What was the best FRC game POLL
 

There has been many threads about this. And with kickoff right around the corner, I think its time for a poll! This is truly on your opinion. Please be serious about it. And for fun, have heated discussions in the thread why some games are in your opinion bad.

Begin

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Recycle Rush is the clear winner here.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

I expect recent games (2014 and 2015) will get a lot more votes, not because they are better necessarily, but because more people on CD have experienced them.

EDIT: looking at the current poll results, that would explain why Aerial Assist has such a high rating despite many people not liking it during the season.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

If I were to rank the games since 2005 (when I first became regularly involved with FRC), I'd rank them like this... I'm also giving a subjective, entirely un-empirical 'score' from 1-10 too.

2013 - Ultimate Ascent - 9.5
2012 - Rebound Rumble - 9
2010 - Breakaway - 9
2011 - Logomotion - 9
2014 - Aerial Assist - 8
2015 - Recycle Rush - 8
2006 - Aim High - 7.5
2008 - Overdrive - 7
2005 - Triple Play - 5.5
2007 - Rack 'n Roll - 4
2009 - Lunacy - 3

At the time, I recall thinking that Aim High and Overdrive were very good games, but one of the key things I like in a game is a diversity of at least moderately successful strategies. Those years had a few, but generally not as many as the more recent games.

I for one thought Recycle Rush was a good game... I just happen to think the GDC has done even better in recent years.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Best game to design robots for: Triple Play & Recycle Rush
Best game to coach: Lunacy
Best game to watch: Ultimate Ascent
Best game to explain: Rebound Rumble
Best game to play: Logomotion

I felt that Rebound Rumble best captured the coopertition side of FRC - which in my eyes sets FRC apart from other competition platforms - so in my opinion it was the best game.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Personally, Aerial Assist was my favorite game, just because of the teamwork element. The way some alliances meshed perfectly and were able to set up pick after pick, run circles around the defense (and play some lock down D of their own!) really made the game beautiful to watch at the higher echelons of the game (once referee/scoring issues had been minimized, of course).

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Sorry if I came off wrong, I wasn't trying to say that Aerial Assist is terrible and no one liked it. What I was trying to say was that the poll doesn't directly correlate to how liked the game was.

Personally, I didn't like Aerial Assist because of the abundance of defense and not a lot of offense available. But that doesn't make your reason for liking it any less valid.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Nah, I get what you mean, it makes sense. I just wanted to clarify that there are people that liked it even compared with other great games like 2013 and the like.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

I would agree with the first poster who noted the bias in this poll. Give that many folks on CD have clearer memories on the later games (like >2012), they would naturally get more votes.

I personally liked Breakaway since that field was more interesting while still having good gameplay for the spectators to experience.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Who the heck voted for that 2009 game?!

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

In my last match in 2014 I played perfect offensive. Doesn't help that I was the only working robot :ahh:

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

It's like the mecchuananium wheels of FRC games.

The cool kids hate on it, but for some folks, it just works out well.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

I know a few people who really liked Lunacy, but that group is wholly contained within the group of people I know whose teams did really well.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

The same who voted for recycle rush (begin the hate)

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

I think a lot of the issues cleared up as the season went along. Also the level of top play developed to be very interesting in the later weeks but was a bit lackluster at the start. Remember, a couple of rule additions help to sooth the hate after kickoff and after build season.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Better question, why is it in the poll? I could have sworn there wasn't an FRC game in 2009.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

While I'm sure most of the votes aren't serious, I could see how some people might like it. I still find myself looking back at the robot designs from that year since they were all so varied. Also, while the majority of the match was robots slowly sliding around, excitement would build in anticipation of a big score or whenever a super cell was introduced.

I soured on it pretty quickly because of how much an HP could score on the trailer of a robot not paying attention or not showing up. Because of that, I have had it at the bottom of my list for quite some time but the more I think about it the more I feel like moving it up, at least a little bit.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Lunacy was a blast behind the glass and terrible for spectators.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

I agree, I voted for Aerial Assist as my favorite game because I think it developed into the best FRC game. From the first event to the last off-season the game got better and better and stayed interesting both to play and to watch. AA was definitely better at championship and off-seasons when the overall quality of robots improved. At early regionals a non-moving or absent robot made for poor matches.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

FRC 233 The Pink Team won the Orlando Regional in 2009, their 2014 release video showed all their robots since 2003 since they seem to follow the same logic as Nick lol

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Funny, I could say the same about the '01 game or lack thereof.



