Baton Blitz!

Chris Fornof, former Scouting and Strategy Director, created a simulated FIRST game called Baton Blitz! in 2007. This game is useful to introduce rookie members of a team to a FIRST style game, and to introduce them to the thought process involved. We hope you find this useful!

Summary

Six robots race to score the most points for their alliance by chucking batons into bins and movable goals.

Overview

The central game piece in Baton Blitz is the baton, a painted PVC pipe with caps super glued on both ends. Robots gather these batons from either of the alliance's baton loaders, and drop the batons into an alliance goal for points. Robots can score easily in their alliance bin, or for more of a challenge, and more points, into their movable goal. Halfway through the game, the robots shut down and for 20 seconds, the human players "Blitz" onto the field and move the goal(s) in their zone to more strategic locations, and score batons that are lying on the ground. Bonuses at the end of the game provide lots of strategy, and give points for having movable goals or robots in the alliance zone.

Match Timing

10 seconds of Autonomous
50 seconds of Play
5ish seconds of Cool Down
20 seconds of Blitz
50 seconds of Play

Setup

In addition to setting up their robots, each alliance must also position the opposing movable goal within their zone. (E.G. Red must choose a place for the Blue goal within the Red Zone).

Autonomous

Robots are completely free of human control during autonomous and must rely on sensors and internal programming. If an alliance manages to move the moving goal that starts in their zone to the opposing zone, they get a point bonus (see scoring).

Play

Much of the play will center on moving, pushing and pulling the movable goals, while alliance partners try to score in them. If alliance batons are put into a non-alliance goal or bin, they will not be scored (E.G. A red baton in a blue goal will not give points for either alliance. The only exception to this rule is the Green Baton. Green Batons will actually subtract points (see scoring) from the alliance that owns the goal, though only in the movable goals. The Green Baton is slightly heavier than the normal baton, and is placed between every 5 alliance batons on the baton loaders for a 5:1 ratio.

Cool Down

Much of the play will center on moving, pushing and pulling the movable goals, while alliance partners try to score in them. If alliance batons are put into a non-alliance goal or bin, they will not be scored (E.G. A red baton in a blue goal will not give points for either alliance. The only exception to this rule is the Green Baton. Green Batons will actually subtract points (see scoring) from the alliance that owns the goal, though only in the movable goals. The Green Baton is slightly heavier than the normal baton, and is placed between every 5 alliance batons on the baton loaders for a 5:1 ratio.

Blitz

3 Human Players from each alliance rush onto the field and must remain within their alliance zones. They have 20 seconds to move batons on the ground into goals or robots (so long as they do not physically touch them), or to push the movable goals if there are any in the zone. They may not touch the baton loader or robots while on the field. If the alliance entrance to the the field is blocked by a robot or another hazard, the alliance CANNOT Blitz, and must wait until Blitz is over. After Blitz is over, and all human players have left the field, normal play resumes for another 50 seconds.

Clarifications

Game pieces may NOT be thrown, by humans or robots.
Robots MAY use the opponent alliance's baton loaders.
Each Human Player CANNOT carry more than 2 batons at once during Blitz.
Human Players MAY try to move a goal if a robot is physically connected to it, though they CANNOT touch the robot.
Human Players CANNOT leave their alliance zone or enter into the white zone during Blitz.
Robots MAY attempt to remove batons from movable goals, though robots are NOT allowed to remove batons from bins.