Ok, I got some ideas... and i know i'll be repeating some that have already been posted, so just consider it being my support of those ideas...
so
First i figured to break it up into multiple parts. First rarely has things working together to only mean one thing. So i split it all up
the circle
the diamond plate
the 5
the background
For the circle
- it could be referring to a ball game piece. First enjoys using triangle boxes and circles for their game pieces, probably because its their logo and... ya
- a disc (similar to the nerf-style discs that someone posted a link to in page 8 or so)
For the diamond plate
- We know that diamond plate has been used for ramps in previous years
it has also been used for stairs. In reference to a post made on the first pages of the what seems to be stairs underwater around the main circle, i agree. I don't know about a circular staircase going up to a circular platform, but its possible that that piece refers to stairs
- diamond plate could also be the top platform of some sort of "hill" like the people that have mentioned a "king of the hill" type game. I agree with them as well.
For the number 5
I'm seeing a LOT of ideas running around with the number five, but, being how i am, i think a little more simple then all these references to baseball and such. I think that 5 has a more basic meaning of
- 5 robots in a free-for-all
- 5 robots attacking (1 defending)(as also mentioned)
- 5 special locations on the field that allow you to do something you can't do anywhere else, like the tetra game and the loading zones
- I like the 500 lb weight limit
and of course, the background
One thing i'd like to point out, that Tom sort of did, but made a connection with something else. Notice how the whole background seems pretty similar to all the other parts, but there is that right side that catches my eye every time i look at it. Its like its different from everything else. Tom made the connection of it being an image hidden in the clouded, twisted, blue background, but he referred to a piece in the fake hint that was released a while ago. When i looked closer, i realized it looks a lot like the scoop of some robot like a ice-snow-remover-thingamagig that cleans the street... you know what i'm saying
. It also looks like a robot is attached to it, like the scoop is facing toward the bottom of the image, and the robot (the black part right above the scoop) going towards to top.... this could be indicating that our robots will have to push stuff around more than it has to manipulate it, similar to the Raising the Bar challenge with the balls on the ground and you have to push them around...
aside from that note, I don't think that it would be underwater. As people have pointed out, its much to complicated, unless first themselves supply some sort of basic structure to allow teams to all have a waterproof robot. Dealing with water and robots is, imo, much too complicated and dangerous for FIRST to throw on both veteran and rookie teams, because of the issues it involves of electricity (12V battery) and expensive electronics.
Perhaps the blue simple shows that its 1 team (or ffa).
I also wanted to point out, did anyone else notice there is no green in the clue? Could it be possible that the light we need to detect with the camera is now blue? thus the blue background? and the black mixed with the blue show that there is not team colors?
thats my two cents, i'll see if anything else comes to mind...