January 6, 2007-- Team San Diego FIRST teams crowded into High Tech High for the FIRST 2007 Kickoff day where FIRST reveals their challenge via live satellite across the globe. When the 2007 game "Rack 'N' Roll" was finally revealed, it was meet with high applause from Team San Diego, and there was even some talk already about robot designs.

The game is different every year, and prior to Kickoff, FIRST holds the challenge in secrecy, giving FIRST teams only a clue about the game to heighten the anticipation. For weeks, Team 812 members were giving out wild guesses!

"The game is better than any of our guesses. This is gonna be fun challenge," team 812 member Ximena Mora.

"The 'spider' contraption in the middle of the playing field is a monster!" exclaimed Kyle Norquist.

The "Rack" is in the middle of the Rack 'N' Roll playing field. Teams score by placing a game piece on the spider legs.

The 2007 Rack 'N' Roll game, like other FIRST Robotics challenges, is played with two alliances (red and blue) composed of three FIRST teams. The objective of the game is to score higher then the opposing alliance by placing donut-like game pieces on the central scoring structure (the Rack). Each side uses their alliance colored game piece only. More points are given to alliances who have placed their game pieces in a row, like a tic-tac-toe game.

At the end of a match, teams may score more points by having all alliance robots back in the homezone. Like other years, each FIRST Robotics team will have two drivers, a coach, and a human player during their team's match. For more information about the Rack 'N' Roll challenge, click here for the official FIRST site.

After watching the FIRST challenge video, Team San Diego members went outside to see a mock-up of the Rack 'N' Roll arena, built by FIRST mentors. Watching the Kickoff video together continues to be a Team San Diego tradition.