FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

Hi everyone,

As part of the TBA v4 redesign, we're going to be storing which year's game a match was. For example, "Raising the Bar", "Breakaway", or "Aim High". This lets us handle games with different formats (4v0, 2v2, 3v3) correctly.

I'd rather not store a full English punctuated, capitalized, and with-spaces name. Having something that is all lowercase, with no spaces, and short would allow us to use the codes in URLs, file names, and other places where full English doesn't make sense. However, there is no standardized name for each game. FIRST has short codes for Events ("ct", "ma", "mn2"), but not for Games.

Let's come up with a standard shorthand to refer to FRC games.

2010 Breakaway
2009 Lunacy
2008 FIRST Overdrive
2007 Rack 'n' Roll
2006 Aim High
2005 Triple Play
2004 FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar
2003 Stack Attack
2002 Zone Zeal
2001 Diabolical Dynamics
2000 Co-Opertition FIRST
1999 Double Trouble
1998 Ladder Logic
1997 Toroid Terror
1996 Hexagon Havoc
1995 Ramp n' Roll
1994 Tower Power
1993 Rug Rage
1992 Maize Craze

-Greg

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

No need to over-think this, just use the first three or four consonants in each game's name.

Examples:

OVRD
TRPL
LNC
BRKW

Consonants carry a LOT of information.

- RCK

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

Overdrive can be O/D or OD like what is written on gearshifts.

I would be happy just storing the game by year. 2010 instead of BRKW.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

I agree Rick, I just wanted to make sure that we settle on a set that makes sense. How do these look? Any suggestions for clarity tweaks? Consistently sticking to four letters seems like a good idea.

BRKW - 2010 Breakaway
LNCY - 2009 Lunacy
OVDR - 2008 FIRST Overdrive
RCKL - 2007 Rack 'n' Roll
AMHI - 2006 Aim High
TRPL - 2005 Triple Play
FRZY - 2004 FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar
STCK - 2003 Stack Attack
ZNZL - 2002 Zone Zeal
DBDN - 2001 Diabolical Dynamics
COOP - 2000 Co-Opertition FIRST
DBLT - 1999 Double Trouble
LDDR - 1998 Ladder Logic
TRDT - 1997 Toroid Terror
HXGN - 1996 Hexagon Havoc
RMPR - 1995 Ramp n' Roll
TWRP -1994 Tower Power
RGRG - 1993 Rug Rage
MZCZ - 1992 Maize Craze

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

I think using codes is better in case there are ever two games in the same year, or we expand to having FRC and FTC and FLL games. Most of the time these won't be directly people-facing anyway.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

If you want to add FTC and FLL, it might be best to have a system where your code first distinguishes between them and the game as itself.

As an example:
(Competition Type)(Game Number)

FRC01 would be the first competition game of FRC.
FRC14 would be Aim High, the 14th FRC game.
FLL07 would be Ocean Odyssey. It's the 7th FLL game.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

I would think for simplicity all 2010 games would end with the same two numbers. Either with 1992 as 01 or with 1992 as 92.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

But then you have to define the FLL year. For example, FLL Body Forward (this year's game that will be revealed in about a month) - is that 2010 or 2011? The majority of the games will be played in 2010, but some competitions are in Jan or Feb 2011, and the World Festival will be April 2011 in St. Louis. FRC on the other hand goes from Kickoff to Championship all in 4 months of one calendar year.

Greg, some of the suggestions you made are perfectly clear. Others have some unfortunate suggestions. For example, TWRP - my first thought is twerp, not Tower Power. Try pronouncing the word to see if you get some other unwanted words. I believe that Lunacy should have a U in it, perhaps LUNC, I guess just because we seldom put in a U when a vowel is missing.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

Those look great, save maybe for 2007. I'd go with RKRL instead.

Just my $.02

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

TWPR seems more intuitive.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

Maybe 5 letters would be better since it leads to less confusion and is still much shorter than the normal, fully-spelled, name.

And in that case:

BRKWY - 2010 Breakaway
LUNCY - 2009 Lunacy
OVRDR - 2008 FIRST Overdrive
RCKRL - 2007 Rack 'n' Roll
AIMHI - 2006 Aim High
TRPPL - 2005 Triple Play
FRNZY - 2004 FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar
STKAT - 2003 Stack Attack
ZNZL - 2002 Zone Zeal (Didn't see a better way :p)
DBDYN - 2001 Diabolical Dynamics
COOP - 2000 Co-Opertition FIRST (Also didn't see a good way)
DBLTB - 1999 Double Trouble
LDRLG - 1998 Ladder Logic
TRDTR - 1997 Toroid Terror
HXNHV - 1996 Hexagon Havoc
RMPRL - 1995 Ramp n' Roll
TWRPR -1994 Tower Power
RGRG - 1993 Rug Rage (Also didn't see a good way)
MZCZ - 1992 Maize Craze (Also didn't see a good way)

Granted, some 4 letter acronyms are perfect and they can't really be improved just by adding an extra letter.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

If we go to five letter I think LDLGC would be better for Ladder Logic. Otherwise it looks fine.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

For some reason, to me, the 5 letters look a little more confusing. I like the 4 letters better.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

I think the year alone is the simplist to understand. If you're concerned about adding FLL/FTC/JFLL then you could prefix the year with the competition (i.e. FRC2010, FLL2007, etc.). As for FTC and FLL which span the new year, use the date of kickoff.

You could also make the competiton and year/game different fields. That would allow you to easily query for the FLL/FTC/FRC competitions/matches which happened the same year, assuming you had that data in the system.

Another thought, if you intend to add FLL data you may want to reconsider using competiton short codes internally, since the FLL events are both more numerous and also change from year to year meaning that there isn't a universal shorthand like in FRC.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

FLL team numbers also don't stay constant. Trying to track FLL data by team would be like herding cats, 2004 game balls, and orbit balls combined, and then trying to sort them by color and type (and without damaging anything in the process). Can it be done? Probably. Is it going to be easy? Nope, no, and no way. Team name/school would be the best bet for that.

Just use something like FRC2010 for the game/year--and have a separate page with a list of the games, codes, and type (1v1v1, 4v0, 2v2, 3v3, etc.).