I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

I'm sure many teams have wished they could have the advantage over others by knowing next years game early. This thread is for you to write a fictional story on how you would ascertain next year's game early. Have fun and be creative while writing your story, but don't actually execute your plans to uncover next year's game. Also, please commit on other peoples stories, praise them for good ideas, and point out their flaws.

My Plan:

First I would find out where development was taking place at in late October when the playing field is probably in final testing. After that, I would pretend to be a FexEx guy, delivering a package. Hopefully they will lead me to the new playing field so that I may view it. They may even have practice robots they created on it. I would observe and take notes in my head, perhaps play dumb and ask a question or two on what is going on. I would return to my team very very happy, but would I have a guilty conscience?

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

I think that any plan would only be reasonable if it involved a time machine.

Dave has said many times before that the game as we see it is often still being tweaked in the wee hours before kickoff.

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

I'd personally hire myself out as "security" for the GDC's secret bunker.

Then, once in, it's just a matter of getting the game for 2010.

Of course, there are more obstacles, as well. You need to first climb over a ramp, guarded by Wildstang's 2003 bot, then swim through the fabled "sea of Krispy Kremes" which separates the Game Vault from the committee's planning room.

Once at the vault, it's just a matter of getting past the "great sphinx". To pass, you must decipher one of Dave's game clues correctly, within 1000 guesses (which is usually accomplished through posting said clue on Chief Delphi).

Opening the vault should then be a breeze. (That is, as long as you remembered to update your WPA-key back before the ramp. You did, didn't you? :p )

By the time you finish these tasks, it'll probably be January 3rd, but hey, it was worth the effort anyway!

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

I've got it! I'll wait just this side of the International Date Line. Then, I get to see the game earlier than anybody else, and ship later than anybody else!

You see, I get the game earlier (local time) than anybody else, and ship later due to ship date being local time. So I get more time than anybody else to work on the robot, maybe about half a day more time than the East Coast does.

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

Aww, that's not fair! Stupid west coast teams, getting all the benefits... :rolleyes:

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

I'd trade the ability to drive to championship for the extra 3 hours of build season.

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

I'll agree with Nick on that one, eh flying was pretty fun. But it was really tiring, especially not being able to get sleep on the plane.

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

Wait...you mean you guys didn't get the GDC package in the mail with the 2010 game..?

Uh oh, you should get on that.

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

Oh no, we're behind already?

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

I'll just use my Jimmy John's uniform to sneak past security. They never ask questions about freaky fast delivery guys. Especially for those 2 a.m. cravings that even evil* geniuses get.



* evil in the sense of the yearly game hint, evil.

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

I've already began.

As everyone knows, everything Dave Lavery touches has a game hint in it. However, picking game hints off of stuff like skin (shaking hands) or a piece of paper would simply not be cool enough to be embedded with a GREAT game hint. So we crafty folk at 1714 planned the biggest trap possible: We got him to sign our robot. After this, we took the Sharpie and the chunk of polycarbonate and had them chemically analyzed. It was a tricky operation, as the piece of poly is critical to our robot's structural integrity, but we managed to patch it together on Thursday in Atlanta. Unfortunately, it took a few weeks, so we just got our information back a few weeks ago.

When we got it back, the pen had an imprinted message with the words "water game", so we knew that was a fake. The robot, however, had a much more valuable game hint, which I will not reveal as I do not want to spoil the game. When you put the pen marks under a microscope, you'll find that imprinted in the line is a microscopic message that was "written" in clear, surrounded by black to make it hard to find. It not only revealed the game piece, it revealed the manufacturer.

From there, I personally snuck down to Nerf Inc (yes, it's made by Nerf!) and broke into their boardroom. After cutting a hole in the floor under their table, I snuck in a tape recorder and then rappelled out the skyscraper window. They're having a meeting about the game in 2 weeks, where they will explain everything about it in order to pitch to Nerf the idea of using their product at a discounted price. I'll report back to you then.

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

Hey, the HI teams get bigger ones!

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

I'd trade three extra hours to build just to GO to a championship. Besides, I live in Philly, that's a two day drive away.

Hah, true.

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

Oh, and Nick...

