The Not So-Secret Secret End-Game

[Racer26]

I'm having a really hard time with the way that Aerial Assist seems like such a step backward from the leaps and bounds made toward simplicity of explaining the game to casual observers in a handful of seconds in 2012 and 2013.

2011: Convoluted scoring system with multipliers and logo bonuses that is hard to explain

2012: Its robot basketball, and they get points for balancing the bridge at the end of the game, more robots, more points.

2013: Throw frisbees into goals for points, hang from pyramid for more points at the end. Climb higher, get more points.

2014: Throw balls into goals, but you get more points along a non-linear scale for more robots touching it, plus theres this truss you can throw it over, and you get more points for catching it out of the air.

ADDITIONALLY

Aerial Assist is going to have difficulty being scored consistently. The only way to score Aerial Assist is to have refs being VERY careful to watch who touches what balls where, how they caught them out of the air, and what goals they've been fired through.

In the last several years, FIRST has being trying really hard to make games that can be scored automatically by means of sensors on the field, because realtime scoring on the videoboard near the field is important to helping casual observers follow the action.

I'm just seeing this as a big step backwards from the "New FIRST" we've seen in 2012 and 2013.