[Tom Fairchild]

Sorry Dave, I know that you wanted specific designs for games, but this is my one item to address. I believe that rope would be a wonderful material to incorporate into a FIRST competition. You might have a wire or rope strung across the playing field for robots to climb on (I hesitate to say "zip line" across), ropes for robots to pull on to lift things, or ropes that serve as obstacles that robots must traverse. It is a material that is strong (please include heavy wire in the category of rope), easily and cheaply (relatively) attained, and also has a real world type appeal to it.

~Tom Fairchild~