FIRST: Double Trouble (lost rejected Nickelodeon pilot of robotic sports competition; 1999)

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Firstdoubletrouble1.png

Logo for the competition.

Status: Lost

FIRST: Double Trouble (also known as the 1999 FIRST Robotics Competition National Championship) was the eighth robotics sports competition held by For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST). Occurring from 22nd-24th April 1999 at the Epcot Center in Disney World, it saw 207 teams split into alliances working together to accumulate the highest score through having their robots position the "puck", "floppies" and themselves to earn points based on distance covered and height achieved within the playing field.

FIRST was the brainchild of Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers, who were seeking to prove that nonviolent robotic competition could be a viable sport and encourage greater American participation in STEM fields. To that end, the entire Double Trouble competition was filmed as a pilot for a potential Nickelodeon television show. Ultimately, the pilot was rejected by Nickelodeon executives.

Background

FIRST: Double Trouble, as its name implies, changed the format compared to previous FIRST Robotics competitions.[1] Instead of having teams solely compete, the game would consist of alliances in order to encourage greater teamwork and overall professionalism.[2][3][1] As always, the game changed on an annual basis; for Double Trouble, teams were instructed to build 130lb machines.[4][1] These robots, unlike those within robot combat competitions like Robot Wars and BattleBots, were designed with a purely utilitarian focus.[2][1] In this case, the robots were tasked to position a "puck", an octagonal platform; and the alliance's "floppies", objects described as "pillow-like" according to the rulebook.[2][4][3] Placing them above the playing field nets a team one point each; lifting them eight feet up will give them three points per eligible floppy. As for the puck, robots must push it completely into the opposing alliance's side, which will net them a x2 multiplier. The two robots can also clamber onto the puck itself, where if they remain there following the match's conclusion, each machine will earn a x3 multiplier. With ten floppies, one can earn a non-boosted score of 60; the stacking x8 multiplier means a high score of 540 is possible.[2][3]

Two robots would be entered per alliance, with each match lasting two minutes. The inaugural qualifying stage saw uneasy alliances forged and altered each game to further enhance the importance of teamwork within difficult scenarios. All teams within an alliance would equally share the spoils of victory, earning qualification points worth treble their final scores in each game.[2] According to Gearheads: The Turbulent Rise of Robotic Sports, a victorious alliance would actually receive triple what the losing teams earned, apparently to guarantee sportsmanship and avoid whitewashes.[1] This contradicts what was stated in the rulebook.[2] After the qualification points were tallied, only the eight most successful teams would automatically progress to the elimination stage. They would then select eight other non-qualifying teams to form permanent alliances. With this, the format would be simplified; alliances faced off in a best-of-three competition, with the victors progressing to the next round.[2]

Heading into the national competition, Team 45 aka TechnoKats were the defending champions, having obtained glory with TK7 at Ladder Logic.[5] They subsequently entered Double Trouble with the robot TKO.[5] Meanwhile, Team 23 aka PNTA would defend two coveted prizes;[6] the Woodie Flowers Award, for exceptional communication and mentorship;[7] and the Chairman's Award, declared FIRST's "most prestigious award" as eligible teams exemplified FIRST's standards.[8] The 1999 FIRST Robotics Competition National Championship occurred from 22nd-24th April at the Epcot Center in Disney World.[9][10] Beforehand, eight regional competitions were held from late February to late March; these included the NASA Ames California Open, Motorola Midwest Open, the NASA Kennedy Space Center Open, the FIRST Southwest Open, the Philadelphia Alliance Open, the UTC New England Open, the Johnson & Johnson Mid-Atlantic Open, and the Great Lakes Open.[10] Among the most successful regional participants was Team 27 aka RUSH, who won both the Motorola Midwest and Great Lakes competitions.[4]

