What will FRC 2016 Stronghold be remembered by?

[Ginger Power]

I think when the dust settles and people are looking back on Stronghold from a distance it'll go down as one of the best FIRST games of all time. Red cards, fouls, mocking up defenses... I think most of those things will be forgotten by all but a few diehards (aka the people on this forum).

We can take some very important (and amazing) things away from Stronghold:

Some of the greatest matches in the history of FIRST. Whenever I'm selling the program to others I'm going to pull out the video of 330's otherworldly match. Fall down, don't give up, get back up and win. I feel so blessed to have seen that match in person. Greatest sporting moment I've ever seen especially considering where it led them.

Most teams have an incredible demo bot now. Big pneumatic wheels, a powerful shooter that fires a dodgeball... I don't know about other teams, but I know for a fact that 4607 will be playing dodgeball against our robot and practice robot. Plus those big pneumatic wheels are great for driving off road. We'll be driving our robot out onto the football field and in parades. Something we wouldn't do with 4" omni wheels. I'm excited for the marketing possibilities that this year's robots provide.

We all now have access to a soundbite that will undoubtedly make it loud. When Will.i.am said #tsimfd the people around me went absolutely insane. They weren't upset at the crude language. They were in absolute agreement. We all know what FIRST is. We all know how freaking incredible the program is. Will.i.am just went ahead and said what we all know to be true. I can't wait to show that clip to people.

Stronghold was one for the ages. It certainly brought energy back to FRC after that 2015 Game (whatever it was called) tried to suck the life out of it. I could see a Robozone-esque show on ESPN with highlights of Stronghold. I was sitting behind some older ladies who seemed to be outsiders to FIRST (no relation to teams + new to FIRST) and they were biting their knuckles and freaking out with the rest of us during those playoffs. There really isn't an audience that this game/program doesn't get to in some way. Very marketable game. Let's hope the GDC can keep up the great work.