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Unread 23-06-2002, 22:30
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Declawed games

Posted by Marc DeSchamp.

Other on team #125, someone who remembers Ramp N Roll, from Northeastern University and Textron Systems with the kids from Boston Latin School, Brookline High, and Milton Academy.

Posted on 1/12/2000 11:04 AM MST



Am I the only one out there who thinks the games have been getting increasingly wussy
as the years go by? What ever happened to the good old days of tipping, beating,
bashing, and scoring as many points as you could in two minutes?
I remember the time, during Rumble 2 (toroid terror), when Naval Undersea Warfare
picked up and dumped Johnson and Johnson. I believe that was one of the more
exciting moments in FIRST. Granted it was a bit of a shock to the Johnson and
Johnson team, but the rule (up to that point) had always been, 'go high, but be ready to
pay the price.' Well, I guess some people didn't agree, so the tipping policy was
changed to its current state, making it the first step toward a watered down version of
the game.
Then came last year, where alliances were introduced, an iteresting concept to say the
least. Then again, someone getting mangled by a peice of industrial machinery can be
interesting..... Not neccesarily *good*, but interesting..... I believe that last year's game
clearly demnstrated that there are some major kinks in the theory of alliances, the most
profound probably being disfunctional machines. There was a lot of justified griping
about people getting stiffed as far as partners go, and I don't think anyone can deny
that, while promoting the warm and fuzzy goals of unity and sportmanship, alliances
need (at least) a major overhaul. Thus making alliances step two in the journey from
robot football to robot golf.
Step three in the process (though taken out of order) is the bumpers. Who came up
with the idea of *bumpers*?! The rules have *always* stated that your machine should
be bult to withstand abuse, rugged play, and a fair amount of smaking around. Now the
rules state tha,t if you want to, you can build a rugged, solid machine, but if you don't,
you can pad your machine from abuse (heaven forbid you break a nail). What's going
to come next? No contact rules to protect the folks who don't want to wreck their paint
job? Ugh!
The final step came in this year's game, the ultimate in wussification. FIRST
succeeded in not only keeping the worst aspect of last year's game, but magnifying it!
Now, not only are you out of luck if you're teamed up with a lousy machine, you're out of
luck if you're playing *against* one too..... What on earth is the logic here? I'm all for
helping the competition, but sometimes it comes back to bite you in the (expletive).
Fine, let's be sportsmanlike, let's loan our tools in the pit, let's cheer for our opponents,
let's be all around nice guys, but let's not have to *score* for the other team! That's
preposterous! FIRST has taken the entire idea of 'let the best man/woman win,' and
flushed it down the toilet. There has always been a certain amount of luck involved in
the games, but now, it's just absurd. This year, the best machine is almost certain not
to win, I don't care who they are. We all know what they say (and I agree), that it's not
all about winning, but about the experience you have, but, all that taken into account,
noone wants to put all that hard work in, just to see their machine 'bad lucked' right out
of the game.
All in all, I think that, over the last few years, the competitions have been getting more
and more tame. This last act has simply served to completely 'declaw' the competition
as we know it. I have seen the game go from the rough and tough Ramp N Roll,
Hexagon Havoc, and Toroid Terror (note the exciting sounding names), to the softer
and cushier Ladder Logic, and Double Trouble (which soud more like events on the
Price is Right than anything else), and now this. Well, I don't know what kind of strategy
FIRST's design guys are employing, but I hope they realize soon that it stinks.


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