Sources conflict regarding the number of entrants for the national competition. A results list published by TechnoKats claimed 207 teams were involved,[9] but the 2006 FIRST Annual Report cited 271 competed.[11] Gearheads estimated around 15,000 individuals and more than 270 machines competed at Double Trouble.[1] Ultimately, the 1999 champions were Team 176 (Aces High),[12] Team 1 (The Juggernauts),[13] and Team 48 (Delphi E.L.I.T.E.),[14] having edged out TechnoKats, Team 111 (WildStang),[15] and Team 84 (Chuck 84).[16][9] Team 120 aka Youth Tech Academy Red Dragons were the Chairman's Award recipients,[17] while Ken Patton of Team 65 aka The Huskie Brigade won the Woodie Flowers Award.[18][9] Additionally, FIRST founder Dean Kamen would annually present the Founder's Award for "exceptional service in advancing the ideals and mission of FIRST".[19] For 1999, Kamen awarded it to NASA.[9]

The Nickelodeon Pilot

FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) was founded in 1992 by Dean Kamen and Professor Woodie Flowers.[20][1] Beforehand, Flowers was credited for taking Massachusetts Institute of Technology's annual 2.70 robotics competition and transforming it into a national institution.[21][1] This competition culminated the Engineering Synthesis and Design MIT class, which tasked its students to create machines to perform fulfil challenges.[1][21] From 1974 onwards, Flowers introduced key changes to 2.70, including powerful motors for the students' machines, changing the required task annually to challenge students to find the ideal solution, and eventually allowing machines to compete simultaneously on the playing field.[1][21] All these changes proved mightily successful, resulting in PBS coverage and 2.70 even being declared MIT's "homecoming" event.[1][20]

Meanwhile, Dean Kamen is an inventor who by March 2018 patented over 1,000 contraptions.[22] The Segway is commonly cited as among his most notable inventions, though his true legacy lies within the medical field.[23][24][22][1] Among his inventions included the portable AutoSyringe, which automatically dispensed doses of required medicine for patients, transforming the lives of diabetics in particular.[23][22][1] He established FIRST in 1989, in response to declining US participation, knowledge and enthusiasm for STEM fields.[1][24][23] Particularly, he wanted scientific education to become cool and competitive in a similar vein to sports but crucially promoted positive values like teamwork and sportsmanship.[1][24] After the pair met in 1990 and analysed previous 2.70 events, Kamen and Flowers began working on a robotics sports competition featuring machines weighing over 100 pounds.[1][20] In 1992, the first FRC tournament, Maize Craze, commenced.[3][1][24]

Originally featuring a humble 28 teams and one competition,[25] FRC rapidly expanded throughout the remainder of the 1990s.[11][1][24] According to its 2006 Annual Report, the Ladder Logic competition featured 199 teams at the national level.[11] If its statistics are to be believed, Double Trouble contained an extra 72 teams with seemingly no end to the programme's growth.[11] An aspect that boosted FRC was ESPN's FIRST documentaries starting in 1994.[26][1] However, Kamen realised FRC needed to enter the children's television market to achieve its mission.[1] Nickelodeon appeared the obvious choice.[1] Nickelodeon, under Geraldine Laybourne's presidency, experienced a boom period thanks to numerous highly acclaimed live-action and animated shows, a more rebellious and colourful outlook similar to fellow Viacom-owned MTV, and led an overhaul on how television and its advertisements were targeted towards younger generations.[27][28]

Kamen convinced Viacom executives Kevin Kay and Albie Hecht to film Double Trouble as a possible Nickelodeon production.[1] But after spending the two days overseeing filming and later creating a FIRST pilot, Kay and Hecht quickly determined that the concept would not gel with Nickelodeon's core audience.[1] One issue highlighted concerned the competition's complexity compared to Nickelodeon's more simplified yet highly engaging concepts like Double Dare.[29][1] Worse still, the executives believed that although FIRST promoted good values, the competition was incompatible with late 1990s television.[1] As summarised by Hecht in Gearheads, "Ultimately, it's not great TV".[1] Instead, American television networks began exploring robotic combat sports which grew in popularity following Robot Wars 1994.[30][1] In 2000, Comedy Central aired BattleBots, while TNN broadcast Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors a year later.[31][32][1] Having observed the show's popularity and simple combat concept, Nickelodeon greenlit its own Robot Wars spinoff for a single series in 2002.[33][1]