Real question: Why is this not a multi-answerable poll? There are so many good games out there, it's really hard to pick JUST ONE.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

I actually had to pick 2015. The design challenge was really good, and driver practice was much easier. Had they made the cans worth less I would have liked it more.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

2005 just does not get the respect it deserves....

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

I answered based on the four games I've been involved in: Rebound Rumble to Recycle Rush. Of these, I felt that Ultimate Ascent was the best because it had a relatively low level of entry to play at all (rookie bots with just a drive system and some creatively cut plywood scored low frisbees and got on the first rung), a wide variety of effective strategies at the middle and high ends. Many of the robots which were built, winners and runners-up, and also-rans, could serve as textbook examples of "engineering tradeoffs". And the only thing that really needed to be explained to a spectator was the relative value of each type of score.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

The top five vote-getters* (2013, 2014, 2012, 2006, 2004) suggest that we enjoy:

• shooting projectiles, and
  
• hanging our robots from field elements.

I predict the 2016 game will feature both.

*These five account for ~82% of responses so far.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

I experienced only 2013-2015 games, but I will rate all the games since 2003 in my opinion.
1. Ultimate Ascent (2013)
2. Rebound Rumble (2012)
3. Aim High (2006)
4. Aerial Assist (2014)
5. FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar (2004)
6. Breakaway (2010)
7. Rack 'n Roll (2007)
8. Triple Play (2005)
9. Recycle Rush (2015)
10. FIRST Overdrive (2008)
11. Logomotion (2011)
12. Lunacy (2009)
13. Stack Attack (2003)

I realy feel like Recycle Rush is just a much better version of Stack Attack.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Neither does 2007

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

The 119th element? :P

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

I've built since 2013, and spectated since 2010, so I will rank since then with a (completely arbitrary) score out of 10. This is just my opinion (obviously).

2014 Aerial Assist: 9.5: Just loved this game. A lot of strategy involved, many ways to score, and much more possibility for upsets. It would be a 10 if it weren't for the excessive fouls.
2013 Ultimate Ascent: 8.5: Pretty good game, exciting to watch, only problems being low possibility for upset especially in less deep events, and the remarkably low points for the 30 point climb.
2012 Rebound Rumble: 8.5: its basically Ultimate Ascent with bridges and basketball and vice versa.
2010 Breakaway: 7: Exciting to watch at high levels, but painfully boring when nobody could score goals.
2011 LogoMotion: 5: Really a bore to watch at all levels.
2015 Recycle Rush: 2: I did not like this game one bit. Horribly unbalanced towards the cans, the removal of defense made a bad game worse because the only real strategy was: Grab cans, stack fast. Really boring to watch after the first second of play on Einstein. Only thing preventing it from being a 1 was that it was a real world application (kinda, when are you going to stack recycling bins on totes?).

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

I personally liked 2009... it was my rookie year (even tho I graduated in 2014) and I fell in love with FIRST through there.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Madtown Throwdown Throwback replayed the 2014 game this year. It was interesting to see how even games with weak alliances could be exciting. And of course, stronger teams had to make weaker ones look better.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

With no personal bias (okay a little), I'd have to say Ultimate Ascent.

With the huge diversity in robot design, a unique strategy could be made for every single match, with combinations that most people wouldn't have thought of until it actually happened.

For example, the "ideal" alliance was a full-court shooter pumping out discs, a robot with ground intake to clean up any missed shots, and a fast cycler utilizing the loader on the other side.

However, there were times when alliances would be double FCS and a cycler, and those alliances sometimes outscored the ideal ones.

I've been doing match planning for my team for the past few years, and Ultimate Ascent was easily the most entertaining to plan.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

I agree.
One of the best games where strategy was important to the very end!
I do hope however we never get a game using the triangular shape.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Hopping on the bandwagon here.

Like Edwin I value games with a large strategical depth first and foremost. With secondly the intensity while watching.

For me 2014 was that game. Incredibly deep strategical plays, and people were creating strong strategies and brand new plays even up to Einstein finals. So in keeping with the 1-10 scale.

