2013 ACTUAL game hint!!!

[TD912]

I don't think Seal will suddenly show up at kickoff to perform, but I do think there could be another meaning.

There's the animal, which people have mentioned previously.

Then there's multiple dictionary definitions, the first one being:

Originally Posted by New Oxford American Dictionary, 3rd edition

a device or substance that is used to join two things together so as to prevent them from coming apart or to prevent anything from passing between them

Will there be things that need to be held onto? Or maybe obstacles on the field?

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by TD912

I don't think Seal will suddenly show up at kickoff to perform, but I do think there could be another meaning.

I would rather have Heidi Klum show up.

[|DELTA|]

Originally Posted by IndySam

I would rather have Heidi Klum show up.

Hey! good Idea... would be even better if it was some sort of water game...

Also, "Seal" as in, a device used to keep things watertight? *wink*

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV

Traffic cones are very high on my list of game pieces that would be great for FRC.

Me too.

They are in a way just like rounded Tetra's... they can be stacked in the same way. The downside is that they can only be stacked one way, but hey, that's another challange!

[inkspell4]

Could somebody please restate the current translation.

[rhinobot]

Originally Posted by inkspell4

Could somebody please restate the current translation.

A ROSE, KISSED
SINGER GREAT
A DINNER, MISSED
HOLDING WEIGHT

[ENIAC]

Originally Posted by inkspell4

Could somebody please restate the current translation.

A ROSE, KISSED
SINGER GREAT
A DINNER, MISSED
HOLDING WEIGHT

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by IndySam

I would rather have Heidi Klum show up.

All of our robots will have to balance Heidi Klum clones at the end of the game for bonus points.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

All of our robots will have to balance Heidi Klum clones at the end of the game for bonus points.

sigh, forum rules dictate we keep this clean

[Bill_B]

Balance would be the operative word. Heidi is already stacked.

[ReapersRule]

I have definitely noticed the recurring "3" everywhere. What if this is a reference to the third FRC game, Tower Power?

"Contestants attempt to place as many of their soccer balls possible inside one of two goals. In each match, three-team alliances compete to place 12 balls of their team color inside either the high goal, worth 3 points, or in the low goal, worth one point per ball. The winner is the team that has the highest total point value of soccer balls within the two goals at the end of the two minute match. In the case of a tie, the team with more balls in the upper goal wins." (http://www.usfirst.org/sites/default...ies_Photos.pdf)


Now, our "translation" says:
A ROSE, KISSED
SINGER GREAT (GREAT may be TREAT)
A DINNER, MISSED
HOLDING WEIGHT

Now, due to the apparent rhyme scheme, great does make more sense than treat, as it rhymes with weight. So, we have a rose which has been kissed and a great singer. Right? Then, we have a dinner which was missed and something holding weight.

Unless, it is a rose kissed by a great singer and a missed dinner that is holding weight. Ok, I'm just making up random stuff now. But still, I feel like there may be something to the idea that maybe there are objects to be scored on different levels. Maybe? Possibly?

[mikeleslie]

OK, here's my guess"
A game with the following features:
A scoring "tower" with a (vision target for aiming or a light target for activation) which must be first "opened" for maximum benefit.

I like the idea of something other than balls to manipulate, so it'e either cubes or tetras (FIRST symbol branding)

Bot's holding each other up or carrying at the end....

The objects will no doubt have images of Seal and Heidi Klum,

[inkspell4]

Maybe we have to balance a ball on a cone painted like a seals nose.



And the robot has to throw a pie at somebody in the audiance

[dcarr]

From someone on my team:

Oh my goodness you guys it's obviously a love story gone awry. So there was this girl who liked the frontman in the band and they kissed and stuff but he didn't show up for dinner and she got fat by being depressed and eating too much ice cream. And robotics is somehow involved.

[Flimsor]

Here's my view of these hints and the games. I think each hint is just a specific part of the game or something like that (maybe the robot). I think that the Rick Astley hint is pointing to the end game, since the screenshot was taken at exactly 3 minutes, and if that's the length of the new game, it would be the end game. 3 is coming up a lot, so this must be extremely important. I think the pins have something to do with the layout of the field.

Someone looked into that picture's metadata and found the gps coordinates of where it was taken from. It was taken at SEE Science CenterI did some more looking into SEE Science Center. Relevant to the threes that are coming up a lot this year, there's a "Mill Number 3" right below it on Google Maps. Also, they just finished up the "Lego Millyard Project" featuring a model with over 3 million Lego bricks and, get this, it was sponsored by FIRST. Lego also turned 80 this year
http://www.see-sciencecenter.org/vis...d-project.aspx

Keeping things relevant to how this clue may be entirely about the end game, two years ago, minibots were introduced for the game. The line "never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down" may be saying that it's them bringing back old game elements. The minibots were introduced as an integration of the other FIRST Leages, and some teams got FTC teams to build them a minibot. Maybe we've got more integration, but with FLL. FLL is also the third FIRST league. If the end game has to do with that, then 3 would definitely be very important, seeing as how the end game tends to be a game changer.

As to what they'll be doing, rolling comes up a lot here. That last hint was part of pi, and pi has a very close relation to circles. If you hit play at the 3 minute mark of the Rick Astley video, the next thing he says is "Never gonna let you down". Maybe you have to roll something up a steep hill (or something like that)? I'd like to hear more ideas on this.

As for that interesting find in the KOP about the size change of the robot, I think we may be seeing smaller robots, and a bigger alliance. FIRST is getting a ton of new teams from that agreement they made with YMCA last year. This many teams in FIRST would make the current setup of 3v3 matches taken even longer, and there may not be time in the schedule for that. Many others have also pointed out in this thread how last years field had an interesting driver station setup, that could have been FIRST testing out some of the changes. A smaller chassis would also put rookie teams at less of a disadvantage to teams who pre-designed chassis (and shared them publicly) and already know what their doing. They'd have to redesign, just like everyone else. To me, a 4v4 change-up just makes sense for this year.

Looking over all of this, i've just noticed something rather interesting, although it may have nothing to do with the game itself. We've got the 3 sided triangles/tetras (relevant to all the threes), rolling objects (such as spheres), and rectangular Lego bricks (FLL/maybe FTC). That's triangle, circle, square. It's the first logo. Maybe each portion of the game models part of the logo? That may be pretty far off, though.

I'm not entirely sure what the decoded version of the "3rd" hint means, but it probably ties into this somehow. Also, the pin layout on the Rick Astley picture probably means something, but i'm not sure what. It'll all make sense after we see the game.