[Official 2008 Game Design] OK, so YOU design the 2009 game...

[Ericgehrken]

One element that recent games have been missing was variety in strategy in alliances. The games over the past few seasons have been very straightforward. This season with teams hurdling trackballs and racing. Last season with scoring on the rack and ramping. And 06 with just shooting/dumping balls into goals. What FIRST needs is a game where there are a variety of strategies that prevail. There needs to be simplicity and complexity for a wide variety of teams. A 2004 style game is the change we need.

In Play Pin Brawl there are many objectives. A box on wheels team can score by ramping while a veteran may want to build a hybrid shooter and try to lift themselves on the pole. A variety of strategies will prevail.

Play Pin Brawl
The Field
Play Pin Brawl is played on a 54’x27’ Carpeted Playing Field. The field contains a center game piece structure known as the ball pin. On both player station sides of the field there is a high goal (30” diameter and 12’ high) and two low goals (on ground level). The field also contains a bonus pole and a ramp.









The Game Piece
The game pieces are 3” diameter hard plastic play pin style balls.
The Object
The object of Play Pin Brawl is to gather balls from the Play Pin and shoot them into the goals.
Match Play
Teams compete in alliances of three. They each must position their robots so they are touching their alliance station wall. The ball pit begins each match with 50 balls in it.
Each match is 2:15 seconds in length. 15 Seconds for Hybrid Mode and 2 Minutes of driver control.
Hybrid Mode
Robots start the match with up to 10 balls.
Robots use preprogrammed commands and commands from their robocoach to attempt to score the 10 balls for regular points in either the high or low goals. They can also earn 5 bonus points for crossing the half field line in hybrid. Alliances also score bonus points for touching the outer wall of the ball pit at the end of hybrid. They score bonus points in the following manner, 4 points for having one robot, 10 for two, and 20 for all three alliance robots touching the ball pit wall.
Tele-operation
Robots are now under student driven control and earn points by scoring balls in the goals. 3 points for each ball in the high goal and 1 point for each ball in the low goal.
End Game Bonuses
Play Pin Brawl features many end game bonuses that only one of the two alliances can receive bonus for each. A robot that uses the bonus pole that is 10 feet high to elevate itself at least 1 foot clear of the ground will receive a 50 point bonus for their alliance. A robot that uses the ramp and is fully on top of the ramp will receive a 20 point bonus for their alliance.
In the final 30 seconds of the match the ball pit will become moveable. If an alliance is able to have the entire ball pit in their home zone (within 12 feet of their alliance station wall) then they will receive a 30 point bonus plus 1 point for each ball that is inside of the ball pit.