Misdirected E-mail Unveils 2001 Game 3 Days Early...

archiver · June 23, 2002, 10:15pm

Posted by Joe Johnson at 1/2/2001 10:34 PM EST

Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Hi all,

This message was too hot not to post on this Forum.

I am not sure how it happened, but somehow a message
from Dean to a potential supporter of FIRST got BCC’ed
to my mailbox by mistake! Once the genie was out of
the bottle, I just didn’t feel right keeping it to my
own group of FIRSTers.

Read it and weep…

Joe J.

Dear Jeff,

Thank you for your commitment to sponsor a FIRST
regional in Seattle in 2002. You will not be
disappointed in the return on your investment.

I am extremely excited to hear that you will be
attending the Nationals as a judge in April. Again, I
believe you will find it a worthy investment of your time.

If I must say so, the game we have cooked up for the
FIRST teams this season is the best we have ever
designed. There is a lot to explain, but basically,
the game is played 2 on 2 on a field about the size of
a tennis court. There are 7 HUGE balls on the court,
each about 3 feet in diameter weighing approximately 5
pounds. Of the 7 balls, 3 are blue, 3 are red and the
last one is white. In addition to the 4 robots on the
field (2 playing red, 2 playing blue) and the 7 balls
there is a sort of playground structure at where the
net would be on a tennis court. The structure looks
similar to a multi level fence with ramps and
underpasses that provide various levels of difficulty
in either getting over it or under it depending on
where one tries to cross to the other side.

The primary feature of the structure however mounted to
it’s center, right in middle of the field at about eye
level (assuming I am seated in my I-BOT in 2 wheel
mode) is large ball corral that can rotate like a Lazy
Susan.

The object of the game is 3 fold: Get your balls in the
corral, Get your robot off the ground by hanging from
special bars mounted radial from the ball corral, Have
the white ball in the corral with its center on your
side of the field.

We are still working out the exact details concerning
what point values are associate with each of these
feats, but the basic idea will be the same as always;
to make teams unsure of exactly which design path they
need to follow without adding too much confusion to the
untrained fan in the stands.

The game may seem a bit difficult to explain with
words, but rest assured, it is a very simple, yet
exciting game to watch.

I will have more to say when I see you next week. I
will have pictures of the field with me at that time.

Dean

archiver · June 23, 2002, 10:15pm

Posted by aTm at 1/2/2001 11:30 PM EST

Student on team #111, Wildstang, from Wheeling High School and Motorola.

In Reply to: Misdirected E-mail Unveils 2001 Game 3 Days Early…
Posted by Joe Johnson on 1/2/2001 10:34 PM EST:

Is this some type of sick-minded prank? Joe! How could you pull such a mind-blowing stunt??! Could there have been a mistake? Is this game legit?? Of course it IS in the rumors forum, why hasn’t anyone else questioned the validity or exploded into a rant about the possibilities of the game this year? This game would provide possibly the most intense experience I have ever encountered! I refuse to believe it in that if I believed it, there’s no way I would be able to sleep yet alone concentrate in school for the next couple of weeks. Being the doubtfull person I am, I will suffice with, Joe, that is one awesome game, if only it were real.

aTm

archiver · June 23, 2002, 10:15pm

Posted by Justin Stiltner at 1/3/2001 1:22 AM EST

Student on team #388, Epsilon, from Grundy High School and NASA, American Electric Power, Town of Grundy.

In Reply to: Re: Misdirected E-mail Unveils 2001 Game 3 Days Early…
Posted by aTm on 1/2/2001 11:30 PM EST:

: Is this some type of sick-minded prank? Joe! How could you pull such a mind-blowing stunt??! Could there have been a mistake? Is this game legit?? Of course it IS in the rumors forum, why hasn’t anyone else questioned the validity or exploded into a rant about the possibilities of the game this year? This game would provide possibly the most intense experience I have ever encountered! I refuse to believe it in that if I believed it, there’s no way I would be able to sleep yet alone concentrate in school for the next couple of weeks. Being the doubtfull person I am, I will suffice with, Joe, that is one awesome game, if only it were real.

:
: aTm

Hmmmmmm while I dont think that dean would make that kind of mistake I dont think this game would be a good one (yes it would be good for the challenge of it) but the reason I say it wouldent be good is beacuse of the chance of the robots falling off the ramps and geting SEVERALY broken but more importantly this would be very hard for some teams to build.
just my $0.02

Justin Stiltner
Team #388
Epsilon
Grundy Va,

archiver · June 23, 2002, 10:15pm

Posted by Jon at 1/3/2001 3:06 AM EST

Engineer on team #190, Gompei, from Mass Academy of Math and Science and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

In Reply to: Re: Misdirected E-mail Unveils 2001 Game 3 Days Early…
Posted by Justin Stiltner on 1/3/2001 1:22 AM EST:

This would be a neat game… hanging bars off the lazy susan ball corral? imagine the possibilities…

‘So then Gompei 2001 extends this arm here, to grab on to the rotating bars… then can compress over here in order to get off the ground… but if it gets in trouble, it can stay on the ground and go into high gear to spin the Susan and keep the bad guys off…’

reminds me a bit of Torroid Terror…
Thanks for getting me in the spirit Joe!

archiver · June 23, 2002, 10:15pm

Posted by Anton Abaya at 1/3/2001 1:49 AM EST

Coach on team #419, Rambots, from UMass Boston / BC High and NASA, Mathsoft, Solidworks.

