Why I Like This Year's Game

[billbo911]

This game has several aspects I really like seeing:

1) It allows the most basic robot (Can you say Rookie team?) to still contribute to an alliance. If a team just assembles the KOP chassis and hooks up the electronics, they can score!

2) "Middle experienced" teams can stretch their skills and do really well in Hybrid Mode. A small amount of programming and they can score quite well. Add in the use of a gyro and encoders along with the IR board and now you have a reliably killer Hybrid bot.

3) Senior teams have the opportunity to really strut their stuff. Look for some really awesome bots from this level this year.

4) This point is actually one of my favorites. Defense, though still present, has been greatly reduced in it's value and reward. I never have felt that it had much of a place in FIRST. Don't get me wrong, there can be a lot of creativity and strategy in defense, but they way it has been heading in the last few years, I didn't feel we were much different than BattleBots. I have always felt there was way more value in designing a robot to achieve something than there was in preventing others from succeeding in achieving what they had designed for.



I fully expect to see some awesome drive trains this year: Holonomic, Swerve Drive, Crab Drive, Multi Speed trannies etc. I'm looking for innovative arms and hoists. Hybrid/Autonomous modes that are very impressive.