pic: Match 0105: 2nd highest score in the nation

[CD47-Bot]

[cdm-description=photo]15528[/cdm-description]

[Josh Hambright]

Not to start another flame war...but wasn't this match one of the matches with 'a gentlemens agreement'?

[Paul Copioli]

Please get your facts straight before posting like this. Here are the facts:

1. 217 had 3 matches on Saturday morning. The first was with 1064 and they had a barely working drivetrain. We helped them fix it as best as possible. We lost our first match with them and only scored 15 points. They could barely move.

2. 217 was then matched with 829 in the second match. They also had a bad motor. They were driveable, but not very robustly. They tried getting on the ramp in our match with them. We won our match.

3. Having this information from the previous 2 matches made us modify (slightly) our strategy (A stack of 6 as opposed to 2 stacks of 4, like we had done ALL weekend)

4. We were approached and before our opponent could even get the words out I said "Absolutely not. You play your game and we will play ours."

5. Our game all weekend was to play a completely offensive game until our stacks got knocked down, then we would hit the opponents stack. We played that way in the finals , too. It is risky, but has big payoffs if you succeed.

6. We knocked down the entire wall in about 3.5 seconds and put ourselves in a great position to defend. We defended our stack the entire match until we went up on the top.

7. Our partner (942) absolutely pushed some boxes on the opponents side to give us more points (4 stack * 2 for losers score is higher than 6 stack) and not dessimate our opponent.

8. We let 1064 on the ramp (we even adjusted to let them on the ramp) in order to boost our score.

9. In no way did we have any agreement and if they would have knocked our stack down, then we would have knocked theirs down, but they would have had a hard time knocking ours down.

10. If you knew me or my students you would not have even posted your remarks. I am not angry, just setting the record straight.

-Paul

[Kevin Kolodziej]

Thank you, Paul, for clearing that up. I had been hearing rumorst hat the match had been "arranged" and I was absolutely not happy about that. I had been field coach for the whole weekend, except the last two matches. Like you, I have an "absolutely not!" approach to anything like that, so when I heard rumors that that HAD happened, I was not happy about it at all. It had never occured to me during the match - I was just happy that the robot was working! And we made it up the ramp!!

Your strategy is indeed very risky, but I believe it to be one of the best ways to go about playing. Senselessly knocking down opponents stacks will hurt everyone, not just the opponents. I think I will dub this the "eye for an eye" strategy and use it (if you don't mind) at nationals if we are able to go.

Again, thanks for the clarification!

Good luck at nationals, hope to see you there,
Kev

[Josh Hambright]

I had heard rumors that it was an aranged match. That is why my message was in the form of a question. I didnt mean by any means to offend you or insult your team. I was just trying to find out if it was true or not.

[Paul Copioli]

No offense taken. I hope this cleared things up. Congrats on the Chairman's Award.

-Paul

[Josh Hambright]

Congrats on the spirit award... Love to see teams with spirit...and tell your team thanks for the spirit award we recieved rom you guys. We considered it a huge compliment to get the spirit award from the team that won the real spirit award!

Rock on thunderchickens!