Improving gameplay (by slowing down?) #soccer-rules-2026

RoboCupJunior Soccer
1

Gameplay in Open League is coming along nicely from what we can see but as robots in Open League become faster each season we may soon arrive at the problem we can currently see more clearly in Lightweight league: there is a lot of “sumo soccer” behavior where the fastest and strongest robots have a large advantage over slower and/or weaker ones.

So we are - as we have in previous years - asking about things we could or should do about this - keeping in mind that we cannot take options that significantly complicate the building of LWL robots because RCJ Soccer is already hard enough to get started with.

This topic is closely related to this topic: Can we change or replace pushing/multiple defense? #soccer-rules-2026

Let us know your thoughts and opinions below.

Note: I’ll collect the main arguments from previous years here below soon™.

2

I personally must say, as a referee, I like the fast paced gameplay.
Nonetheless, I assume that this would be very hard to implement and check during gameplay without having the same issue as SSL and needing a camera above the game field.
Also, for teams to accually stay below the speed limit they somehow need to be aware of their own speed and already having the need to adapt to the new ball, I would suggest to give the teams a bit more time for the speed limit.

3

Relevant context for this is that we’ve had the “how to make them go slow” discussion a couple of years ago and concluded we don’t have a great solution that doesn’t involve building dynamometers or allowing only very specific motors.

The thread this was discussed in can be found here: Soccer Entry League Experiences, Questions, Ideas, Discussions

4

Pleas do not design rules that have to be checked during the gameplay. This only leads to endless discussion.

I have no idea about better rules than pushing, but if there are any, they should be easier to spot.

Roland

5

Perhaps one option would be to impose limits on where the robots can interact with the opposing team. For example…

A) Robot are required to stay on their own side of the field, and there is only a small zone in the middle of the field where both teams can enter.

…or…

B) Add a transparent wall in the middle of the field, physically separating the two sides. A gap in at the bottom would allow the ball to pass through, but not robots.

This would greatly reduce or eliminate the “sumo” behavior, and strength would no longer be important. Speed would still provide an advantage, but perhaps less so than now.

Drawback is that this is a very significant change, and it’s unclear how it teams would adapt to it (…perhaps it will lead to other ways to game the match?). It also increases the importance of the shooter mechanism.