"Competition format" game suggestions

[Robby O]

Though competition format coming back is very cool, it does not neccisarily mean that there isnt a 4v? possibility. Why not 2 placebos vs. 4 teams? The placebos would be much better engineered and have had time to test out many options. There could be maybe 6 similar placebo's per field, each with a different function, which would be 30 placebo's with 5 fields. There would be a placebo corral and a Denim-coat juntio... no wait, sorry, couldnt resist that one... But 6 placebos assigned to a field would keep the repair and transfering from field to field down.

Another thing to keep in mind (that I'm probably rehashing) is robot and human saftey. Water creates hazards for both the robot and teams - electrical shocks to teams, and more robots will be more likely to be disabled. And once your electrial system is shot, especially rookie teams, that's pretty much it, unless innovationFIRST was willing to constantly shell out these parts. Though it could be on them to make water-proof connectors and parts...

The WD40 on a ramp, while cool, would also pose saftey hazards to robots and people - people standing on the ramp or going to fetch thier robots and slipping or the robot slipping. That's also a pain to clean up and transport, upkeep, etc.

Instead of WD40, what about rollers on the floor or a ramp? They could be disabled by having a lever pulled by a robot, adding the potential for more automation on robots. And how about secondary levels, or bridges? With combined interactivity between the ground bots and the floor bots somehow (like bridge bots have access to levers that modify the game floor or only they can maneuver the goals or scoring objects.)

And what about scoring objects??? Once in mind keeping robot damage and human damage to a minimum, some ideas I've got follow:

SOFT NERF footballs - people have always wanted footballs, but the danger to the players was rather obvious.

Those punching-clown thingies. Those would be neat and rather entertaining, but would have a high rate of damage done to them.

The moving goals were kinda neat. How about combine them with a puck-style apparatus. You have to drag the goals onto the puck to gain points or multipliers, and the goals were shorter and had a raised center, and a small lip, bearly holding in whatever scoring objects would be used.

Weebles. Teehee. Weebles wobble but they dont fall down. Though they would stay down under a set of treads. Weebles would go great with the above goal.

This one is an odd one that I've come up with, similar to floppies and torrids. Make an 18 inch size frisbee out of NERF foam, and cut a 6 inch hole in the center. The outside rim would be a 2inch thick flat spot, covered in velcro, and the inside would be a slim half-inch thick, making it like a modified donut. The problem with these is it would be hard to make home-made versions.

How about denim clothing??? The robot with the most stylish Dean-Doll at the end of the round gets a bonus. There are three kinds of denim, each worth varying amounts of points, torn denim, blue denim, and almost-bleached white denim. That would go great with a 1on1on1 game. Besides, what team wouldnt love to have a Dress-Me-Up-Dean Doll???

Stick a scoring-tower in me, I'm done. Well, for the next hour anyways... B^P