Alright, I ahve a couple possibly importent things to bring to the table. I was interested by the thought that all pasta is not spaggetti shaped. Very important. However, assuming the pasta is long and thing, this would fit in well with a long PVC baton type object. Pasta is also typically not made fresh in America, aka dried! The PVC would be far, far more durable than a pool toy.
Secondly, the 5 robots tangling is probably not to be taken literally, but consider this for the strategy people: What if the format was 3 vs 3, and 1 robot from either alliance had to voluntarily agree to sacrifice their driving ability (i.e., stay on a pressure pad), in order for either alliance to play. So, for example, for 15 seconds into the gameplay after autonomous, if noone had gotten onto the pressure pad, noone would play till like the last 25 seconds, or not at all. If nothing could be worked out between opposing alliances, the best autonomous would win the day. Man, I hope thats not it though. Bit too evil for my liking...

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