The Foley Freeze Prepares for FIRST Power Up

The FIRST Power Up game finds teams trapped in an 8–bit video game.  Each three-team alliance has three ways to help “defeat the boss”.   In addition to their robot. The  Power Cubes are used on the Scales and the Vault to score points and defeat “The Boss.”

The game pieces are bright yellow Power Cubes. Power Cubes are used for multiple purposes throughout the match – balancing Switches and Scales,  gaining control in the Vault and earning Power ups.

The largest game piece on the Arcade (also referred to as the field), is the Scale.  In this game, each alliance must place Power Cubes on their respective side of the scale – whichever alliance tips the scale in their favor, has possession of the scale. Alliances gain one point for each possession second. Physics will play a critical role in this year’s game as alliances strategize to tip the scales in their favor to earn valuable points.

Additionally, there are two Switches in the Arcade; one for each alliance. The Switches, which are low to the ground, resemble the Scale, consisting of two plates on each side. Alliances must place Power Cubes on their respective side of the Switch to gain control of their Switch.

Another game piece, the Rung, is located at the top of the Scale – there is one Rung on the Scale for each alliance. During the endgame, the last 30 seconds of each match, robots must climb the Rung and hang, called levitating, 12 inches off the ground – each robot that is able to do this, earns 30 points for their alliance.

The final critical game piece is the Vault – an aluminum and plastic structure used by human players to turn power cubes into power ups, a strategic advantage received by alliances once a specific number of Power Cubes are stacked in the vault. There are three power ups: levitate, force, and boost.

Levitate:

• When there are three Power Cubes in this section of the vault, one of the alliance robots gets a free hang without having to climb.

Force:

• One Power Cube: Alliance gains ownership points from their switch
• Two Power Cubes: Alliance gains ownership of scale regardless of current ownership
• Three Power Cubes: Alliance gets ownership of both the switch and the scale

Boost:

• One Power Cube: Alliance switch points increase to two point per second
• Two Power Cubes: Scale points increase to two points per second
• Three Power Cubes: Alliance switch and scale points increase to two points per second

With the goal of defeating “the boss,” The Foley Freeze will have to be strategic in using these crucial game pieces to gain every competitive advantage.