Check your math. We get the game at 7:00 AM local; the East Coast gets it at 10:00 AM local. They ship at or before midnight local, which is 9 PM local on the West Coast...but ship date is by midnight local! That's not a 3-hour difference, it's 2 3-hour differences, both in our favor. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

(HI teams get another couple of hours on each difference, IIRC, so they can get a bigger evil laugh.)

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

Wait will New Zealand get more or less time? :confused:

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

NZ (and the Phillipines) are on the "wrong" side of the International Date Line. I would guess that they'd get less time.

For a sure answer, ask FRC 3105.

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

Assuming that kickoff is at 9:00am(EST), here is how many more or less hours each team in a particular time zone has. The time zones are listed going into the westward direction starting with Eastern Standard Time US.

Kickoff EST - 9:00am
8:00am +1
7:00am +2
6:00am +3
5:00am +4
4:00am +5 - Hawaiian Teams Here
3:00am +6
2:00am +7
International Dateline
1:00am -16
12:00am -15
11:00pm -14
10:00pm -13 - Team 3105
9:00pm -12
8:00pm -11
7:00pm -10
6:00pm -9
5:00pm -8
4:00pm -7
3:00pm -6
2:00pm -5
1:00pm -4
12:00am -3
11:00am -2
10:00am -1

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

Bug a krispy kreme or it's box :D

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

You can double all of these values, as Eric explains:

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

Depends on whom you are bugging. If it is someone in the FIRST building in NH, it is all Dunkin Donuts. No one eats Krispy Kreme donuts in New England.:D

However, if it is Dave Lavery then the Krispy Kreme will be just fine.:]

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

You're absolutely right NickE. Originally I was just looking at the kickoff advantage (or disadvantage) but if you double those values in my previous post you would get total kickoff advantage (or disadvantage) due to local shipping time as well.

For instance, Californian teams have a 6 hour advantage. 3105 has a 26 hour disadvantage.

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

I would track all my FIRST emails, and shipping information, and over analyze EVERYTHING. I would then follow the clues to the GDC Headquarters (Hidden under a volcano in Japan) and use a jetpack to go in via the vent/crater.

Once in, I would zip line across a large shipping/storage area, and defeat three ninjas on my way. I would then do some summersaults to run between crates to get a deep dark cave. After kicking a couple doors in, and scaling large walls, I would peer into their head quarters, with a big oval table, and a large screen for emergency conferences with Dean and Woody. There would be a swinging light, that is swaying in the breeze of an air vent.

While everyone is staring at Dean, who is demonstrating his latest prostetic arm, I will nab the manilla folder labeled "TOP SECRET FILES" and jet out, beating up a few hitmen on my way.

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

I think you're counting the same three-hour difference twice. When east coast teams learn about the game, it's still 7:00 AM on the west coast. In other words, the revelation of the game occurs at the same time for east coast and west coast teams. The only difference occurs at the shipping deadline, where there is a three-hour difference. This means that there is a three-hour advantage, not a six-hour advantage.

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

I am. And it's legit. The shipping deadline, if you had read the rules that closely (I admit, it's hard to when you have a robot to build), you would have found that the ship deadline is called out as being local time. So, let's say the deadline is 5:00 PM local time. East Coast, 5:00 PM rolls around, and all the robots are out of team hands. West Coast, it's still 2:00 PM. Teams are just starting to load crates then... or else they're squeezing in practice or adding that manipulator. That's a built-in 3-hour difference.

Now, the East Coast teams learn at, say, 10:00 AM local. The West Coast teams learn at 7:00 AM local--3 hours earlier local time (or, local +3, if you so prefer, for the East Coast). So, you have 7-10 AM on Kickoff (3 hours). You then have 2-5 PM on Ship Date (3 hours). That's the local time that the West Coast teams have the game/the robot that East Coast teams don't have during the same timeframe. Guess what? 3+3=6. It's still 6 hours.

So, under realtime conditions, you're right, it's 3 hours. However, under LOCAL conditions (and who doesn't stay in their area during robotics? It's not like there's anything else to do.), it's double that due to time zone differences. And local time makes all the difference.

Re: I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!
 

I'll say it again: Darn you crafty West Coast teams and your extra 6 hours of building! :rolleyes: