Re: A simple and easy way to make RR the best game yet...
 

They wouldn't necessarily need to change the field. Teams would be required to build a robot that could traverse the step.

Re: A simple and easy way to make RR the best game yet...
 

I definitely agree with this. We might see something like 71 a while back, or 469 in 2010 - something completely out of the box, and close to game-breaking. It's even possible that at the very high levels of competition, the meta-game will turn into 'who can put the craziest thing together in 60 seconds.' While I'd prefer for that not to happen, it's possible.

Re: A simple and easy way to make RR the best game yet...
 

I think many of us need to take a step back and really think about the game, without letting any bias against it get in our way.

FRC is FIRST Robotics Competition, which already sets it apart from your average sport because there is no right or wrong way of doing most anything in the challenge. Robotics is all about thinking outside of the box and looking at issues from a different angle, so why would we only be faced with one kind of challenge?

Recycle Rush is not a contact sport, but neither is a race. Just because there is not inter-alliance combat doesn't mean the game is automatically condemned to not be exciting. Nor does it mean that it won't feel like a sport. It will have more in common with a relay race or an obstacle course, though, because it's about teams working together in a race against the clock.

Even though rounds will not have winners, at the end of the day, teams still advance. Individual games may not record your win/loss, but you need to do as well as you can to rank high in the competition. Honestly, the only difference here is that a loss will not cripple a decent team, because their score is based on all games, not the results of all games.

Then you have the game itself. After spending 6 weeks trying to figure out how you'll attack this challenge, it's safe to say a lot of interesting strategies will appear. Robots will literally come in all shapes and sizes, and you'll see them being assembled rapidly on the field, a more exciting display than just setting the bots out as in past years. Robots will speedily try to stack the totes and the bins, sometimes balancing huge towers and sometimes watching those towers fall. The audience will be on the tip of their seats when the tower next to the flimsy noodle bot wobbles, and screams, shouts, and cheers will fill the room when it zooms out in the nick of time. The strain between opposing alliances in a Noodle Agreement Russian Roulette will be nothing but intense, and as soon as one alliance breaks, noodles will fly, totes will tumble and containers will crash.

Then, atop this all, remember again that this is a Robotics Competition, and this game is having us build robots with much farther reaching consequences than years past. These robots will actually have a use in industry, and that's what FIRST is all about: solidifying the futures for students with interests in science and technology, and providing exposure to those who may develop them.

Re: A simple and easy way to make RR the best game yet...
 

An easy way to make it a good spectator sport is to have the rankings be point based, but have wins and losses announced. They would be useless to the teams, but to the people in the stands, it will be like "YEAH! WE WON!."

Re: A simple and easy way to make RR the best game yet...
 

Another easy change I think would make the game a little bit more spectator friendly is to allow robots to throw totes over the step. Get a little bit of defense and offense going on. They did remind you to build your robot to be able to withstand large falling object, right? ;)

Re: A simple and easy way to make RR the best game yet...
 

They didn't design field personnel to withstand large falling objects.

It's fun to take out the trash
 

Most of the season is spent building, not playing the game. My team is very excited by this build season and I think we will be excited to play this game too. Rush is a race against the clock and the other team. Robots will want to clear out the landfill area and get to that mid-field step before the other alliance beats them to it. That will be exciting.

The autonomous period is very compared to other seasons. A lot can be done. Teams should write multiple autonomous programs and then choose which one to run depending on who is on your alliance. (For instance, pick up one crate or two or move the recycling bin)