March 3^rd- 7^th, Washington DC graciously hosted a FIRST Robotics Regional competition.  The game this year was called “Breakaway”, and was played similarly to soccer, except with an authentic FIRST twist.  The drivers and human players work simultaneously to score points in an effort to win the match for the alliance.  Each alliance consists of three teams working together to win the match.  The playing field resembles a soccer field.  Each alliance has two goals on their end of the playing field, one in each corner.  To make the game more interesting two bumps are placed on the field to divide the playing field into three sections.  A system of guide rails extends from the driver’s station to the center of the field on each side for returning the scored soccer balls.  As always with all FISRT games, there were rules and limitations, making designing and programming a robot difficult and interesting.  The robots were as diverse as the locations they came from.  Teams from all across the United States came to compete, coming from as far away as California, to local teams from DC.

The game for the 2010 robotics season is called Breakaway!