[Justin M.]

I honestly don't like it. It should be a game, this is just pure human strategy. The robots will be very simple so the only thing setting apart team's is their strategist.

FIRST has always been a sport, more or less, where you essentially "build" the player. Last years game was the perfect example of this, as well as the year before that. The games were based mostly on robot performance, features, design, and a little bit of driver skill - which is what it should be. This is a ROBOTICS competition, isn't it? The robot should be doing the work and playing the game for the most part.

This year everybody's robot will more or less be the same - there is no room for different designs. Your robot either needs to be able to score, or push the scorers. The rest is all human based strategy (i.e. where to put the tubes).

Aim High, and Triple Play, were possibly the best games ever created by FIRST, IMO. They allowed many robot designs to work, and were just $@#$@#$@#$@# fun to play. This year's challenge is essentially playing 8x3 tic tac toe with no diagonals, and you need to do this with a robot....like I said this is all going to lie on human strategy, unlike last year where the robot had to score as many points as it could (letting the robot do the work!).

This is my junior year in HS - next year will be the last FIRST competition I compete in as a student and direct part of the team. I will be in charge of everything next year - I really hope that FIRST comes up with something better than this year's game for my final year (I'll come back as a mentor though!).