Best FIRST Game EVER?

[Chris Hibner]

2000 (Coopertition FIRST) was easily the best game in my mind. It could be played on TV and do well. It had everything that makes a great game for me:

1) Great race at the start of the match to tip the balance, but the advantage can be overcome.

2) The scoring is at the center of the field, so you can see all of the action.

3) You can always tell who's winning just by looking at the field - no need for real-time scoring.

4) Many ways to play the game led to many different robot designs.

5) Great end game

6) Great strategies

To me, 2000 is the only game that could make it in front of a non-FIRST audience.

[BenHildy]

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

2000 (Coopertition FIRST) was easily the best game in my mind. It could be played on TV and do well. It had everything that makes a great game for me:

1) Great race at the start of the match to tip the balance, but the advantage can be overcome.

2) The scoring is at the center of the field, so you can see all of the action.

3) You can always tell who's winning just by looking at the field - no need for real-time scoring.

4) Many ways to play the game led to many different robot designs.

5) Great end game

6) Great strategies

To me, 2000 is the only game that could make it in front of a non-FIRST audience.

That's an interesting take on this question. I like it. I've never taken into account which game would be best for non-robotics audiences. Another couple that would be interesting for TV audiences would be 2012 or 2010, based on the fact that both were relatively low scoring in their early days, and they are based off of wildly popular sports and don't stray far from their core concepts.

[Drakxii]

2012 Rebound Rumble good auto, good teleop, and best end game.

2014 Aerial Assist is a close second for me, with it's great teleop and good auto.

[Wert3141]

I thought 2012 (Rebound Rumble) was an amazingly well designed game. It was very easy for newcomers to follow and watch, the real time scoring was spot on, it had just the right amount of defense, and the end game was insane to watch.

[teslalab2]

I love Lunacy and I am really sad I never got to play it.

[Montavo]

My personal favorite would be 2013s - Ultimate Ascent.
- The game had an interesting/fun game piece which we would sometimes use during our break to play catch with the team.
- Ultimate Ascent was a simple for everyone to understand (Shoot frisbees into goals, End game Hang on the pyramid), although the game did not really emphasize teamwork they did a great job involving teamwork in 2014 & 2015 bringing in points for assist + cooperation.

[BumblingBuilder]

I have a feeling this thread was inspired by our discussion heading home from North Star....

[BenHildy]

Originally Posted by BumblingBuilder

I have a feeling this thread was inspired by our discussion heading home from North Star....

Partly, yes. However I'm also just generally curious. That's why the discussion on the bus happened in the first place

[SteveGPage]

My $0.02:

FTC - 2010 - Hot Shot. Only game I ever coached a team. It helped that we (Under the Son) were the World Champs that year, too!

FRC:
1. Aim High - loved the offense and defense periods, as well as the end game.
2. Ultimate Ascent - fast moving, great challenge, loved climbing the tower.
3. Stronghold (after the season, I'll have a better chance to reflect on this and not be just comparing this year to last year!)

[BenHildy]

Originally Posted by SteveGPage

My $0.02:

FTC - 2010 - Hot Shot. Only game I ever coached a team. It helped that we (Under the Son) were the World Champs that year, too!

FRC:
1. Aim High - loved the offense and defense periods, as well as the end game.
2. Ultimate Ascent - fast moving, great challenge, loved climbing the tower.
3. Stronghold (after the season, I'll have a better chance to reflect on this and not be just comparing this year to last year!)

I agree with Aim High being pretty high up there. With it being only the second year with a three-team alliance, the whole idea of the robots switching between periods of offense and defense created some truly interesting robot designs. Also the challenge of shooting into a minuscule hole challenged the programming teams more than ever before. Finally, the added difficulty of driving up a fairly steep ramp at the end was fun!

[bduddy]

I tried making a list once, then decided it was too hard. So, here instead, is my tier list of the 16 games I have any knowledge of. (The first game I saw in person is 2004, but I feel like I know enough about the three before that to judge them). Games are not ranked within a tier.

Tier 1
2014 - Aerial Assist
2006 - Aim High

Tier 2
2016 - Stronghold
2013 - Ultimate Ascent
2012 - Rebound Rumble
2005 - Triple Play
2004 - FIRST Frenzy

Tier 3
2010 - Breakaway
2008 - FIRST Overdrive
2007 - Rack n Roll
2002 - Zone Zeal

Tier 4
2015 - Recycle Rush
2011 - Logomotion
2009 - Lunacy

Tier 5
2003 - Stack Attack
2001 - Diabolical Dynamics

My opinion only, of course. Aim High is really the one where I leaned more on public opinion, because I saw very little of that game.

I'd really like to learn enough about the first 9 games to rate them, but there isn't that much video out there or anything...

[Conor Ryan]

I would really like to see a reboot of a challenge similar to FIRST Frenzy. 3v3 instead of 2v2. The game still stands as a very difficult challenge.

My Favorite Games:
04 - FIRST Frenzy - So many ways to play the game in an effective manner. Human player was able to influence the outcome.
Cons: Some parts were ahead of its time, field had a lot of things going on.

13 - Aerial Assist - The game piece we always wanted.
Cons: The injuries

14 - Ultimate Accent - THE STRATEGY OMG. I still don't think people understand how to play this game.
Cons: No End Game. Arguably the single most difficult engineering challenge with climbing and shooting.

06 - Aim High - Fun way to score.
Cons: My Robot sounded like a rusty shopping cart. Scoring options were limited, not much variety in strategy.

[thatprogrammer]

Originally Posted by Conor Ryan

I would really like to see a reboot of a challenge similar to FIRST Frenzy. 3v3 instead of 2v2. The game still stands as a very difficult challenge.

My Favorite Games:
04 - FIRST Frenzy - So many ways to play the game in an effective manner. Human player was able to influence the outcome.
Cons: Some parts were ahead of its time, field had a lot of things going on.

13 - Aerial Assist - The game piece we always wanted.
Cons: The injuries

14 - Ultimate Accent - THE STRATEGY OMG. I still don't think people understand how to play this game.
Cons: No End Game. Arguably the single most difficult engineering challenge with climbing and shooting.

06 - Aim High - Fun way to score.
Cons: My Robot sounded like a rusty shopping cart. Scoring options were limited, not much variety in strategy.

I think you have 13 and 14 confused

[RonAyyyyyyyy]

I think Ultimate Ascent was by far the best game just because of the strategic variety. There were so many ways to contribute meaningfully to an alliance and because of that, so many different types of robots (floor load sweepers, full court shooters, pure cyclers, 50 point end games).

But my personal favorite is Aerial Assist, I personally liked the strategy behind that game a lot more.

[chrisfl]

2014 Aerial Assist was probably the best game. It was a lot of strategy on the drivers side as literally anything could happen. We also had families saying they would invite their friends over to watch our events as if it was a football game. I really liked the 2012 game, Rebound Rumble, but I feel it came before its time. There were a lot of low scoring matches as it was hard to score and I'd love to see the game now with more advanced vision software and technology.