2010 Breakaway Competition

[O'Sancheski]

hey everyone... i was just wondering if there was anyone else out there who really doesn't like this years game... i personally am not a big fan of it because first really limited your restrictions this year... the scoring system is all crazy... and scouting is a nightmare... i mean for scouting pictures you can go on google images and find a turtle lying on its back and it would look like 95% of the bots out there... this is just my $0.02, so don't take any offense to me...

[kstl99]

Being my first year I can't compare it to previos games but I very much enjoyed the game. Perhaps our team getting to the GSR finals made it more exciting for me. Once the elimination rounds started the intensity picked up and made it even more enjoyable. I even enjoyed watching the playoffs in NY and Florida on the web. I think it emphasises strategy and drive team skills. And I like turtles.

[AcesJames]

I think it all depends on what you like to see and find exciting. Not everyone is going to love ever game the GDC puts out. However, I've yet to see a game that everyone hated. It might be frustrating, and the rules and restrictions might be annoying....but when has that ever stopped a team from building a robot and competing with it?

Personally, I loved last year's game. The open field and horrible driving conditions, coupled with the massive scoring potential were fun to me. I also liked that you didn't have to be completely accurate in your scoring, and the "bump and dump" approach to the game seemed to work rather well. But, that's just me. I know plenty of people who rather disliked Lunacy.

[EricH]

I like the gameplay. I just don't like some of the methods of dealing with issues that came up.

Oh, and the most universally disliked game of all time was 2001 and its 4v0 format.

Probably one of the most intense rounds I saw was the set in Arizona QFs involving team 60 (I think QF3) and the Arizona semis (SF1) that went to three matches due to a penalty-induced tie at 9 points apiece. (Would have been 10-9, but one of the robots on the alliance with 10 touched a robot in contact with a tower.)

[Thuperscout]

Originally Posted by EricH

I like the gameplay. I just don't like some of the methods of dealing with issues that came up.

Oh, and the most universally disliked game of all time was 2001 and its 4v0 format.

Probably one of the most intense rounds I saw was the set in Arizona QFs involving team 60 (I think QF3) and the Arizona semis (SF1) that went to three matches due to a penalty-induced tie at 9 points apiece. (Would have been 10-9, but one of the robots on the alliance with 10 touched a robot in contact with a tower.)

In one of our matches we "won" 12 to 0... then we found out one of our alliance partners got 11 points in penalties. We won 1 to zero

Originally Posted by AcesJames

I think it all depends on what you like to see and find exciting. Not everyone is going to love ever game the GDC puts out. However, I've yet to see a game that everyone hated. It might be frustrating, and the rules and restrictions might be annoying....but when has that ever stopped a team from building a robot and competing with it?

Personally, I loved last year's game. The open field and horrible driving conditions, coupled with the massive scoring potential were fun to me. I also liked that you didn't have to be completely accurate in your scoring, and the "bump and dump" approach to the game seemed to work rather well. But, that's just me. I know plenty of people who rather disliked Lunacy.

I also loved last years game, it was excellent to watch, waiting for that critical dump or score. I started this year hating the new game, but It's grown on me a lot And hey, in this game there is still massive scoring potential hehe

And AceJames! If I had a dollar for everytime someone asked me if FIRST was like battlebots, I'd be rich. That just made my day.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by O'Sancheski

and scouting is a nightmare

It's a good year to sink in that you can't judge a robot based on looks, when they all look the same...

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by EricH

I

Probably one of the most intense rounds I saw was the set in Arizona QFs involving team 60 (I think QF3) and the Arizona semis (SF1) that went to three matches due to a penalty-induced tie at 9 points apiece. (Would have been 10-9, but one of the robots on the alliance with 10 touched a robot in contact with a tower.)

Yes, I recall the intensity from the red side of the field.

[Ice Berg]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

It's a good year to sink in that you can't judge a robot based on looks, when they all look the same...

I like the game quite a bit this year, but I find the fact that the majority of robots look he same to be odd. Dean's HW this year was to make FIRST into more of a spectator sport, but with most of the robots looking the same, and changing bumper colors, I find it hard to follow a specific team from match to match, and it must be even harder for spectators who aren't involved in FIRST.

I think that the mechanical challenges this year are much more interesting and difficult than those last year, and in that sense I really like this game.

[The Lucas]

Originally Posted by EricH

Oh, and the most universally disliked game of all time was 2001 and its 4v0 format.

2003 Stack Attack was by far the worst game!
What was the point of that game again? I think it was to descore your opponent's points (unless you both agreed not to) then drive up a ramp

Breakaway is decent so far and it has potential as strategies continue to evolve.

