collapsed because a solved ending is a fine win/draw/loss mosaic rather than broad regions, and LZ77 barely beat raw size on the 4-piece mosaics while tripping over its own match flags. Huffman matches the actual skew (draws dominate, distances cluster near zero) with a decoder a reader can hold in their head.