After reading the little competition preview on the FIRST website, I couldn’t help but get a little bit nervous about the “changes” in the upcomming year. FIRST has taken gambles before with the alliance format (which worked great) and the 4 v 0 format (which didn’t work so great). They pretty much stated that the game is going to have some form of new format to it, and the statement that “there will be a few groans and gasps” doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach. However, on the same level, these new changes could make the game very interesting this year.
My predictions for this year are as follows…
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New Format: The format that will make people gasp and groan will be the introduction of pre-arranged alliances. In this format, teams will be given alliance partners at kickoff in which they will be able to communicate, practice with, and build with if the need be. During competition, these alliance partners will play through the competition together.
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New Game Elements: New playing field surface, my guess is that it will be astroturf. Also expect some huge type of scoring element introduced into this game, such as dividers instead of multpliers.
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The return of the Pacebo!: Yes, the best and coolest robot in FIRST history, the Placebo, will make its return to FIRST this year. But this time it will be used to help teams who are in need with a destroyed robot.
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Footballs: Sorry guys, no footballs this year. Actually I am expecting cubes, large, colored, stackable cubes. Can you imagine a game where you have to stack the cubes on top of each other…teams flying to knock over stacks, last second placements…fun stuff.
Chances are, most of my predictions will be wrong, but hey, its all in good fun!
Happy Holidays!
-Andy Grady