Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

Saw an interesting side effect of throwing noodles as a defensive mechanism to neutralize good robots as a tossed pool noodle got trapped in 987's robot and they couldn't put down a stack at all.
Obviously it's a long shot as a strategy but at least it's something.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...0050ae5cc17376

Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

I thought this was the coach's role. That said, if using one of the HPs as a coach or scorekeeper works better for your alliance, I see nothing in the rules to prevent this. It appears that HPs and Drivers are permitted the same sets of actions. Coaches are more restricted.

FWIW, I expect that finals-quality alliances will need three working HPs to get those 40 game pieces out from behind the alliance wall to where they can be scored.

Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

I will go read the rules about this... maybe you're right :D

Our human player is pretty good but sometimes litter goes right or left if it's damaged... otherwise he can shoot it on the opposite alliance's wall

Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

After watching a few of the first qualifying matches of 2015 I find throwing way too risky.

I just watched a match where a teams own litter prevented them from scoring.

Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

A bit of an update:

I was able to watch some of Week 1 in South Florida (it's the only one that I checked which is streamed on Youtube, which is the only one I can access at school) today. It seems that only 20% or so of the noodles actually make it the proper distance there. I did see one or two HPs who made almost every single noodle, which was nice. I can guarantee you that over the next few weeks the method of throwing will change quite a bit.

Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

While watching the Dallas LiveStream, I saw someone throw a noodle that landed near a robot from the other side that was approaching the step with a stack of yellow totes. I guess the Human Player didn't STUDY the rules and their implications.

Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

I'm sure most of the people reading CD have at least studied the scoring rules well enough to have waited a few seconds!

Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

I don't think alot of teams train their human players at all and just let them do what they please. So to feel useful they just toss the pool noodles across the field.

Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

One other week 1 observation...Way too many penalties called for throwing Litter in the last 20 seconds of matches, negating many hard won points already scored...(when that 20 seconds left in the match horn sounds), Coaches will need to notify HP's (and pre-notify and remind all 3 HP's), HP's on your Alliance....To simply stop throwing the litter onto the field!

Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

In our 2nd finals match the opposing alliance scored 44 litter points and won that match. Fortunately for us, Cy Young wasn't around for the 3rd finals match.

An anomaly? Maybe, but that kid could throw.

Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

I think the GDC did a good job with the point values this year.

Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

Litter points being in both containers and the field! Don't forget that 558 was able to get litter into almost every single container that we got onto our side of the field! But throwing the rest of the litter all the way across proved to be the real game changer that match!

Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

I think whether or not you should throw litter depends entirely on the skill of your human player. At GSC, we averaged 23~ LP a game, and our final QA was ~52 iirc. We had more litter points than any other team there and finished seeded second. In Qualifying matches, we threw the litter usually with 60 seconds left. Our human player (aka noodle jesus) didn't have any problem getting 6+ noodles across to the other side in 40 seconds. In playoffs, we threw the noodles immediately because we knew that the noodles would get in the other alliance's way. In our second quarterfinal match, not only did our human player score all ten noodles by throwing them to the other side, giving us 40 points, he also inherently slowed the other side down, which gave us a huge advantage and allowed us to qualify for the semifinals.

After participating in a week 1 regional, I am convinced noodle throwing is a great strategy.

Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

This is going to be an extremely unpopular opinion, but my captain has implemented a no-noodle policy that we as strategists are supposed to ask our alliance partners to respect if possible during match planning. He would like to avoid the possibility of the noodles getting stuck underneath the other alliance's robots' wheels and preventing them from functioning properly (as mentioned earlier) or getting stuck whilst driving (a side effect that we noticed at Suffield Shakedown), even to the effect that we gain four points per piece that they do not manage to corral into the landfill zone.

There's also the point that a lot of times the human player put in charge of noodle throwing can't throw it as far as they think they can, and it ends up hurting our alliance by cluttering up our side of the field and giving us more obstacles to maneuver around. Less of an issue for us with our sick H-Drive, but an issue nonetheless. :cool:

Re: Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?
 

At the Dallas regionals, all three of our robots were disabled in our second semi-finals match. We still managed to score 28 points from just throwing Noddles, and for the time being this kept our average from dropping too low. Also, the noodles tend to get in the way of your opponents robots, forcing them to take alternate routes to score, getting caught in their wheels, as well as making them drop entire stacks. So noodles both give you points and essentially take away points from the opposing alliance.