I was browsing the FIRST website this afternoon and was looking at the 2002 Competition Document: The Game (pdf - 73 KB).
It didn’t describe how the game was played or anything but it appears as if there are footballs and balls again. I guess we must have to place them in the squares??
I think FIRST must have accidently placed this picture there when getting ready for the 2003 competition because it is no longer there.
I think you’ve stumbled across something huge! We’ll find out tommrow!
I don’t think they’ve uploaded anything to the website yet. I’ve been browsing around & can look at some of the directorys (shh… don’t tell :)). They know there dealing with kids who may know quite a lot about web stuff, and if they wanted to find a file on a server, they could. SO… I but they have some guy waiting in front of some server with his finger hovering over the ‘ENTER’ button waiting for the game to be announced, and then will upload all the new stuff withen an hour(s).
It’s just my guess though. I know first doesn’t want anyone to find some file a day early and post it on CD. 
PS: They could have tested uploading some files this afternoon and then pulled them down. You hapened to be the lucky one snooping when they did it, and found a pic. Hmmmm… I figure they have some ‘goal’ to go into the squares.
That all is if you didn’t make the pic in adobe yourself - sorry, can’t really trust a thing in the rumor mill
an edit of last year’s diagram.
first isnt usually know for making mistakes like that… but hey, it could happen.
judging from all the talk about how different things are, and my instincts, i’m going to say thats is a fake drawing, moded from last years. i really hope that isn’t the real field because its really boring looking
I agree I think FIRST just put that up there to mess with our heads
*Originally posted by M. Krass *
**an edit of last year’s diagram. **
I definitely agree, but an edit by whom?
Upon looking at it closer, i now think that it’s a fake also…who knows.
But I’ve got this itching feeling Mr. Flowers is behind it all!
–Just kidding
*Originally posted by sanddrag *
**I definitely agree, but an edit by whom? **
By Brad. He posted it.
There’s too much that is exactly the same as the 2002 diagram, cropped out because it was irrelevant, or left out (labels for the colored patches in the center, for one). Nice try.
I’m highly skeptical of this one. First, it’s amazing that FIRST’s webmaster not only mixed up years, files and file types, but that he/she also put files on the server before the game is released. Secondly, this picture is really inconsistant with FIRST’s documents in previous years. The picture should have been contained in a .pdf format and have been done in illustrator or some other vector program. The document also would have contained details of the game.
Compare this attached screen shot of last years game with his. Note the presence of balls in the exact same location both years in the player’s zones. There is also two different types of ball.
*Originally posted by sanddrag *
**I definitely agree, but an edit by whom? **
Not pointing fingers but: team222badbrad
BUT… remember the last prank w/ location of nats. A fake site was made, another person saw the link and uploaded a pic of what they saw. SO… team222badbrad could have seen it for real, but faked by someone else.
WAIT… He said he was looking at a pdf. Now, arn’t images in pdfs directly in them? IE: you can right click and ‘Save As’? Then how would he have a jpg file? - He would have just saved the pfd file and uploaded it here. Now, it could be a screen shot, but there are no taskbars/windows. He could have removed them in photoshop, but why do that for just a screen shot? - The best proof yet that it’s a fake. Sorry team222badbrad, we got’ya this time 
It only took me about two minutes to delete his crap and add stars instead of balls. MAYBE WE HAVE TO GET ALL THE LUCKY CHARMS. Probably not… but it would go right along with that fake screen shot.
*Originally posted by Bduggan04 *
MAYBE WE HAVE TO GET ALL THE LUCKY CHARMS.
And as the tracks roll oer the green green hills o Ireland…
yea its fake, if you look around the “footballs” on the sides of the field you will see if you have somewhat of a good printer, that it was cut from something else because of the off greyness that is surronding the "footballs"then the grey suddenly stops, its an excellent job, who ever did it I say good job then
</Not Really Just kidding>
Kick them in the balls
</Not Really Just kidding>
*Originally posted by Nataku *
**judging from all the talk about how different things are, and my instincts, i’m going to say thats is a fake drawing, moded from last years. i really hope that isn’t the real field because its really boring looking **
Hate to say it, but I doubt the field will be much different from this…I’d say to expect the same demensions of the field and the same player stations. All we can do is cross our finger for at least a stationary obstical…
*Originally posted by Bduggan04 *
** MAYBE WE HAVE TO GET ALL THE LUCKY CHARMS. **
HAHAH – I nearly fell over laughing. Yikes. :] 
Also, take a look at the “Alternating Match…” text in the upper-left. Alternating is spelled incorrectly.
My father is a mentor on the Bishop Guertin Team 811, and tonight at the get together at Dean Kamen’s house he said that Kamen denied all of the rumors like these.
Maybe he hasn’t seen them all…but I doubt it. These are probably close though, as Woody Flowers gave a hint that was the quadratic formula usually used with projectiles.
We’ll know tomorrow
*Originally posted by rbayer *
**Also, take a look at the “Alternating Match…” text in the upper-left. Alternating is spelled incorrectly. **
It’s the same way in the old field drawing. Nice try team222badbrad but we’ve got you beat. Pretty quickly too.
That Confirmed Game Information thread sounded pretty good though. A lot of thinking must have gone into that one, unless it’s true of course…
Only a few more hours.