Kamen and Flowers despised robotic sports combat for very different reasons. Kamen was aghast with BattleBots' presentation; whether it reflected the actual competition or not, BattleBots was noted for promoting a violent, merciless approach to robotic sports.[34][30][1] This was something which Kamen believed influenced poor sportsmanship and would hurt the sports' future.[1] Flowers' hatred from the show centred around tragic circumstances involving a fatal car accident he was a passenger in.[1] The concept of robotic combat in general subsequently turned him away from it.[1] Though FRC did eventually land a television deal, it was on the relatively obscure NASA TV.[35][1] Despite the limited television exposure, FIRST nevertheless continued to grow into the 2000s, surviving even as the robotic combat bubble burst by the early-to-mid-2000s.[1][11][30]

Availability

Various footage of Double Trouble can be found on YouTube. In July 2010, Travis Hoffman of TechnoKats uploaded raw footage of the event, primarily focused on his team's run in the competition. The footage was split into twelve parts and can be found on a YouTube playlist listed in External Links. Meanwhile, on 7th October 2008, Andy Baker uploaded part of a Double Trouble documentary focused on TechnoKats' quarter-final and semi-final matches, though the rest of the documentary is seemingly unavailable to the public. Additional footage has been uploaded by FIRST Illinois Robotics, 525swartdogs and FRC228. However, the Nickelodeon pilot is among many others that were left unaired by the network and has yet to be publicly released.

Gallery

Videos

Footage from a documentary.

Footage of Team 332's matches.

Footage of the semi-finals.

Footage of Team 228's matches.

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 1.34 Gearheads: The Turbulent Rise of Robotics Sports detailing the history of FIRST and the failed Nickelodeon pilot (p.g. 188-215). Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 The 1999 FIRST Robotics Competition Manual. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Greybots explaining the FIRST games from 1992 to 2014. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 RUSH summarising its time at Double Trouble and explaining the event's key rules. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 TechnoKats summarising their history and their accomplishments within the 1998 and 1999 national competitions. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  6. ↑ FIRST Robotics Competition summarising PNTA and their accomplishments. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  7. ↑ FIRST summarising the Woodie Flowers Award. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  8. ↑ Archived FIRST summarising the Chairman's Award and listing the winners from 1992 to 2014. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 The results of the 1999 FIRST Robotics Competition National Championship. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 The list of Double Trouble events. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 2006 FIRST Annual Report claiming 271 teams entered Double Trouble (p.g. 4). Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  12. ↑ FIRST Robotics Competition page on Aces High. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  13. ↑ The Juggernaults summarising their victory at Double Trouble. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  14. ↑ FIRST Robotics Competition summarising Delphi/Team E.L.I.T.E. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  15. ↑ FIRST Robotics Competition summarising WildStang. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  16. ↑ FIRST Robotics Competition page on Chuck 84. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  17. ↑ FIRST Robotics Competition summarising Youth Tech Academy Red Dragons. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  18. ↑ Woodie Flowers Award page on Ken Patton. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  19. ↑ FIRST summarising the Founder's Award. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 MIT Admissions detailing the rise of 2.70 and how it influenced the creation of FRC. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Infinite MIT interview with Flowers on 2.70. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 PC Magazine UK detailing Kamen's career and his 1,000+ patents. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 National Inventors Hall of Fame page on Kamen. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 24.4 Slash Gear detailing Kamen's motivation for creating FIRST and FRC. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  25. ↑ TechnoKats listing the 28 teams that competed in Maize Craze. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  26. ↑ Available footage of ESPN2's coverage of the 1994 FRC competition. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  27. ↑ The Ringer detailing Nickelodeon's rise to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  28. ↑ VICE detailing Nickelodeon's appeal, particularly under Laybourne's direction. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  29. ↑ The Smith Center on the success of Double Dare. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 SBNation interviewing several key figures responsible for robotic combat sports' popularity. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  31. ↑ Washington Post detailing BattleBots being picked up by Comedy Central. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  32. ↑ C21Media reporting on TNN's Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  33. ↑ Unofficial Rugrats Online noting the Nickelodeon version of Robot Wars. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  34. ↑ Servo Magazine on the success of BattleBots. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
  35. ↑ NASA summarising its coverage of FIRST. Retrieved 7th Jan '24
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