[robocup-small] Regarding the passing game

[Michael Babish]

 > A robot can move the ball beyond that distance, but must visibly 
loose contact (as per this year)
 > The goal, is to encourage >passing as opposed to rugby.

I don't think we need to make new rule changes to encourage passing.  
We've made some huge changes in the game in the past few years, and I 
think most teams have spent their time struggling to adapt.  If we let 
the rules stabilize for a few years, then I think established teams 
could begin to develop some cool passing strategies.

Personally, I believe that the first team to develop robust "leading 
passes" (passes that are aimed ahead of the robot instead of straight at 
the robot) will have a huge strategic advantage on the larger field.  I 
think that advantage should be encouragement enough.

If we really want to encourage passing, then we should continue to 
introduce more independent technical challenges for teams.  For example, 
have a competition where each team shows off their best passing play 
against a stationary team.  This would be like a "trick shot" billiards 
competition.  The the steering committee or team leads could all vote 
for which team had the best play.

Another simple challenge is the "Five Man Star" passing play that 
Cornell developed in 2001.  Five robots form a circle in the center of 
the field.  The robots pass the ball back and forth so that the ball's 
path forms a star.  This is an excellent way to demonstrate your robots 
ball control and passing skills, and on the big field I think it would 
look really fantastic.

To summarize, if you want to encourage passing, stabilize the rules for 
a few years and give teams time to develop strategies for the bigger 
field.  Also, introduce more technical challenges to push the strategic 
developments that we are most interested in.

- Michael Babish
Cornell University
2000, 2001, 2002