AI Olympic Floorball (a.k.a. Unihoc, Innebandy) Wed, Jan 20th, 1:00 P.M.-4:00 P.M., at the Dupont Gym

Last updated 1999.01.08

Welcome to a repeating AI Olympic Sport from 1998! Much of the following description is due to last year's commissioner Carl Manning.

Floorball is an aerobic sport similar to an indoor version of field hockey or floor hockey. It is played with lightweight plastic ball and sticks, small goals; unlike hockey there are no skates, no pads, no checking --- it's designed to be non-violent. There's also no goal-tending, so there may by more scoring, and unlimited substitutions keeps the game moving.

As an unfamiliar sport, it challeges the AI Olympic teams to learn together what works. However, experience with hockey, soccer, basketball, or similar sports may come in handy for stick handling and passing tactics. Participation counts for your team, so come try it out even if you can't stay the entire time.

Play

To keep the game safe and non-violent, there are several restrictions, the most important of which are:

• No checking/blocking/picks/etc. (i.e., no running into other players).
• No high-sticking: do not raise the stick above waist level.
• No sticks between another player's legs (risks tripping).

• Do not stand in the crease (it's ok for your stick to be in the crease).

When Floorball is played in an enclosed area there is no out-of-bounds and play is continuous unless the ball becomes inaccessable, in which case the team who didn't knock it out hits it in from the edge of the play area. However, inside the indoor track we don't have walls so play will stop when the ball leaves the designated bounds --- in particular, do not go running into the curtains, as there may be runners on the other side.

Substitutions are unlimited and can occur at any time (as in hockey) as long as the player that is coming out is off the "field" before the new player enters.

For more information, the Caltech Floorball Club has some nice informative pages (with the above images):

• A FAQ
• Tactics (with diagrams)
• Rules excerpt
• Official rules: International Floorball Federation
  

AI Olympic Team competition

• Unihoc is an aerobic sport, and in this spirit we will keep play moving (so participation for substitutions is important). We will be playing a round robin tournament with two simultaneous games at all times, so all four teams will be playing all the time, and no team will have to wait around for other games to be played.
• We will be playing with 6 players per team on the field at a time.
• We will be playing without referees.
• IMPORTANT Catching the new entropic scoring wave (see basketball example), scoring will modified to promote participation as follows:
  
  Game Score = -log(1/(number of different people who make shot attempts))*(# goals)
  This multiplier is more like Hartley's measure of information (as opposed to Shannon), but who wants to split hairs. In order for a missed shot to be counted as a shot attempt, it must be struck towards the goal from the offensive half of the court. The important thing is that scoring becomes that much more complicated and the teams with Chris Stauffer and Raquel Romano have less of an advantage. An abacus will be available to compute final game scores. Woe unto the team that makes no shot attempts. And yes, it is true that if one player makes a gazillion points and no one else on the team makes a single shot attempt the final game score is zero.
• Games will terminate at the ending time regardless of starting time. If there is a tie then the team with the most number of participating players wins the game. If there is still a tie, then the game is awarded as a tie (1/2 point).
• Olympic points will be awarded as follows: 5 Olympic points to the team with the best round-robin record, 3 olympic points for 2nd place, 2 olympic points for 3rd place, and 1 olympic point for 4th place.
• Points will be deducted from teams without adequate representation (as determined by me) during the setting up and tearing down phases of the court.

Floorball/Unihoc at MIT