anyone have any ideas about next years game?

[Karibou]

I really hate to rain on parades and shut down ideas quickly, but the possibilities of a blind portion of a game are very slim to none. This idea comes up every year, and the main reasons why it probably won't happen (taking into account the multiple ways that the effect could be achieved, such as curtains over the driver station, over the field, etc.) are:

1. Safety. Safety safety safety. Two robots get entangled and nobody can see it? Sounds like a great way to pull some wires and create smoke (magic or otherwise). Blinding the drivers doesn't enable them to see their robot, so they couldn't see if anything were to begin malfunctioning.
2. Spectators. Probably close to 75% of the people at FIRST events are in the crowd. If they can't see part of the field, then they probably won't be too excited to watch the matches. Also, if the scouts couldn't see the robots, then they can't scout the robots for that portion, and that would be a HUGE blow to a lot of strategy teams.

I like the idea of a blind mode involving robots, but I just don't think that it's right for FIRST.

>.<