Best FIRST game...

[Richard Wallace]

I agree with Glenn, Aim High was a great game. Especially when played at IRI -- oh, the carnage in that final! I enjoyed the trip my team (931) made to Waterloo that year. Great regional with outstanding volunteers.

I also liked the drama of Toriod Terror (1997), when robots could topple at any moment while attempting insanely high lifts.

[Damiaen_Florian]

My favorite game would probably be 2011's Logomotion, although the endgame was unbelievably unbalanced and usually accounted for more than half a teams total score the concept of the game and the variety of robots that were shown made it a true spectacle to watch and truly achieved FIRST's goal of using STEM to creatively solve problems. It's really unfortunate when a game lends itself to one static design and doesn't allow for much creativity.

[magnets]

Here's my ranked list of the top 4 games:
For me, there are three main goals for each game. In no particular order, they are excitement to watch/play, quality of game (variety of robots, balanced scoring, no really dumb rules), and easy to understand/explain quickly.

1). 2013- Ultimate Ascent
This game was the second most exciting game I have ever watched and had a huge variety of roles for teams to fill. Only a small minority of teams could actually do everything, and almost everybody had to make tradeoff decisions. Teams could be cyclers, floor loaders, full court shooters, 30 point climbers, dumpers, 10 point climbers, defense, blockers, or any combination of the roles. The game itself was very simple - frisbees in goals give you points with more points for the higher goal and climbing the tower gives you points. Defense was a little risky to play due to safe zones and strict climb interference penalties, so many teams focused on scoring points.

2). 2014- Aerial Assist
This was really one of the best games that FIRST has come up with. It's super simple, has tons of strategy, and was incredible to watch in St. Louis. I spent a ton of time just watching matches this year. Every weekend, I watched events, and you wouldn't have been able to pull me away from watching the matches in St. Louis. It's so far ahead of all the other games in many ways, but sadly had three huge flaws - it was not well refereed, had ridiculous penalties, and did not play very well with lower tier teams.

3). 2012- Rebound Rumble
Einstein was terrible this year, but the Archimedes finals with the Canadian alliance and 67's alliance was incredible to watch. This game just worked. It's hard to explain why exactly, but I felt that the GDC spent many hours working through how the game would be played at each level of competition and adjusted point values, the difficulty of balancing, the difficulty of crossing the field, and the number of balls so that every event would be exciting.

4). 2006- Aim High
This ranks below Rebound Rumble simply because it didn't have as good of flow. The game periods and weird offense/defense rules weren't my favorite, but I really liked the idea of shooting balls.

This year's game isn't a favorite of mine yet. I haven't seen it played yet, but the seniors on our team aren't too happy with it yet. They've been anxious to get a game that doesn't include collecting round things from the floor and throwing them into to hole located above the opposing teams alliance station, but this was not the arm/stacking game they were looking for.

However, I'd love to be proved wrong about this year, but robot to robot interaction just seems like such a critical part of FIRST that I can't imagine a game without it!

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by Damiaen_Florian

My favorite game would probably be 2011's Logomotion, although the endgame was unbelievably unbalanced and usually accounted for more than half a teams total score the concept of the game and the variety of robots that were shown made it a true spectacle to watch and truly achieved FIRST's goal of using STEM to creatively solve problems. It's really unfortunate when a game lends itself to one static design and doesn't allow for much creativity.

Logomotion is a posterchild of one or two designs being superior to all others. Roller claw + elevator/single jointed arm + direct drive minibot (preferably deployed via ramp) was by far the most effective combination.

[Scott Kozutsky]

My favorite is 2013 pretty closely followed by 2014. What made them both great is that it was easier to design basic robots that were still competitive. This meant that there were more functioning (competitive) robots on the field which is a huge improvement over other years games. (i'm a little worried about this year in this respect)

2014 had the best auto and endgame of any recent year. The only reason it doesn't have the best actual matches was because of roughness and weird foul rules.

2013 had some of the best robot design and was also really fun to watch. It's also one of the only years where a robot can accomplish a task better than a human could (full court).

It's nice having a game where the best alliance isn't the one made up of the most functional robots.

Throwing stuff is also pretty cool to watch.

[bobjones227]

Originally Posted by Scott Kozutsky

2014 had the best auto and endgame of any recent year. The only reason it doesn't have the best actual matches was because of roughness and weird foul rules.

I don't think 2014 had an endgame. Just a clarification.

[Physicguy]

I am torn between 2012 Rebound Rumble and last year Aerial Assist as my favorite...both had outstanding competition which made it fun to watch and compete.

[bkahl]

Looking past some of the more popular recent games, my vote goes to 2006, Aim High. For games I haven't participated in, this is the most entertaining to watch.

And hey, the A-Bomb was pretty awesome too.

[LilsisdeRosie]

Hmm....For games i haven't participated in but I was a spectator for the entire season my vote goes to AIM HIGH. Honestly, it was awesome to watch each match. But for games I have participated in, i have to go with Rebound Rumble. For me that one sticks out at being fun to watch as well as being very unique.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by GUI

I'm a big fan of the 2009 game Lunacy.

You and the referees. That was the easiest game to ref. Almost nothing to call on the robots, only stupid human player tricks.

Other than that, I liked Triple Play and Rack n Roll - I guess I just like weird scoring opportunities.

[Scott Kozutsky]

Originally Posted by bobjones227

I don't think 2014 had an endgame. Just a clarification.

IMO no endgame was best endgame. The last second scoring or truss was a great way to add urgency to the end of the game.

[bobjones227]

Originally Posted by Scott Kozutsky

IMO no endgame was best endgame.

Ah. I don't really have an opinion on endgames myself.

[Briansmithtown]

End games that don't add to many points to your end result are the best end game. Too many teams get fixated on the end games sometime.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

You and the referees. That was the easiest game to ref. Almost nothing to call on the robots, only stupid human player tricks.

This one ought to be pretty close to that. Other than a robot knocking stuff out of its area (off field or over step), the only thing the refs really have to do is make sure the HPs aren't up to sneaky tricks and count the score at the end.

[magnets]

Originally Posted by EricH

This one ought to be pretty close to that. Other than a robot knocking stuff out of its area (off field or over step), the only thing the refs really have to do is make sure the HPs aren't up to sneaky tricks and count the score at the end.

Autonomous mode is going to be crazy to score, especially if teams are reaching into the step to grab the containers. There's barely a delay between auto and teleop, so assessing the state of the entire field in that tiny fraction of a second is not extremely easy.