[MrToast]

I think having six robots on the field this year makes the game more interesting, because it is more crowded, but I think that last year's was more intriguing. This year, there are only so many aspects of the game to innovate on, and they all have to do with the same thing: Finding a way to pick up a tetra. Great, so all we're going to have is a bunch of robots with different kinds of arms.

Whereas last year, there were three different aspects to focus on. You could focus on ball coralling and come up with a sort of ball vacuum. Or you could focus on big ball scoring and have some strange set of gripper arms. Or you could focus on hanging and totally dominate the bar (ah... 237... great bot...).

IMO, it's not really about how exciting the game is (but that does help). It's how the game makes you think of new and clever solutions to problems. The more problems you have in a game, the more cleverness will abound, and the more kids will learn to "think outside the box." That is what FIRST is about -- getting us young'uns to think different.

*steps of soapbox*

Dave