Re: You pick, which would you rather have
 

This was somewhat of the quandry that we fell into at Orlando. Before alliance selections, when we were making our list some of us were going back and forth between pairing up with another one of us(strong auto and strong tele-op) or go with a strong auto and strong balancer. We ended up saying that we needed a bit of both. For us, Team 233 the Pink Team fit what we needed perfectly. They scored as good as us in auto, were about 50-60% accurate in tele-op but were unrivaled in balancing. So, I think the thing to look for more than what your first choice should be is what role you would play in that alliance.

Re: You pick, which would you rather have
 

Many good reasons for picking A, but one for not picking B is that it is easily defended? I don't think you can defend the B as defined.
Playbook of B-'bot:

1. shakes off its two balls in hybrid so others can pick them up
2. Post (or possibly autonomously) hybrid it goes to alliance bridge,
3. pulls back the balls there,
4. balances on it,
5. waits for possible alliance traffic from own side by already tilting that way,
6. scoots in front of alliance 'bot wishing to cross to other side,
7. hovers in the lane (avoids contact with opponents that way or scores big time if they foul him),
8. back on the bridge and tilt to assist returning alliance member,
9. scoot in front of returner,
10. back onto bridge to await triple balance in end-game.

I don't have one of these machines, but if I did, the opponents would never touch me. It would be slightly larger than 15x15 though.

Re: You pick, which would you rather have
 

Scenario A for sure. At the Alamo regional, 148, 922, and 2756? (Gatorzillas, I apologize if that is the wrong number) kept going for the triple balance, and once the other alliance realized they needed those 40pts to win, they spent the remaining minute or so of every match to attempt to defend them. It was still hard to defend (the robots could go to the blue ally and make it easier then to not get defended) but they were still able to be blocked.

Re: You pick, which would you rather have
 

I saw a lot of those matches. Really good stuff!

Re: You pick, which would you rather have
 

Hope you won't mind if I add a thought here.

Tilts the opposite way when opponents move toward the C-Bridge.

Also, a 15X15 bot can still weigh 120 lbs. They could potentially block and push almost as well as anyone!

Re: You pick, which would you rather have
 

Load the whole bot up with all 22 motors, put them all into the drive train. Oh yes.

Re: You pick, which would you rather have
 

2936 is Gatorzillas and yes it's very important not to be defensed getting on to the bridge. Getting a small robot to 120lbs and still have it maneuverable is not as easy as people are making it out to be, especially since it's most likely going to be made cheaply with kit parts.

Re: You pick, which would you rather have
 

I'd take A.

OK. New question. With multiple scenarios.

1) You are a wide-base robot that can score fairly well (let's say you're the fifth best scorer at the regional). You are first seed. There are only a certain number of widebots at your competition, and none of the rest of them can score. If, however, you take a longbot, all of the other widebots will be gone by the time your third pick comes around.

Do you pick the widebot that can't score but enables you to triple balance or the longbot that is the best scorer at the competition but locks you out of the triple?

2) Same scenario but your robot cannot score effectively.

3) Same scenario but your robot is a longbot.

4) Same scenario but you are the best scoring robot at the competition.

5) Same scenario but you are fourth seed and all of the scorers better than you were taken first.