Suggestion to move major rule changes to 2026 so teams have more time to budget. Reply to make sure we put an order/pacing to proposals so we don’t change too much too quickly. Reiterate that we don’t make major changes every year and that this discussion is for 2025+.

Issue of parts availability for IR balls. EK Japan will probably have them available for the next few seasons. Mid to long term future may need to find other manufacturers. Promising open source design may also be available.  A question to how IR is applicable to the real world and enhances gameplay; counter that it is easier to track active balls that can still be “seen” if blocked.

Discussion to increase accessibility for new teams needs to continue.

Robots being passed down to generations may not occurred b/c of no significant rule changes in LWL. Open league has had innovations but the number of teams has dropped. We need to balance between making rule changes with keeping the number ups.

Motor power regulation mentioned (once again!)

Idea of a video system on the field and/or having goals of competing like SSL. Explained about how we tested a video system in Bordeaux that seemed to work well. Would like to see more advancement/propagation of using this video recording setup. Could open up a technical challenge to try to play with SSL or at least get junior teams to start working somehow with SSL teams.

Make rules to encourage strategic gameplay. Like lowering kicking power and not allowing metal chassis (so teams would not risk strong impacts). For kicker power, robots should not be able to strike from the defense side so that the defense robot would have to pass to the offensive robot. A rebuttal that “kicking is losing the ball” and having a strong kick will make it more likely to be successful and the game is more enjoyable to watch. Agreement to that statement with the caveat that kicks should be limited so they don’t damage other robots. When the kicker's power didn’t allow for the ball to cross the middle of the field, then there wasn’t enough incentive for teams to include one.

A concern about restrictions on how to build a robot so teams can have creativity in finding materials or special methods. The restriction of materials is suggested only for LWL so teams will be more concerned with strategy than brute force. Comment made that PLA was pretty strong and carbon fiber filaments were as strong as metal and disallowing metal will prevent teams from using a cheaper metal chassis; point made that PLA/carbon fiber robots were not used in a tournament. A rule like this would most likely have to prohibit carbon fiber as well. This may increase difficulty for less advanced teams if we reduce access to cheap metal plates or similar materials. Pointed out that there were teams that had robust PLA robots. The concern is to prevent robots with strong chassis just using brute force to play the game. Since there is more mass allowed in LWL, it will be interesting to see how teams may redesign their chassis since they may not need the materials with high weight to strength ratios. We can agree that robots being too powerful and fearless is an issue to address and there are several approaches. Suggestion: we should focus on the atmosphere rather than change the rules so that we do not kill creativity. Rebuttal: It is hard to enforce conventions like this and teams that ignore them would have a significant impact on a tournament; engineering is all about handling and overcoming limitations (e.g. formula one).

Suggestion to make the competition more friendly. An email was sent to execs before with a list of ideas - asked to post the list of ideas to the forum.

There are no documents describing the process of changing the rules. Suggestion that we should have a clear road map on what the goals are and what the process is. Rebuttal that we do obtain feedback as much as we can and we should move the discussion back to the forums.

We try to have superTeam challenges after the regular tournament. Current superTeam rules have a problem that one robot is enough to win a game if it is good enough. We should make rules that require more collaboration. Inspiration can be had from the 2021 superTeam simulation challenge. Suggestion to get ideas for the challenge on the forum and release the superTeam and technical challenges before the competition as having to adapt to these challenges during the competition causes stress on teams (i.e. staying up all night). Rebuttal that we want to “surprise” teams so there is less of a chance for mentors to complete the challenges for them; perhaps we should consider making a list of potential challenges to help teams prepare and collaborate. Votes to see superTeam collaboration be a change to the technical challenges; will produce a poll on the forum and a thread of continued discussion.

Suggestion to switch to a passive ball to replace IR ball b/c cameras are cheap. The issue is making sure a larger ball than a golf ball is available worldwide. Repeated that the IR ball can be detected when blocked. Changing the ball is a big project and do we really want to do the same for LWL?

If anyone has good ideas for names other than “light weight” and “open” - please make them! Suggestion to make the names based upon the ball like “active” and “passive”. Suggestion for open to be “vision league” and “infrared league”. Would be nice to have sporty names like they are currently.

Idea to make communication amongst teams easier is to have an official RCJ discord server with links to it on the forum. We do currently have a Slack server even though Discord does seem less of a hurdle than the forum or Slack. An agreement was made that Discord is common amongst students and Slack is much less common. Potential to link Discord server to the forum so new forum posts will forward to Discord. We should have at least some resource that lists where to go for what information. More discussion on how to setup Discord and some of the challenges; many good solutions will take time. We try to put as much info into the rules document b/c that may be the only document that teams see/pay attention to. Suggestion to create an unofficial Discord server; look out for one if it doesn’t already exist (we found one)!

Suggestion to have a meeting specifically for how to make the competition more friendly and have a better environment amongst many different cultures. At the very least, making it a discussion thread.

Suggestion to recognize teams that are published/have open source designs.

Suggestion to setup a Gathertown again like in 2020 as a very good way to get everyone in touch especially to share documents/presentations.