Match Observations and Game Strategy
 

After spectating a few matches, these are the conclusions I've drawn:

1: Defense is very important because there are no safe zones for shooters and there is only one game piece for the defending bot(s) to worry about.

2: Zone play (1 bot in red, 1 bot in white, 1 bot in blue) does not work, actively trying to get the second and third bot to contribute to the assist already slows you down, but since they are not fully committed to offence, they don't peel the defenders for the bot taking the shot. Also, having defenders that are partially committed to offence will leave gaps in the defense, allowing the opposing shooter to score.

3: you will likely need to outnumber the opposing defense with your offence if you want to get any shots off. It is necessary to peel the defending bots away from the shooter in order to prevent interference. This is incredibly important because there are no safe zones for the shooters.

Those are just my observations, if anyone has any others, please speak up!

I have also been working on a google docs spreadsheet for scouting and match prediction if anyone wants to play around with it and experiment.
https://docs.google.com/a/mysummitps...ve_w eb#gid=0
I put headers to guide you for what goes into each zone. put the statistical data in the table at the top (first 75~ rows) and numbers of the in play bots near the bottom to output a potential score.

Re: Match Observations and Game Strategy
 

I think it is too early to rule out this strategy. While it may not have worked in matches you watched, it is certainly viable in others. It all depends on the qualities of the robots on your alliance and the opposing alliance.

Re: Match Observations and Game Strategy
 

Watching 1986 and 525 today was beautiful. 1986 would pass over the truss to the scoring zone where 525 would pick it up. 1986 would then usually follow down the field and push the defense away from 525 while they got a quick shot off. The matches I saw with it were smooth and very effective, better than most other strategies today.

Re: Match Observations and Game Strategy
 

Us (team 862) along with 2474 and 1025 made it to the finals in southfield playing exclusively zone. It helped that all 3 robots could do the same things. So if one was playing defense, the order could be easily switched.

Re: Match Observations and Game Strategy
 

It works well when you're with people who are comfortable coordinating. We've gotten it to work, and it's extremely effective if you have the pattern down and good alliance cohesion. If you'd don't ...well, high risk, high reward.