A New Age of FRC?

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Wyatt Jordan

So I know this year's game is completely different from the past two decades of FRC. Obviously one of the huge changes is having the alliances separated by a barrier which they cannot (legally) cross. I was wondering if this will be true for the next several FRC games for several reasons:

1. FIRST re-structured the manual, it is organized very differently from previous manuals and might be a template for future manuals

2. They are using colored carpet to separate the two sides, and FIRST wouldn't order a lot of new carpet for only one year right?

3. Bumpers, or lack there of. I feel like they also wouldn't change this for just one year, and the new team number display cards seem like a permanent change.

With all these big changes I was wondering if we are entering into a new age of FRC games? Do you think all future games will have alliances separated on the field and no defense? We will probably just have to wait and see, but if this is true, I'm glad I'm a senior now and not a freshman, because at least I had 3 really fun FRC games with lots of robot-to-robot struggles. (all-time favorite ultimate ascent)

1. It's restructured? They went with a different publishing method, but the general structure seems to be largely the same to me. Whats so different about it this year?

2. Carpet is only used for one event. Sometimes, carpet from later events may be sent onwards to champs for practice fields, but the carpet used on the competition field is brand new every event.

3. Bumper rules used to change all the time. First, there were none. Then they were optional. Then they were required, or had to cover a certain % of the frame perimeter, or had to cover the corners... lots of changes over the past 10 years on bumpers alone! I think the lack of required bumpers this year is due ONLY to the lack of defense in this game and the separation of the alliances. Recently, bumpers were used for 3 purposes: to help protect the robots from hard impacts, to identify the alliance the robot was on, and to identify the team number. 2 of the 3 don't apply this year, and the third was replaced with the number requirement, which is actually not really all that new of a requirement. Take, for example, R14 from 2007:

The judges, referees, and announcers must be able to easily identify ROBOTS by Team Number. Teams must display their Team Number in four locations at approximately 90-degree intervals around the perimeter of the ROBOT.
The numerals must be at least 4 inches high, at least in 3/4- inch stroke width and in a contrasting color from its background. Team Numbers must be clearly visible from a distance of not less than 100 feet.

Don't assume anything about the future based on this one game. If anything, this game is telling us that the assumptions we had about this year as little as a week ago were wrong!