Sunday September 3rd Finals Day. There was a playoff between Rome and CMU this morning for third place. CMU looked the stronger team, and they ran in three goals in the first half. Rome seemed to come out revitalised in the second half, as they scored two quick goals to bring the match within their grasp. Unfortunately for them, CMU scored some more goals to put the result beyond doubt, CMU winning 7-2. Before the final the crowd built up early. The media had their own set places, and were threatened with ejection from the exhibition centre if they didn't stick to them. At least a dozen video cameras surrounded the field, but they were lowered to allow the crowd in the stands to see the match. UNSW won the toss and were allowed to kick off. They brought the ball forwards strongly, going past the two French defenders, and within range of the goal. The French keeper was not looking the correct way, and the UNSW striker ran it into the goal within 20 seconds of the kickoff. The UNSW team is nothing if not fast. The speed of the goal scoring seems to validate the UNSW strategy of not giving the ball an almighty whack upon the kickoff, but rather trying to control it instead. However, UNSW rarely got to kickoff during the tournament :) One play by UNSW that drew huge cheers from the crowd was after a sustained attack by one UNSW striker. The ball was caught behind the French goalie, and the UNSW attacker had a leg caught up with the French goalie. It just managed to nudge the ball across the face of goal, and the second UNSW striker who had been holding back its attack came straight through and scored. Another advantage that the UNSW team had was that they were able to detect when a teammate was near the ball, and back away to give that robot a chance to control the ball. No other team was able to do that this year. This was occasionally seemed a disadvantage, as it sometimes led to a two-on-one struggle with two defenders. However, if the ball sprayed loose, there was a second robot who was not caught up in the struggle able to grab the ball and run it past the two tangled defenders. This happened several times during the matches played by UNSW. The French walk seemed largely unchanged since last year, when they had an advantage over our robots, as their walk was stronger, and they often knocked our robots over in pursuit of the ball. This year the tables were turned, as the new UNSW walk was much faster and stronger than the LRP walk. Often in the Legged League robots will tangle their legs, but this year UNSW was often able to pull free and continue pursuit of the ball. UNSW finished the first half with a lead of seven goals to nil. The second half was much tougher, with the LRP team grimly defending their goal. However, the strain started to show, with both teams having problems. The French keeper stopped working twice - the second time just as it trapped the ball between its legs. One UNSW attacker also seemed to run out of battery, and collapsed in the middle of the field. Both robots were stretchered off the field for medical attention, but returned to play again. Even with all he excitement, the UNSW team were able to score three more goals in the second half. The final goal was scored with 30 seconds remaining on the clock. After the last kickoff, a UNSW robot got the ball and took a shot from halfway, which rolled all the way up to the goal, and sat right on the corner. The robot followed up the attack, crossing the field and coming right up to the ball, but somehow its shot missed the goal, and the ball rolled back into the field. There was no time left and the whistle blew with UNSW leading ten nil. UNSW were the Robocup 2000 Sony Legged League World Champions! At the presentation ceremony later in the day, the team of Claude, Bernhard, Son and Darren got up onto the podium to recieve their trophies amid huge applause from the crowd. It was a fitting result for the team considering the massive amount of work that they put in. They had been working since early this year, and in the final six weeks before Robocup development went from 7 or 8 in the morning (when Bernhard arrived) until 2 or 3 in the morning (when Darren and Son left). On the downside they'll have to get used to their celebrity status :) Last year, after UNSW had come second, Claude had said to John and Mike that he was (jokingly) annoyed with us, because now he had to find another team that was going to be able to carry on the work. I bet he's really annoyed now :) Of course, if you are a student at UNSW who would like to get involved with the Robocup project, you should get in contact with Claude (claude @ cse.unsw.edu.au), and tell him. Being an undergraduate is no problem, as of the five students who have worked on the Robocup project so far, four have been undergraduates. Robocup 2001 will be held in Seattle, and the Legged League is slated to expand again to accomodate 16 teams. Hopefully the UNSW team will continue the successes of 1999 and 2000.

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