1- Aerial Assist 9.5
2- Ultimate Ascent 9 - Deep strategical plays, very distinct types of robots. New combos
3- Rebound Rumble 7 - Some ball starving techniques and an epic conclusion to matches.
4- Logomotion 6 - Minibots were cool, but were more predictable. Some interesting tube starvation.
5- Breakaway 5.5 - Ball starving and some limited defense. Zoned robots interesting. Rip dawgma penalties
6- Overdrive 4 - Interesting watching robots shoot massive balls. Understandable game. Tipping robots. Lots of bumping.
7- Recycle Rush 3.5 - Fun first 0.6 seconds of the match, match strategy very limited, auton too challenging.
8- Lunacy 1.5 - zzzzzz. Terrible livescoring, slow, supercells were kinda lame, lame auton. Interesting teamwork.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

OCCRA and VEX have done similar style of games using balls and cylinders as scoring pieces, and the games were great to watch.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

For qualification rounds, 2012 was the best. The bridge balancing was something really exciting that nearly every match contained.

2013 was really solid all around.

For elimination rounds (ignoring silly penalties), 2014 was the best. The high level teams had a multiplying effect when playing with each other, making matches really good. In other years the effect of good teams playing with each other was more additive.

Overall, I have a slight preference for 2012. It would have been a clear win though if triple-balances had been allowed in quals.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Ultimate Accent was a perfect balance of robot-on-robot and actual scoring. It was a fun game to drive and spectate, with lots of projectiles, fast robots, and an open field to mess around on.

From a design standpoint, it also was fun for students to work with stable aerofoils as opposed to the various spheres used in many FRC games. I understand the goal is to teach students to engineer solutions to complex problems, but in a learning environment, building a robot that you could dial in to land every. single. shot. was a real affirming expirience. It was a clear indicator to the teams and students that they had achieved their goal.

Also, we got a bunch of frisbees to mess with during build season. ::safety::

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Please ignore the "walked 7 miles to school uphill both ways" nature of my post, but Richard brought up a few factors above that help support my theory that 2004 was one of FIRST's best games from both a participant and spectator's point of view:

• Projectiles are always super fun! Great for spectators and the element of unpredictability is exciting.
  
• Ending hanging points, and subsequent defense of the hanging bar, caused some of the most intense match endings I've ever personally witnessed.
  
• Autonomous mode was still somewhat in its infancy, but the great drop of kickballs was exciting (especially for teams that built giant funnels).
  
• The raise in platforms was a distinct design challenge for many teams.
  
• The high goals and low goals, and the 2x doubler ball, gave an opportunity to teams of all levels to build a robot that could contribute on the field.

...and finally, my favorite aspect:

• A really wide range of designs could effectively play the game. Funnels, hangers from the floor, defensive hangers (these were awesome), 2x ball manipulators, quick driving defensive bots with last-second hangs, and even a few robots that could do almost all of the tasks.

Having been on a GDC, designing games is hard. SO hard. Designing a game with a lot of the above points without it being too "busy", or having too many tasks for one team to complete, is harder. Designing a game where all levels of team experience can contribute to the gameplay is harder still. And on it goes. My hat remains off to all GDC members across all competitions, because it is truly a tough job to get just right.

tl;dr: 2004 remains my personal perfect mix of excited spectators, a unique spread of robots, excellent visual gameplay, good scoring spread among tasks, and being an interesting engineering challenge. YMMV. If you aren't familiar or haven't watched videos, you should check it out.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

It's my favorite in my heart, but I always feel like I'm being biased because it was my first real game and my team had a good robot. When I try to be objective I put Aerial Assist higher.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Having only participated in Recycle Rush, I'm voting off of what sounds best. I voted Lunacy. I know what I'm doing! ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

I think Aerial Assist should be on the list with "Best game to watch/coach"

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

Preach!

Also, this thread asks two different questions, IMO. The thread title asks "What was the best FRC game?". The poll asks "What is your favorite FRC game?".

For me, those answers are different.

Re: What was the best FRC game POLL
 

It would be interested to run these results taking into account the number of teams that participated each season.

I picked Ultimate Ascent because it was spectator-friendly, featured defense, and allowed for a large number of different designs.