I did some research on all the past years' game hints starting from 2003 (when they began giving hints)... they are really quite arbitrary ...
Here is a baseless brain dump...
2001 is the 10th anniversary of frc ... 1991 is when the best of little eva album was released, 20 years ago when frc began
if 2001 was as diabolical as it seems to be to me ... the 20th anniversary is gonna be worse. coming from the chairman's point of view ... somehow it might incorporate some unusual degree of cooperation as i guess they would want to celebrate their message too ... 2001 was kind of like that
one of my first thoughts was ...
since the image has to be reversed and it marks the 10th anniversary of little eva's work ... maybe it's a "reflection of the past" ... strictly from the a standpoint about the nature of the game ... well suited for the 20th anniversary...
Some keywords from getty images, which holds the image from the gems/redferns collection ... according to them the image was created 01 Jan 1960 ...Referring to style ... vertical | Referring to subject matter ... small, music, arts culture and entertainment, eva
...interpreting the pillar, something with height...they seem to like racks or tower-like goals for game pieces ... as in 1996, 2001, 2007 etc...
the height reference might also mean game pieces on rails or ladders like 1998
...could also just mean robots attaching vertically for bonus...
her hit is locomotion which implies crazy motion I guess ... maybe something weird with the robots' motions like 2009 ... that was real fun to watch ... or reflecting a new type of robot motion ... or movable goals like 2004 ...
it was released in 1962 ... 8 planets were in conjunction, some really rare thing or whatever....might relate to the lunar eclipse that happened the morning the clue was posted...about the reversal and all...
compact cars developed, united stated rocket ranger IV landed on the moon, marilyn monroe was found dead, the first american orbited the earth on the friendship 7 mission/exploration, brazil won the world cup in chile, release of the beatles first hit, first trans-atlantic tv signal was relayed ....
don't think this is getting anywhere ...
or it could be tied to something coming up this year ... maybe the cricket world cup .... just throwing that out there. XD
and just a personal sidetrack comment since they started giving out hints in 2003 ... they have alternated between balls as game pieces (though I think they should stay away from storage bins for a while...) and other things as game pieces ... if they keep that going ... guess there's a possibility of a weird piece this year since they did soccer balls last year.
mkay. i'm done.
thanks for reading...
can't wait till kickoff.
P.S. and yes ... i have read all 33 pages of this forum ...