[PAR_WIG1350]

Originally Posted by O'Sancheski

i mean for scouting pictures you can go on google images and find a turtle lying on its back and it would look like 95% of the bots out there

Hey!!! cool, that is almost exactly what our robot looks like!!!
( except, our's isn't upside down when it does)

[Basel A]

I rather like this year's game. people are saying the seeding system is bad, but so far in our two districts, it seems like the best teams rose to the top, or would not have been seeded anyway. I think the GDC's intent (to discourage defense) was accomplished quite well in that there wasn't a very large effect via 6v0 and not a lot of defense was played in qualifying. Also, I like how it depends both on robot mobility and driver skill, rather than merely how well you built that robot 9not that there's anything wrong with building a great robot). That means you need both skill and the foresight to have seen that the faster, more agile robots would do better. Our team didn't actually see that coming, but it did end up working in our favor.

I also like how easy it was for others to understand. The scoring is pretty simple, and the game heavily alludes to something that people already know how to play and how to strategize for. In that way, I can bring someone in and only have to explain the game in a few sentences. Also, the eliminations are pretty exciting. The game is a lot more simple than in qualification matches, because it goes back to the basic "score more than the opponents, or don't let your opponents score" tactic. it's simple to understand, and easy to watch. I like it.

I disliked last year's game only because 1) the intra-match score was way off most of the time, which made it difficult to gauge how a match went without staying for the score. Basically, too many points for too many balls that are difficult to see. A lot like a couple previous years. Also, 2) too much emphasis on human players. I understand that FIRST means for there to be a little leeway and a little luck involved in the games, but last year a good human player could make you the best team, whether or not your robot was good at all.

I can't really talk besides these two years, because these are the only two years I've been involved in FIRST. But anyway, those are my over-expressed opinions.

[O'Sancheski]

thank you everyone... this is great to see others opinions besides mine

[GaryVoshol]

I liked the games where there is strategy in scoring, like Rack-n-Roll and Triple Play. Not just, "Let's score as many pieces as we can." Rather, "Where is the best place to score this next piece?" Breakaway doesn't make it for me on that criteria.

I also think elevating is slightly underrated; perhaps it should be 3 points. Suspending earns far too few points, making it not worthwhile for teams to create a robot that can suspend another. If there was a greater reward, we might see a greater diversity of robots.

Overall it's more a good game than bad, but it won't be one of my favorites.

[Leav]

2005 (Triple Play) was my first year and I was completely clueless so I can't really give my opinion of it..

2006 (Aim High) is, I think, almost unanimously agreed upon as the best game ever. with it's important autonomous mode, flying objects, attack-defense periods and fluid game play it made an exciting and fun game to watch and play.

2007 (Rack n' Roll) was OK but the large rack hindered mobility of the robots and made the game slow in the lower levels.

2008 (Overdrive) was pretty cool, however penalties were a major issue deciding many matches and detracting from the game.

2009 (Lunacy) The trailers, while a cool idea, proved cumbersome, and many matches deteriorated into a Katamari Damacy style "ball-of-robots" moving around the field. I think this was mainly due to the lack of multiple focus points on the field itself (such as the goals in 2010) which keep robots spread out.

2010 (Breakaway) Maybe it's just the first and second week regionals, but my feeling is that the bumps slow down the game speed considerably. and mainly create a 3x(1v1) game. we are already seeing the games picking up in elims when teams coordinate strategies better. it remains to be seen how later regionals will transform the game (as they always seem to do) into a more dynamic game with better coordination.

I think we'll indeed end up with robot soccer with more cooperation between alliance robots creating a real team with a goalie, a mid-fielder and a striker.

if you compare it to the last several years, I think that even from this early vantage point Breakaway favors nicely as an exciting game, but it's full potential is only reached when many teams on the field can easily traverse the bump, or when each alliance works together to create a real soccer team.

A Plea to teams:
if you have the time, please try and get your event taped and uploaded to "The Blue Alliance"! so little events are being recorded this year!

-Leav

[MikePres]

In retrospect, Lunacy was a great game in all parameters. The human involvement wasn't that disastrous and it made the game more dynamic and made shown the robot-human cooperation (which is a plus in FIRST). FIRST isn't just about building a good robot it's also about building a great team.

I'm sorry but Breakaway is boring! while i was scouting from the crowd, i almost fell asleep. i almost didn't see any brilliant moves and i think i'm not the only one that hoped for some flip-overs to get some action in the game. The hanging points are a joke. If the GDC really wanted us to lift ourselves or others they should have given us at least 10 points. Also the ranking system doesn't fill it's job, people take advantage of its loop-holes. I think that the GDC should do a lot of HW on this year's game before they decide what to do in 2011.

Originally Posted by Leav

I think we'll indeed end up with robot soccer with more cooperation between alliance robots creating a real team with a goalie, a mid-fielder and a striker.

...

A Plea to teams:
if you have the time, please try and get your event taped and uploaded to "The Blue Alliance"! so little events are being recorded this year!

-Leav

That's what we tried to do in our final alliance. Defensive bots were completely useless in the qualifying matches but were key in the Finals Tournament.

Leav, we taped some of our matches on cam, how can we upload them to TBA?