2003 Game Flawed....

[Justin]

In my view this year's game is fundamentally flawed in several ways which need to be corrected. As I see it the most egregious of these flaws are the finals. The finals are setup in a manner that rips the control of their own destiny from teams. There should never be a situation which makes it impossible to win. There for we need to move back to best 2 out of 3 for the finals. This way if I come out and loose I still have a fighting chance....the current system barely gives me a chance at all. In addition I would like the see the abolishment of the losers score times the cumulative age of the team divided by pi scoring formulas. Raw score for the entire game qualifying rounds, finals, the whole bit. It is time that FIRST teams demand that FIRST games not be designed in the interest of Dean Kamen proving a point to the world. Also I would like to see a little of the focus shift back to the game. After all this is at some level about a robotics competition, at least it was at one point. Now it seems that all I need to do to win an award is have a good business or 7 year plan. What happened to awards like best offensive play or best defensive play? These awards have been abolished as the focus of FIRST shifts away from the game. Again more Dean Philosophy 101, he is so desperate now to avoid even the appearance that we are in some way competitive. News flash the business world is cut throat, I'm not suggesting we have to be, but I am suggesting that we can be competitive we can use defense and raw scores without sacrificing the mission of FIRST. I submit that if game design continues down its current path next year we will not need a robotics competition. Kickoff could be something to the effect of "design a really nice business plan that will make the Segway profitable."

"FIRST Purists UNITE!!!"

-Justin