Best FIRST game...

[EricH]

Originally Posted by magnets

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.

A delay can be added in. See: 2006, 2007.

[dodar]

2007
2012
2010
2014
2008
2013
2011
2009

[JohnFogarty]

2010
2014
2012
2008
2007
2013

[Billfred]

My list goes as follows:

2004 (FIRST Frenzy: Raising The Bar): Yeah, it was my rookie year so I was easily impressed--but the diversity of viable robots is unparalleled today, and those ball trays were just dope.
2012 (Rebound Rumble): This and Ultimate Ascent duke it out for the #2 spot, but I'm going to give it to Rebound Rumble. Both had exciting autonomous and teleop strategies, but Rebound Rumble's endgame was more consistently thrilling top to bottom while Ultimate Ascent could easily end with nobody going past Level 1 on the pyramid.
2013 (Ultimate Ascent): See above.
2006 (Aim High): Best autonomous mode they've ever done. The endgame wasn't too thrilling, but the action was great from start to finish.
2014 (Aerial Assist): This game would've been better with improved implementation (refs were overloaded for sure), but I still enjoyed it greatly. Lots of action, easy to track two balls, tons of strategy plays. You could explain it in a tweet.
2009 (Lunacy): Super fun engineering challenge. Human players might've been a little strong in the game, but the strategies to score while you protect your neck were very exciting.
2008 (FIRST Overdrive): Still a very enjoyable game, but I think Aerial Assist did launching exercise balls better and Rebound Rumble did limited human player control in autonomous better.
2011 (Logomotion): Slide this one notch up if you're playing under IRI rules. The game concept was fun, but the minibots just got out of hand. When you're expecting to smoke two $30-something motors every single match just to have a hope at winning, there's a problem.
2007 (Rack 'N Roll): Some cool elements here, but the dedicated rampbot with nothing to do until the last 30 seconds harmed it. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. (And this was also the year BaneBots gearboxes came in the kit. Remember that saga?)
2005 (Triple Play): This was the first game I ever coached in. From the driver station or from the stands, it was murderous to tell who was winning at a glance.
2010 (Breakaway): Low scores, 99% of robots look the same due to high bumpers and limited ball control, few hangs and all of what, two suspensions all year? I watched the eliminations at IRI and didn't get thrilled. Next.

[artK]

My favorite games (that I attended an event for) are listed below. I personally like games where all the robots can contribute equally (or close to it) to the completion of the strategy.

2014: I loved the roles that each robot took in an alliance took to make it score, and the strategy was open enough that a non high-scoring alliance partner could still contribute to the game.
2010: Similarly, at least in what I can remember from this game, match strategy was how all the seemingly similar robots could differentiate themselves.
2013: Again, all the robots on an alliance could do different things, and could still pull off a win, but the minimum you needed to do this year to be competitive was higher that the last two years.
2011: This game was alright, but for the most part, the third robot (even on Einstein alliances) would almost exclusively play defense, and maybe would have one of the minibots.
2012: I never liked this game, as soon as I saw the kickoff, I knew the game sucked. The coopertition bridge can go rot in some unpleasant place. I don't even remember what a third robot could do other than drive on the wide configuration so the triple balance was easier. Even Einstein was a disappointment.

Based on this, I think this year could be a good game, but will probably depend on how deep the field is.

[indubitably]

I've only been around since 2008, but from what I hear and watch from the past years, my favorite all time games are:

2014
2005
2007
1999
2013

Least favorite are:

2002
2010
2009
2004
1995