Planning for Kickoff: What Teams Need to Know
August 30, 2024
We hope everyone has had a chance to dive deep into the details of this year’s challenge: INTO THE DEEP℠ presented by RTX. You can always find the most up-to-date copy of the Competition Manual on our Game and Season materials webpage.
As much as kickoff is an exciting day for teams around the world it’s also a really fun day for everyone at HQ, and the volunteers who help bring this game into reality. We love watching how teams break down the manual and find little hidden gems in the game!
Now that you’ve seen the game and are getting geared up for competition, we wanted to send out some reminders, as well as some tips to help you be successful this season!
Competition Manual – Have You Read It?
We’re going to be a broken record on this one. We very strongly encourage all teams, volunteers, coaches, and mentors, to read the new Competition Manual, cover to cover. In addition to a new format, there are many rule changes, robot part additions, judging updates, and playoff updates. There is no section of the manual that is more important than any other to read through and understand!
Q&A System Opens Soon!
As a reminder, every team has access to the Official Q&A, where they can ask questions throughout the season. Check out section 1.10 of the Competition Manual for more Q&A specifics.
The Q&A will open on 9/16/2024. Instructions on how to register your account can be found here.
How to Stay Informed Throughout the Season
It is so important that teams know where to go to find essential information to help keep them informed throughout the season.
In-season rule updates will be communicated as follows:
- Any important rule updates or clarifications will be written in the Competition Manual, and releases will happen on a biweekly (twice a month) basis starting on 9/19/2024. Updates will be posted every other Thursday at 12:00 p.m. eastern time.
- A separate document titled “Team Updates” will be posted on our website concurrently with the Competition Manual updates. The document will highlight any rule changes or clarifications made to the Competition Manual.
- Team Update emails will be sent out to anyone who has subscribed for the team updates notifications. These notifications are separate from the standard team blast.
Sign up for Team Update Notification
Adult team members (18+) can sign up to get Team Update Notification emails every time a new team update is posted.
Top 5 Most Missed/Misunderstood Rules
While we’re all waiting for the Q&A to open and official answers to be posted, we’d like to share a few pointers on where to look to find the answers in the competition manual to help teams with their build discussions now:
- How many SAMPLES can my ROBOT hold?
Looking in the Game section of the competition manual, section 11.4.3 SCORING ELEMENT rules, rule G410 specifics how many SPECIMENS and SAMPLES a robot can CONTROL.
- Can I pre-load both SPECIMENS and SAMPLES during pre-MATCH setup?
The answer to this question can be found in section 10.3.1 of the Competition Manual.
- I’m going to build a ROBOT to ASCEND directly to LEVEL 3!
Stop right there! Take a look at the ASCEND rules in section 10.5.3 before employing this strategy!
- Can the HUMAN PLAYER do anything during AUTO?
This answer is in section 11.4.6. The rule does not explicitly state that HUMAN PLAYERS can only manipulate objects during TELEOP, which means that they can also manipulate objects in AUTO.
- Why does R104 exist other than to kill creative extend-o ‘bots?
Expansion limits were introduced for the INTO THE DEEP game for a few reasons:
- Generally, every new limitation is an opportunity to develop a new solution. We’re excited to see new solutions this season!
- One of the goals in game design is to create a game which minimizes the need for subjective fouls and promotes fun and exciting game play. Smaller maximum size robots were important to supporting these game design goals.
- Multi-stage slides can be expensive and complicated to execute, which after several years of this being a common solution to game challenges means that returning teams have a huge head start over newer teams, limiting these extensions is a change for all teams to learn new ways to build.