[Brian Beatty]

The almighty Car Knack has allowed me to post our predictions on this year's game:

1) This year's championship alliance will be at least two king of the hill machines. Bins will not decide the outcome and stacking machines will be toast. Again, FIRST has biased the game scoring too heavily in one direction.

2) Of the division winners, at least one team, probably two teams on each alliance will have a spare machine to tweak their autonomous software during the competition season. Gone are the days of building one machine and hoping to be competitive.

3) The autonomous period will be the most fun part of the competition, best ever of FIRST. The last 30 seconds will be battlebots.

4) The person selling concessions near the block long line at the practice/debug field will be one sure winner at the competition.

5) The national final's attendance will be the best ever and the media coverage will be outstanding. It will be very loud, and many student drivers will not be prepared. Indoor stadium, what a concept. Moving from Disney was a GOOD move.

6) At least one driver will trip and fall in the race for the controls after the autonomous period. Also, at least one human player, ref, or yes even fan will come in contact with a robot/part during competition. The FIRST guy on the shutdown switch will have the toughest job. Please be safe everyone.

7) Like last year's prediction, at least 25% of the machines in the finals will experience damage and will not be at full strength or not even answer the bell.

8) No rookies in the finals. This thing is just too competitive.

Car Knack may have a few more, but that is all for now. Let's have some fun.

Sincerely,

Car Knack Jr.