[Official 2007 Game Design] Radical Tournament Ideas

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

I'd like to see the human player engaged more in physical competition. I know that FIRST isn't a physical competition, but too often, the human player gets stuck in a secondary role, where they do little, let alone affect the outcome of the match. 2004 and 2006 were exceptions.

An engaging game would include something like an obstacle course, or button reaction and subsequent action, where the first human player or alliance to complete the task, or to continue completing the task gets a multiplier, or a more lucrative scoring opportunity. Spectators like to see physical involvement, because it shows human side of the competition a bit better. If we want FIRST to act more like sports- we need to include sport.

Along this line, and I know its too late for this year, but I always wanted to see a the human player have to run on a treadmill or ride a staionary bike and maintian a minimum power output, say 150 watts. If you fell below this your robot would be handicapped by limiting max voltage available to the motors.