[alopex_rex]

As a programmer, I loved the new control system. Our team this year had essentially no electrical-related issues at competitions this year, whereas in the past we always had many. I'm sure our electrical team would like me to attribute this to them having improved, but I think the new components helped too.

This game really managed to cut down on the complexity of the rules. With regards to design, this freed up our options and allowed us to explore more creative options. We didn't do anything crazy with tethers, but our robot certainly wouldn't have been possible if we had to follow strict bumper rules and size limits. Gameplay-wise, in past seasons avoiding penalties has been an important part of the drivers' job, but this year the only way our robot could get a penalty would be if we were trying to.

My belief, starting from as soon as I saw the game video, was that FIRST never intended for non-interactive, non-win/loss gameplay to be permanent. I think it was a combination of 1) doing something really different to throw teams for a loop and 2) creating a (relatively) safe testing ground for more streamlined rules. The challenge for them now is to return to more interactive games without returning to the old level of rules complexity and penalty frequency.