I went down to the regional robotics competition. This was the one for the BIG robots. I wasn't ref'ing this tournament (there are too many rules). I just went to watch. The game is somewhat the same every year - the robots have to pick up big beach balls and put them in different slots. The drivers stand behind the glass panels on the right. For the first 30 seconds of the game, the refs lower a black curtain so the drivers can't see. The teams need to have a camera installed on their robots in order to maneuver. The way some of the robots were crashing into each other, I'm guessing their cameras either weren't positioned correctly or fell off. At the end of the game, teams get bonus points if the robots climb up on one of those 3 platforms on the right (a tall one, medium-size, and low). One robot got stuck trying to climb up on the lowest platform, so another robot ran into it to give it a boost. It was the funniest thing.
