Aerial Assist is one of the most technically boring challenges we have had so far, and with the smooth gradient of difficulty each year as the league matures. This simply does not make sense, it is clear there is something missing.

Our team first picked up on this during this video in which Woody says

“We are doing this a bit differently this year, making changes from kickoff to championships this year”

Now this would be normal, if it wasn’t for this year being one of the most cookie cutter to date. No major shifts in origination, challenge, or league size. It is weird that this would be mentioned if there was not something further to back this up.

Our suspicion peaked further when we looked at the massive Truss eliminate. Keep in mind this has to bear no burden (as is), it serves the same purpose as rope would. However, this is not some weak little rope, at the Drexel Hill kickoff we had several people hanging off of it. The truss did not sag with three, healthy, adult males hanging off of it. Again, in the video we see an adult male sitting on it. According to this spec-sheat, this thing can support 1726 lbs.

We really knew we were onto something when we looked at the rules about the goalie. The Goalie has little or no purpose in this challenge, with the 6 inch limit playing defense is nearly useless. Along with articulating movement at the other teams shot being counted as a foul (I believe, as we are redirecting their ball). Why would they go into so much detail for such a little feature, that defeats the purpose of the task (no tri-assists with a goalie)?

We believe it is because we have not heard about the full game yet. The only real challenge thus far is team coordination, the rest is just reused code, and driver twitch skills. Now, think back to last years end game. We sucked at it collectively, what was meant to be a race to the top resulted in single level hangs for most of us. It was a collective disappointment (learning experience), and certainly not fun to watch.

Now, think about it. This truss can bear the weight of all six robots, is low enough that it can be grappled if the height limit was dropped, yet not high enough to be above most people for risk of dropping and injury, and is out of place in the easiest challenge thus far.

Removing the height limit during the endgame means that teams can grabble the truss and attempt to raise onto it. With all the talk of changes, it only seems fair to see a mid-season addition.

I, personally, think that we have not seen the last of the hanging endgame.