Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Olympics + Soccer = pretty much every sport ever is included in that statement. It's so broad they couldn't miss.

I predict the champion drive teams at each event of the 2011 season will consist of vertebrates.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Assuming it's sports-based. They would have missed in 2009 and 2008*...and 2007, 2005... All in all, sports is board and can even be ambiguous (was 2009 mobile basketball on ice?), not to mention a decent bet in a world championship year. You can certainly miss, though.

*Avoiding the "is NASCAR a sport" question, it's certainly not an Olympic sport. Unless 2008 was supposed to be based on speed skating.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Speed skating = 2008 game on the 2009 surface. THAT may have been fun to watch! Heck, even the 2009 game on the 2009 surface with the 2008 lap system would have been much more fun than that clust....... oh nvm. Eventually they'll get some real ice on the field and call it a water game :ahh:

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

For the past two years, the FRC game has been about something happening that year (and celebrating it, in a way). 2009, the L-word, was, of course, the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. 2010, Breakaway, from what I see, was the 2010 World Cup. Following this parallel (and why wouldn't the GDC?), something interesting/an anniversary has to be taking place this year that would somehow translate into the 2011 FRC game.

That's my guess. As to what's the event that's so important... there's the Cricket and Rugby World Cups, the Space Shuttle is to be retired, the 125th anniversary of the patenting of the first practical internal combustion car, a couple milestones in radio programming, and you could say it's the 2500th anniversary of the marathon.

The GDC has a lot of material.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

i think it goes without saying that FIRST would never be so reckless as to make a "water" game and use water... they would probably use mineral oil as it doesnt conduct electricity but this would bring on a host of new problems such as the cost, how much of a pain it would to work on an oily robot, teams access to large quantities of the oil, and if the robot tips, relays and plugs would be covered in oil and no longer work unless thoroughly cleaned... so yeah barring hassles and cost no liquid game

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Well, technically, water doesn't conduct the charge, but using distilled water would be irritating.

I'm thinking it maybe has a chemical theme, considering *coughcoughBPcoughcough* that 2011 is the International Year of Chemistry.

PS kenavt, Lego isn't a swear.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

That would be fine, but there has to be the entertainment factor to the games that FIRST has been looking for.

Cause, idk about you, but if the GDC has us balancing equations for 2 minutes and 15 seconds...idk what I'd do...but I wouldn't be a happy camper. Although it might help in my chem class...

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

In 2009, the hint was something along the lines of "moon fish", and it was the anniversary for the moon landing. But even if they just said, "MOON Game", there is no way anyone could get lunacy out of that, or placing orbit balls and placing them in trailers for a game.

2010 we have the world cup, and same thing goes, they could simply say "ROBOT SOCCER", sure we could have a kicking robot, but I highly doubt anyone could piece together a field with bumps and towers.

So whatever events happen in this year, the game might have a link to it, but First does a good job shocking everyone at kickoff.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Regardless of hints, the last 3 years have had linearly-scaled scoring games. No multipliers, no "last team to cap gets the goal", no "stacks" of anything. My prediction is that this year will have some such element, and that element alone will drive strategems out of whack.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Oh, Lego? Nope, not a swear... but the other word... :ahh:

But, actually, if 2011 is the Year of Chemistry, then that has to be the theme of the game in some way. However... I don't think they're going to make an oil spill game. I just can't imagine them being able to realistically translate the oil spill to a FRC field.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

I think they already have. Maize Craze.

A field covered in ball bearings/marbles/corn kernels would absolutely be analogous to oil. Unfortunately, if there were a corn game now, the teams would go crazy(ier?) trying to find the absolute correct hybrid the GDC used.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

I think the bigger craze-inducing factor would be finding enough of it to cover the current field, since the Maize Craze tabletop was more than 5.5 times smaller. :eek:

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

The game should be such that the robots can more freely expand, the bumper rules have become very rigid. I hope they allow a little more freedom with whatever new game they come up with.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Looking around i saw something that said 2011 is the 2,500th anniversary of the first ever marathon, and MIT's 150th anniversary. Could anything be pulled from this?

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

5-minute matches, and the maximum size limit goes to one smoot in any direction. (Starting size remains unchanged.)

Oh, and the game will be a measuring race; the alliance to measure the farthest wins. Tape measures are specifically disallowed, however (until reallowed when implemented by a team that didn't read the rules at a Week 1 event).