[robocup-small] November RoboCup SSL Update and Response to Request of Transparency

Sun Nov 24 15:55:59 EST 2019

Dear TC/OC/EC,

Thank you for the response, we are grateful that the league is being
consulted on the rule changes for the next Robocup. While we agree with the
high-level goals, we have significant concerns about specific changes, and
the consultation with teams regarding them.

The previous email highlighted the TC/OC/EC goal to increase actual soccer
game-on time during SSL games and we completely agree with that goal. Last
year at Robocup, we were frustrated by games that would drag on with very
little exciting action, and were stressed by the compressed playoff
schedule caused by games taking too long. We are optimistic that the
majority of the proposed changes will help alleviate these pain points.

That being said, we are disappointed to see that several significant
changes are being introduced on short notice with essentially no testing.
Specifically, introducing “Walls as Field Boundaries” to Division A.
Previous emails expressed the desire to make the discussion around big rule
changes more public with the option to provide feedback in Bordeaux (and
presumably each following year). However there was no mention of walls at
the meeting in Sydney. Playing with walls and without are two very
different games and increases the burden on teams as they have to prepare
for two different sets of rules and with very short notice. There is
currently no data on how the walls will change gameplay, so it is
inappropriate to apply such a significant rule to the main competition
without first testing it in smaller regional competitions or Technical
Challenges. Furthermore, this sudden change further increases the gap
between the Divisions, and poses another last-minute challenge for teams to
adapt to that is discouraging for teams looking to transition from Division
B to A.

As such, we propose a measured approach to introducing the “Walls as Field
Boundaries” change; namely that it should be a mandatory technical
challenge for Division A that all teams must participate in. This would
significantly reduce the burden placed on teams by the compressed timeline,
while still providing the league with the requisite data to assess the
quality of this change. Teams would be allowed the freedom to try a variety
of strategies without the added pressure of competition, and the league
would have the freedom to quickly iterate over different sets of rules to
fully test the potential of the change. We are confident that this more
measured approach will be more amenable to teams, while still providing the
TC/OC/EC and the league with best data and experience to evaluate the full
implementation for Robocup 2021.

We look forward to continuing a collaborative discussion that involves all
teams and stakeholders at Robocup 2020. We appreciate the ambition of the
TC/OC/EC in trying to advance a common goal of increasing game-on time.
However, the 10-day timeline for providing objective feedback on the
currently proposed rule changes is too short for reasonable discussion
given the magnitude of the changes. Large changes such as the introduction
of walls should be scaled back and deferred until after more involved
discussion can take place with all stakeholders at RoboCup 2020. By
engaging our amazing SSL community in a collaborative decision-making
process, we believe that we can continue to drive innovation in soccer AI
and robotics into the future.

Regards,
UBC Thunderbots

---

*UBC Thunderbots*
Faculty of Applied Science
The University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus
robocup at ece.ubc.ca | http://ubcthunderbots.ca/

On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 9:52 PM Carla Cosenza <carlaszecosenza at hotmail.com>
wrote:

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> * Dear SSL Community, We have been striving for a long time to increase
> actual soccer game-on time during SSL games. Unfortunately, despite several
> rules iterations, our analysis over the game logs from RoboCup 2018 and
> 2019 show that we are still far off the mark - games had an average of only
> 20% actual game-on time during RoboCup 2018, and 15% actual game on time
> during RoboCup 2019. To make the situation worse, we have far more special
> game states than game on. All the recent events have been caused by the
> lack of established procedure for making big changes with rapid adoption
> for the Small Size League. We were trying to decrease the amount of time
> not spent on actual soccer during matches and did not manage to come to an
> agreement. In order to prevent this, we are creating a method for these
> decisions. Due to its importance, it will be discussed in Bordeaux with
> representation of all teams and committees. For RoboCup 2020, we have
> created a proposal for rule changes:
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EBfKZfXEYq2SpcLzUb7OE68vlUKjJnk_tnaulR5CMO8
> <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EBfKZfXEYq2SpcLzUb7OE68vlUKjJnk_tnaulR5CMO8>
> You can also find an immutable copy of the document attached to this mail.
> We encourage teams to give us feedback by the end of November. You can use
> the comment and suggestion mode or reply to this mail. If there is well
> justified concern, we’ll consider it when finalizing the rule changes. Some
> of the most notable changes are: Walls for field boundaries in some Div A
> matches In order to verify the possibility of removing the out of bounds
> part of the field, we are going to test, in some division A matches, having
> walls on the boundaries of the field. This will result in having less game
> states and less time spent placing the ball after it leaves the field. Each
> team will be required to play at least one game with the walls during the
> group stage and before the match starts, both teams need to opt out of the
> walls in order not to use them. The objective of this change is to reduce
> the amount of time spent not playing soccer during the matches. Our
> statistical analysis has shown that games had an average of only 20% actual
> game-on time during RoboCup 2018, and 15% actual game on time during
> RoboCup 2019. 11 robots and field size for Div A Having Div A reach 11
> robots has been on the SSL roadmap for this year and it will happen. Div A
> teams will be allowed to have up to 11 robots on field. The only difference
> is that there will not be an increase in field size. We have measured that
> even if we do not change the field size, taking Div A to 11 robots will
> provide a bigger area per robot value (4.9m²) than the current
> configuration for Div B does (4.5m²). Match Statistics When discussing rule
> changes, we need some facts and numbers from past RoboCups to support or
> reject arguments. We also need to evaluate the effects of changes that were
> made. That’s why we started to establish a standard statistics database.
> The SSL committee commits on updating and evaluating these statistics each
> year. The code can be found here:
> https://github.com/RoboCup-SSL/ssl-match-stats
> <https://github.com/RoboCup-SSL/ssl-match-stats> We will prepare an area on
> the SSL website with more information on this soon. Qualification
> requirements We will update the specifications for the qualification videos
> for Div A. Team have to demonstrate passing (with a more precise
> definition) and ball placement. Both can still be demonstrated by game play
> footage, but we will limit the duration of the video for both divisions.
> This is to encourage teams to work on smooth game play. Details will be
> included in the qualification webpage
> <https://ssl.robocup.org/robocup-2020-qualification/>. Technical challenges
> We will repeat a version of the SSL-Vision Blackout Challenge. Both
> divisions are eligible to participate. We will also have a Ball Placement
> Challenge for Div B teams only. All Div B teams will be required to
> participate in the Ball Placement Challenge. The intention is to prepare
> Div B teams to move to Div A. More information about these challenges will
> be announced later. The current work-in-progress status can be found on
> GitHub: https://github.com/RoboCup-SSL/technical-challenge-rules
> <https://github.com/RoboCup-SSL/technical-challenge-rules>.  Other
> reminders and updates - As stated in the previous email, all teams will be
> required to bring posters in order to present their changes and
> improvements to the other teams. Like last year we will schedule a poster
> session where team members can present and discuss poster contents. - We
> are still testing April Tags for SSL Vision. Initial implementation works
> correctly but more testing is needed. We do not anticipate forcing teams to
> use the April tags at this competition. However teams should start
> preparing for tags other than the currently butterfly patterns.  All of
> these changes were based on the long term goals of the Small Size League.
> The main intended effect is to:  Spend more time solving the game-on
> regular soccer problem, not on non-soccer behaviors.  In particular, we
> anticipate ball handling (stealing, possession, dribbling, passing) to be
> more important now. We are also trying to propose challenges to help Div B
> teams reach Div A, since Div B is intended to simplify the entrance of a
> new team to the league. Team Leader Online Meeting We would also like to
> invite the team leaders for an online meeting in order to clarify any
> concerns and discuss the decisions for RoboCup 2020. We ask each team to
> fill out this form
> (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScXR8BGCPYzZVHh0YUw8S75rYmV5HmCZk6xdenIvRXbV5yhbQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
> <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScXR8BGCPYzZVHh0YUw8S75rYmV5HmCZk6xdenIvRXbV5yhbQ/viewform?usp=sf_link>)
> with the name and email of their team leader so we can send out the invite
> for the meeting.  We look forward to hearing from you! Thank you! The
> Technical, Organization, and Executive Committees of the Small Size League *
> _______________________________________________
> robocup-small mailing list
> robocup-small at cc.gatech.edu
> https://mailman.cc.gatech.edu/mailman/listinfo/robocup-small
>
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