Finally finished reading this whole thread after three days.
I think the multiple mentions of three in the clue (triple play if you take the baseball theory and three subjects) indicate the presence of one of four options:
- 3v3 teams
- x3 Multiplier
- 3 minute match
- Putting 3 objects together = more points (like a stack)
The longer match doesn't seem practical, because with about 100 matches in the day, this is over an hour and a half longer of competition (unless they begin on Thursday!)
The baseball connection seems to strong to be ignored, especially considering the prior references to this by Dave Lavery. I see baseballs themselves as being too small for objects, but maybe a game involving stations/bases could came from this.
Their unassisted triple plays make me think of autonomous mode, but cant think of what would be between the end of the match (product/Pi) and autonomous (You and Me). Maybe this means that autonomous will be in the middle, but I fear that scenario as a programmer who never even got the IR to work last year. Even if not in this way, I see IR as playing a major role in this game.
The amethyst originally made me think of hexagonal fields, as previously mentioned, I think FIRST might be due for a change of field. Dave Lavery's post
here makes me rethink this, maybe an amethyst will really be used (or is he trying to throw us off...it does only say "amethyst colored" in the clue) The lack of a low cost bill of materials may also indicate a major redesign of the field or some special element, as last year the only strange listing was the toilet flanges (see
here). I did find that this was only sent out 5 days before the kickoff, a point which we have not reached this year. Maybe FIRST just hasn't had time to post this yet.
The Beatles connection seems too vague, I like the Cleveland connection better, since it relates to baseball and can be tied to the amethyst colored glasses anyways. Now what between Pi and Cleveland when looking through Cleveland?
I bet many of us (including me) are probing too far into the clue. Last year, the surface level elements were the only major clues (stairs and no shooting toward a bar). If Dave Lavery is still reading this thread, I would like to know how long you guys spent coming up with the clue, just to see how long you think about something that we can discuss for over 350 posts and ponder for a week.