"five 'bots tangling with pasta"
5v5
"a game piece obsessed with a shovel's show"
Here's something you guys haven't thought about
:
Cloudesley Shovell
I know the spelling isn't exact, but 'Shovel's Show' might be refering to the incident where Shovell crashed his fleet in home port: "The disaster of the fleet wrecking itself in home waters brought great consternation to the nation. Clearly, something better than dead reckoning was needed to navigate in dangerous waters. This led to the Longitude Act which offered a very large prize for anyone who could find a method of determining longitude accurately at sea. After many years the consequence of the prize was that accurate clocks were produced which became used throughout the world for navigation at sea." - wikipedia.org
I don't think this means that the game will a water game, but it might have something to do with: direction, dead reckoning or maybe even a playing field that has more that one height differention, just a thought...
"and seeing Montana's green heights"
I have a feeling that the Joe Montana hint maybe be going in the right direction, last year's hint had something related to professional sports. Also Montana is home to the Buffaloberry shrub which can reach as tall as 812 feet, just a fact...
Also lets not forget about another hint: "The fox is in the hen house"...