Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

I want a return of the "EH Team"

That is all.

Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

2056 - Ground Pickup
1114 - Corner-to-Pyramid
4334 - FCS

:yikes: ...omg...it's like they planned this out...

Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

What if you have an alliance of 987 + 1986 + D bot vs 3 offensive bots, none individually better than 987 or 1986?

The D bot needs to only shut down 1 of the 3 of the offensive scorers for the match to go to 987's alliance's favor. This may be a match strategy thing rather than alliance strategy (everyone wants a solid drivetrain and 3 disc autonomous shooter for their third robot) probably, due to the depth of the championship field.

Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

First off, humbled and mind blown that our team is even mentioned anywhere near this conversation!

Second off, part of the reason why we've been so successful is because we know when to stop playing defense to go protect our shooters by setting picks on the opponent's defenders. We are able to transition quickly from banging into the opposing offense to cutting off their defenders, and we're lucky that we have a driver that can pull it off! This way we try to frame the holistic offense for the match in more of a 2 (us) vs 1.5 (them) in the sense that we can't stop an amazing robot from putting up points, we just try to slow them down enough to give our shooters a chance while also trying to protect our partners from being harassed.

Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

From what I've seen, you guys are the best defensive bot this year.

Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

Who will be on Einstein?

Paper Airplanes. Paper Airplanes Everywhere. :D

Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

Actually, at least how they were calling it at CT, the FCS would receive the technical foul in this situation. That strategy was determined to be "forcing the other alliance to get a penalty".

This doesn't work. FCSes take time to line up, and as soon as it leaves the protected zone it can be rammed indefinitely.

I honestly do not think an FCS is a hard requirement for Einstein. A 7-disc floor loader (or at least extra points) is far more important, and all three robots need to score in auto. I think for that reason, 3 of the 4 alliances are guaranteed to have a floor loader on them. From there, a triple volume offense strategy can actually stay competitive versus an FCS / rebounder / defender + hang combination.

You want as much offense as possible with as many quick "extra" points as possible this year, either in the form of a complex autonomous or a high hang. That's not to say there won't be plenty of D, but everyone should have scoring ability for maximum versatility.

Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

To be honest, I would very much prefer it if those 3 all ended up at different divisions (if 1114 and 4334 end up together, it's fine, but no other combination).
While I loved watching them play and loved 1114 and 2056 together at their regionals this year, I think those teams together make the game un-even, even for some of the bigger powerhouses (maybe all of them, they definitely risk all the teams I saw playing), and to be honest, it's getting kind of boring. I'd rather see them pair up with other big teams, and maybe face off at Einstein.

Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

* It sounds like the referees need to communicate across the events... The rationale for not callling the technical on the FCS was basically this: If a 60" robot were attempting to block the FCS and the FCS pushed it across the autoline to open up a shot, there woudl be no foul. However, shoudl that 60" robot, between matches, suddenly duct tape a pool noodle on it's top, it would suddenly be illegal to shove it out of the way. Moreover, if the FCS attempted to go around the "pool noodled defender,' it risked either hitting the pyramid or knocking Pool Noodle into the pyramid, incurring fouls. This effectively meant that the 84" defender could contorl the entire right side of the court.... This seemed unreasonable - giving a little too much to the "power of the pool noodle." The judgment was made that, so long as the FCS was tryign to open up a shot, it had a right to try to clear the other robot out without worrying about commiting a foul.

* As for how long a FCS takes to line up, that really depends on the robot and driver. I saw 1425 in Central Washington slide 3' to its left and hit a pair of three-pointers in a period of about five seconds -with the biggeest delay being in the firing mechanism. The first shot was off in less than two seconds. 948 can line up for several different shots just as quickly. Both robots' biggest delay is when they try to line up perfectly such that they are in line with the feeder *and* the three point goal at teh same time - this is much trickier than just lining up with the three pointer.

Is a FCS necessary for Einstein? No. No particular robot is. However, a good FCS is brutal weapon that can certainly help.

Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

In Seattle a foul was not called against the fcs if there were Frisbees in the hopper for a pyramid run. What cpr(can't remember number) did was put a retractable stick out the front of their robot so that a defender could not get close enough to block shots without a technical foul

Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

We asked the ref about doing that, too... However, he said that, should the stick get inside another robot and, say, strike its electrical board, it would be a technical on teh FCS, so we chose not to do that.

Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

A return of the Eh team just isn't going to happen.

Chances of them all being in the same division are 1/16, and even then, I'm sure the other 7 alliances would put a stop to it.

Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

I agree with the assessment that a FCS blocker will be very important to success on Einstein. Not a 'noodle bot' though, noodles and other soft disc blockers can still allow discs to travel the entire length of the field.

My anecdotal evidence: the one match at CT where we (95) went up against 195, arguably the best FCS at CT, we shut them down to something like 6 or 8 discs scored during the entire teleop period. 195 got two or four from full-court position, then only one cycle of 4 discs, with no time left for a 10pt hang. They were also unable to draw any fouls on us. In one of their other matches where they were un-defended 195 emptied their entire frisbee reserve including colored discs, scored most of them, got a 10pt hang, and their alliance set the first high score at the CT regional, something like 176 with no foul points.

We reduced their teleop scoring capacity from 100+ points to less than 20 points with 100% clean defense using our climbing arm. We were very surprised that no alliances picked us at CT to specifically counter 195, but were entirely thrilled to be playing with them in the afternoon.

In general I think the winning alliance will be a FCS, a ground pick-up shooter, and a defense/climbing multi-ability robot that can be assigned to protect the FCS, harass opponent shooters, and/or climb and dump for 50. 10pt hang is a minimum requisite for all robots. I think that a good FCS and ground loader can get basically every disc into the 3pt goal in a match (especially if undefended) which makes a 3rd shooting robot superfluous and a good defender/protector/climber more important. Ideally all robots will have an auton move and all available frisbees will be spent, of course.

Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

-CPR is 3663

I noticed this too. Refs at Central last weekend seemed to call it more often. In Seattle, the refs seemed to hold back on calling the safety-zone fouls against FCS's. If there are discs in the hopper or not, a full-court shooter is still going to be hindered by defense.

It will be interesting to see how consistently this is called at champs.

Re: Who is going to be on Einstein?
 

Due to wildcard and a new regional there will be more canadian teams attending this year. I could imagine it'll be possible to assemble an all canadian team in any division (And given the play of some of the top teams not named 1114 and 2056, it might be just as effective as the last one).