[lingomaniac88]

I might as well take a crack at this. I know the diagram could be clearer, but things are described better below.

What I particularly like about this game is that there are so many strategies. It is quite a challenge to build a robot that can do everything, but less experienced teams can still contribute to the scoring effort, like in this year's game. (Yay, lapbots!) In addition, the human players have an important role because they may be able to access a scoring location that their robots cannot.

Hold 'Em High

Field:
- The game is played on a 27' x 54' carpeted playing field. The field is split into three zones: a red zone, a blue zone, and a neutral zone. The red and blue zones make up the 12' of the field in front of the red and blue alliance stations, respectively. The 30' in the middle makes up the neutral zone.
- Two of the four corners contain 7-foot "posts" in the shape of isosceles right triangles, and are fenced along the edges of the field. The other two corners contain "chutes" through which game pieces can be delivered to the human players. Neither the robots nor the human players may break the plane of the chute.
- The center of the field contains the "orb roller." The orb roller is an hollow, open-top 5' cube which holds the game pieces during the autonomous period and releases them at the beginning of the teleoperated period by releasing Plexiglas panels. The inside of the orb roller is sloped in the shape of an inverted V, allowing the game pieces to roll onto the field when the panels are released.
- The field also contains two "pedestals," or 7-foot square carts on wheels that are 2.5 feet high. Each one has a small "lip" to keep the game pieces in the cart when it is stationary, but can cause them to fall off if the pedestal is pushed too hard.
- In addition, a 10-foot high "bridge," made up of two lengths of pipe spaced 6 inches apart, goes across the long end of the field. Since game pieces can be scored on the bridge, it has stoppers to prevent the game pieces from leaving the zones.

Game Pieces:
- The game pieces are 60 standard air-filled playground 8.5-inch diameter kickballs known as "orbs." They come in five colors: white, red, blue, green, and yellow. White orbs are standard, red and blue orbs only score for their corresponding alliance, green orbs are covered with reflective tape and used during the autonomous period, and the yellow orbs are the rarest and therefore the most valuable.
- There are 35 white orbs, 8 red orbs, 8 blue orbs, 3 yellow orbs, and 6 green orbs.

Autonomous:
- After the robots are placed on the field, the pedestals are positioned as shown in the attached picture. The six green orbs are placed within the neutral zone, three on each side of the pedestals, and the other 54 orbs are placed into the orb roller.
- During the 15-second autonomous period, robots must find and grab the green orbs. If a robot is in possession of a green orb, it earns 5 points per green orb for its alliance. If a robot is holding three green orbs, it earns a 10-point bonus for its alliance (including the 15 from the orbs).

Teleoperated:
- The teleoperated period is, as usual, 2 minutes long. At the start, the orb roller releases the orbs, allowing the orbs to roll off the slopes in the orb roller. During this time, orbs may be scored by robots placing them or by the human players tossing them.

Scoring:
- Orbs have the following point values:
White: 2 points
Red: 3 points for red alliance, 0 points for blue alliance
Blue: 3 points for blue alliance, 0 points for red alliance
Green: 5 points during autonomous, 0 points during teleoperated
Yellow: 10 points
Orbs are scored if they are completely or partially within an alliance's zone. Orbs may be on the floor, on a pedestal, on a post, on the bridge, or possessed by a robot.
- The following multipliers exist depending on the height of the CENTER of the ball:
x1: less than 2'
x2: at least 2', less than 5' (pedestal)
x3: at least 5', less than 10' (post)
x5: at least 10' (bridge)
A robot on top of a pedestal (yes, I'm serious - think 2004 or 2007) at the end of a match earns 20 bonus points for its alliance.
- Note: The scoring may seem complicated, but it is feasible using some benchmarks on the field, say, the pedestals, posts, alliance station walls, etc.