In Reply to: Misdirected E-mail Unveils 2001 Game 3 Days Early…
Posted by Joe Johnson on 1/2/2001 10:34 PM EST:

: Hi all,

: This message was too hot not to post on this Forum.

: I am not sure how it happened, but somehow a message
: from Dean to a potential supporter of FIRST got BCC’ed
: to my mailbox by mistake! Once the genie was out of
: the bottle, I just didn’t feel right keeping it to my
: own group of FIRSTers.

: Read it and weep…

: Joe J.

: Dear Jeff,

: Thank you for your commitment to sponsor a FIRST
: regional in Seattle in 2002. You will not be
: disappointed in the return on your investment.

: I am extremely excited to hear that you will be
: attending the Nationals as a judge in April. Again, I
: believe you will find it a worthy investment of your time.

: If I must say so, the game we have cooked up for the
: FIRST teams this season is the best we have ever
: designed. There is a lot to explain, but basically,
: the game is played 2 on 2 on a field about the size of
: a tennis court. There are 7 HUGE balls on the court,
: each about 3 feet in diameter weighing approximately 5
: pounds. Of the 7 balls, 3 are blue, 3 are red and the
: last one is white. In addition to the 4 robots on the
: field (2 playing red, 2 playing blue) and the 7 balls
: there is a sort of playground structure at where the
: net would be on a tennis court. The structure looks
: similar to a multi level fence with ramps and
: underpasses that provide various levels of difficulty
: in either getting over it or under it depending on
: where one tries to cross to the other side.

: The primary feature of the structure however mounted to
: it’s center, right in middle of the field at about eye
: level (assuming I am seated in my I-BOT in 2 wheel
: mode) is large ball corral that can rotate like a Lazy
: Susan.

: The object of the game is 3 fold: Get your balls in the
: corral, Get your robot off the ground by hanging from
: special bars mounted radial from the ball corral, Have
: the white ball in the corral with its center on your
: side of the field.

: We are still working out the exact details concerning
: what point values are associate with each of these
: feats, but the basic idea will be the same as always;
: to make teams unsure of exactly which design path they
: need to follow without adding too much confusion to the
: untrained fan in the stands.

: The game may seem a bit difficult to explain with
: words, but rest assured, it is a very simple, yet
: exciting game to watch.

: I will have more to say when I see you next week. I
: will have pictures of the field with me at that time.

: Dean

all i can really say is thank you, for being honest. now i can start my thinking box and generate a perfect robot!

-anton

archiver · June 23, 2002, 10:15pm

Posted by Ken Leung at 1/3/2001 2:28 AM EST

Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Henry M. Gunn Senior High School.

In Reply to: Misdirected E-mail Unveils 2001 Game 3 Days Early…
Posted by Joe Johnson on 1/2/2001 10:34 PM EST:

I have to say, when I was reading about this ‘rules’, my hand was shaking and my eyes can’t see the screen clearly. What can I say…

Actually, when I came back to my senses, I kind of cool down and think about this. This competition actually seems pretty cool and challenging. But I can not say I really believe this is what the game is going to be. First, this isn’t from any official source. Second, this game have too much resemblance to last year’s game, well with the balls and hanging. These seems not enough of a challenge for teams who’ve done last year’s game…

Other than that, though, I think this will be an exciting game. robot rushing for the balls, pushing the corral for the white ball score, fighting to get hanging.

I one think I would like to see, though, is a rule similar to the white ball’s score, but instead of the white ball is the robot, so your robot hanging on your side of the field (or maybe the other way) will have a multiplier to your score.

archiver · June 23, 2002, 10:15pm

Posted by rebecca at 1/3/2001 3:42 AM EST

Student on team #192, gunn robotics team, from gunn high school.

In Reply to: shakey hands… must… control…
Posted by Ken Leung on 1/3/2001 2:28 AM EST:

boy ken, you were right about this forum being a useful thing! although i too, am somewhat skeptical, its hard to keep from brainstorming… the game seems like a little torroid, a little ladder, and a little crazy…but i guess only time will tell! as if the next three days weren’t hard enough already…

archiver · June 23, 2002, 10:15pm

Posted by Mike Gray at 1/3/2001 8:43 AM EST

Engineer on team HOT from Huron Valley Schools sponsored by GM Milford Proving Ground.

In Reply to: Misdirected E-mail Unveils 2001 Game 3 Days Early…
Posted by Joe Johnson on 1/2/2001 10:34 PM EST:

You shouldn’t drag the red herrings until after kickoff. Scary machine specs are better sweat generators than game speculation.

archiver · June 23, 2002, 10:15pm

Posted by nick237 at 1/3/2001 10:37 AM EST

Engineer on team #237, sie h2o bots, from Watertown high school ct and sieman co.

In Reply to: Misdirected E-mail Unveils 2001 Game 3 Days Early…
Posted by Joe Johnson on 1/2/2001 10:34 PM EST:

Are we missing some thing here. The message was a personal comunication between Dean and another, the Email was confidential and should have remained that way. To have read it was unfortunate but to have posted it is possibly an illegal act?
If this had come to me I would have contacted Dean and told him of its misdirection and that I would for the benifit of FIRST keep it confidential for the three days to my self.
Posting it at the time may have seemed like the noble thing to do but we are assuming that every team every where is privy to the Delphi forum and they will see this at the same time as we have.
Sorry joe but it was some thing you should have kept to your self, ‘if your wrong’ and thats a possibility then you will have done your self, the Delphi forum and FIRST a diservice, and set trust back in a toilet.
Just my 2 cents.
nick237