I've been waiting for kickoff long enough!

[Phreadumb]

I'm sure many teams have wished they could have the advantage over others by knowing next years game early. This thread is for you to write a fictional story on how you would ascertain next year's game early. Have fun and be creative while writing your story, but don't actually execute your plans to uncover next year's game. Also, please commit on other peoples stories, praise them for good ideas, and point out their flaws.

My Plan:

First I would find out where development was taking place at in late October when the playing field is probably in final testing. After that, I would pretend to be a FexEx guy, delivering a package. Hopefully they will lead me to the new playing field so that I may view it. They may even have practice robots they created on it. I would observe and take notes in my head, perhaps play dumb and ask a question or two on what is going on. I would return to my team very very happy, but would I have a guilty conscience?

[Jared Russell]

I think that any plan would only be reasonable if it involved a time machine.

Dave has said many times before that the game as we see it is often still being tweaked in the wee hours before kickoff.

[tim_reiher]

I'd personally hire myself out as "security" for the GDC's secret bunker.

Then, once in, it's just a matter of getting the game for 2010.

Of course, there are more obstacles, as well. You need to first climb over a ramp, guarded by Wildstang's 2003 bot, then swim through the fabled "sea of Krispy Kremes" which separates the Game Vault from the committee's planning room.

Once at the vault, it's just a matter of getting past the "great sphinx". To pass, you must decipher one of Dave's game clues correctly, within 1000 guesses (which is usually accomplished through posting said clue on Chief Delphi).

Opening the vault should then be a breeze. (That is, as long as you remembered to update your WPA-key back before the ramp. You did, didn't you? )

By the time you finish these tasks, it'll probably be January 3rd, but hey, it was worth the effort anyway!

[EricH]

I've got it! I'll wait just this side of the International Date Line. Then, I get to see the game earlier than anybody else, and ship later than anybody else!

You see, I get the game earlier (local time) than anybody else, and ship later due to ship date being local time. So I get more time than anybody else to work on the robot, maybe about half a day more time than the East Coast does.

Originally Posted by EricH

I've got it! I'll wait just this side of the International Date Line. Then, I get to see the game earlier than anybody else, and ship later than anybody else!

You see, I get the game earlier (local time) than anybody else, and ship later due to ship date being local time. So I get more time than anybody else to work on the robot, maybe about half a day more time than the East Coast does.

Aww, that's not fair! Stupid west coast teams, getting all the benefits...

[NickE]

Originally Posted by jpmittins

Aww, that's not fair! Stupid west coast teams, getting all the benefits...

I'd trade the ability to drive to championship for the extra 3 hours of build season.

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by NickE

I'd trade the ability to drive to championship for the extra 3 hours of build season.

I'll agree with Nick on that one, eh flying was pretty fun. But it was really tiring, especially not being able to get sleep on the plane.

[Akash Rastogi]

Wait...you mean you guys didn't get the GDC package in the mail with the 2010 game..?

Uh oh, you should get on that.

[smurfgirl]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Wait...you mean you guys didn't get the GDC package in the mail with the 2010 game..?

Oh no, we're behind already?

[hillale]

I'll just use my Jimmy John's uniform to sneak past security. They never ask questions about freaky fast delivery guys. Especially for those 2 a.m. cravings that even evil* geniuses get.



* evil in the sense of the yearly game hint, evil.

[Chris is me]

I've already began.

As everyone knows, everything Dave Lavery touches has a game hint in it. However, picking game hints off of stuff like skin (shaking hands) or a piece of paper would simply not be cool enough to be embedded with a GREAT game hint. So we crafty folk at 1714 planned the biggest trap possible: We got him to sign our robot. After this, we took the Sharpie and the chunk of polycarbonate and had them chemically analyzed. It was a tricky operation, as the piece of poly is critical to our robot's structural integrity, but we managed to patch it together on Thursday in Atlanta. Unfortunately, it took a few weeks, so we just got our information back a few weeks ago.

When we got it back, the pen had an imprinted message with the words "water game", so we knew that was a fake. The robot, however, had a much more valuable game hint, which I will not reveal as I do not want to spoil the game. When you put the pen marks under a microscope, you'll find that imprinted in the line is a microscopic message that was "written" in clear, surrounded by black to make it hard to find. It not only revealed the game piece, it revealed the manufacturer.

From there, I personally snuck down to Nerf Inc (yes, it's made by Nerf!) and broke into their boardroom. After cutting a hole in the floor under their table, I snuck in a tape recorder and then rappelled out the skyscraper window. They're having a meeting about the game in 2 weeks, where they will explain everything about it in order to pitch to Nerf the idea of using their product at a discounted price. I'll report back to you then.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by jpmittins

Aww, that's not fair! Stupid west coast teams, getting all the benefits...

Hey, the HI teams get bigger ones!

Originally Posted by NickE

I'd trade the ability to drive to championship for the extra 3 hours of build season.

I'd trade three extra hours to build just to GO to a championship. Besides, I live in Philly, that's a two day drive away.

Originally Posted by EricH

Hey, the HI teams get bigger ones!

Hah, true.

[EricH]

Oh, and Nick...

Check your math. We get the game at 7:00 AM local; the East Coast gets it at 10:00 AM local. They ship at or before midnight local, which is 9 PM local on the West Coast...but ship date is by midnight local! That's not a 3-hour difference, it's 2 3-hour differences, both in our favor. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

(HI teams get another couple of hours on each difference, IIRC, so they can get a bigger evil laugh.)

[IndySam]

Wait will New Zealand get more or less time?