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Originally Posted by DonRotolo

The rest play the game, with humans standing in as robots. This is the key part of the day, we do this for 2+ hours. By doing this, we get to understand:
> Capabilities a robot needs to succeed at the game
> Issues with the game that may not be obvious
> Best (and worst) scoring opportunities
> Field issues that may be strategic

I drove the team to do this human-robot activity a couple years ago and the kids thought it was silly and a waste of time, and it's been difficult for me to convince them of its value.
So, this year we are applying some game theory based on our last training session from the fall and figuring out what possible scoring outcomes we can achieve by tackling different combinations of objectives. Come up with reasonable scoring techniques and how they may be defended against, determine how to score points in multiple ways with and try to estimate probability, and finally determining level of value of those scoring objectives to other potential teammates.
Only then will we start talking about mechanism ideas and generating trade studies or materials to purchase for prototyping ideas.