In the past eight years that I have done FIRST, I would rank this years game fourth. My personal favorite is Aim High, I think it is a more well done version of this game. The scoring and pace at which the game was played was much higher than any other game I have seen, with full court plays being made at all times. The two greatest plays I have ever seen in FIRST history occurred in 2006, one featuring Team 25 and the other featuring Team 71.
I have never been a fan of games that are defined by the end game. Games like 2007, 2011 and 2012 were so heavily influenced by the final 15-20 seconds that they rendered the other 100 seconds mostly useless. Ranking the eight games I have seen I would say it is 06>10>08>12>05>07>11>09
2007 was not highly influenced by the end game like 2011 or 2012. In 2007 if you were good at placing tubes, the end game was absurdly meaningless. If you were able to get 5 tubes in a row you were already +2 on the maximum your opponent could get in the endgame. I would classify 2007’s endgame as a cherry on the top of an amazing game. The chess battle that would take place between alliances of where they were placing tubes was exhilarating and then to see the teams rush last second to place that last tube or place that spoiler and then dart for their alliance’s ramps and lift 12 inches all within the last 10-15 seconds was unbelievable.
I actually thought 2007’s end game was a game breaker in many elimination matches over various regionals. 60 points vs none was huge.
Wasnt that the year that a lot of lower seeds won regionals?
I also cant recall any other year that an 8th seed won CMP. High Rollers fan
Oh ya thats right it was 30 points each. IM sorry, IDK why I thought it was 30 total for 2 bots. And championship that year stung a little bit or a very sketchy red card call that ended our run in the Newton finals.
If you were dramatically bettter at placing tubes than your opponent, the end game was meaningless. All that meant was that the top few teams at shallow regionals didn’t have to worry about balancing during qualification matches where they weren’t heavily defended.
Ramps and defense dictated that game. 6+ tube rows were rare. Not getting your 60 points in end game bonuses was usually a death sentence in elimination matches, similar to a failed ramp balance this year. When it was played in the way you describe, it was awesome, but that was rare outside of IRI and Galileo.
2007 was a game that had the potential to be excellent, but an average match was brutally boring and having an effective end game would win (or at least tie) almost every qualification match. It was much easier to reduce your opponents’ score through defense and tactical tube placement than to drive up your own.
