Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

Oh jeez. I'm probably a few weeks behind. The mentors were preparing ours to go as well.

Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

I believe yours is to be piloted by one of the two pre-rookie teams. They should be thrilled to have the use of such a fine machine.

Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

Of course, you guys have the somewhat evil, extremely cool detaching hooks, which is a big bonus. Even if it partially caused our lowest scoring match of the season at the worst possible time, it was one of the coolest things I have seen this season.

where did that FRC humor thread go? Cause this would be the only funny thing in it :rolleyes:

I did an Illinois one earlier, but here's one for the Midwest (excluding MI)
2481: good can pullers, one of the best landfillers in the world. I haven't gotten to see their pullers myself, but I've heard a lot of really good things about them.
1756: good can pullers, can ramp load 3 6 stacks capped. They could also handle landfill, but both 2481 and 1756 would score the most points if 1756 stayed at their long ramp. Their ramp also folds up, so it won't be in the way of 2826's auto.
2826: by far the best auto in the world, possibly the best robot in the world. Nothing to explain here, they're incredible.

Every robot here is capable 3 6es capped, or more. Under IRI rules, a single alliance could have access to up to 9 cans, assuming the other alliance doesn't get theirs in auto, so there's potential for a ridiculous score. 2826 would have to be attached to 1756's ramp, but they showed off a tethered ramp in their pre-champs reveal, so I wouldn't be worried about a drop in performance. 1756 would take one of the preload cans, and the other would be placed sideways in the staging zone so they could get to it quickly after their first stack.

Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

Any match video of this?

Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

Don't tell anybody, but that was completely unintentional.

There's a right and left side to the hooks and they're removed for transport configuration. One pin in each on the field and they're ready to go. Because of some confusion in queue, they were switched. The pins didn't match the holes, and we incorrectly thought that was because something got bent in the previous match tug-of-war with 1538. The head ref was starting to get antsy about how long we were taking so I just shoved it down as hard as I could and hoped we'd hook the can and be out of there before anybody else had a chance to grab on. I didn't know that our HP was having the same problem on the other hook, or we might have put 2+2 together and figured out they were switched.

To make it even worse, we had shortened our go-forward distance to avoid interfering with 234's 20-pt auton, and something didn't work so we didn't move at all. We got down into the holes pretty quickly... and just sat there. The surgical tubing on the hooks is just to pull the arms back down under the height limit, they weren't intended to withstand the force of two robots pulling in opposite directions.

Either that, or it was all a diabolical ploy to bait an unsuspecting alliance into the most awesome tug of war of the season. I'll leave that up to the reader to decide.

Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

We were slightly suspecting... We delayed our auto because we didn't want to get into a tug of war with you guys, hoping you might miss one and we'd get it. Instead, you didn't move forward and then did some detaching hook magic to get the can again. We had never missed our 2-can auto until after that can war. We seriously thought you guys had just made the most brilliant strategic maneuver I've ever seen, but either way that was the best tug-of-war of the season, easily.

Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

That tug-of-war was good, but not the best. (IMO) The best involved 3310 and another team that I forget, they both hooked on to the same cans and their grabbers didnt release, so they got to spent the majority of the match in an epic tug-of-war.

Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

That was 5027. They were on our SVR alliance and they were using the hooks we left with them. No match video up yet on that one.

Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

I forget, was there ever a 1678/3310 can battle? I'd be interested to see who would win that.

Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

1678 and 3310 went head to head(On opposing alliances) only twice in the Newton division this year. Quals 42 and Semi-Final 2 in newton this year are the 2 matches where they were on opposing alliances. After watching semi-final 2 they did not have a can battle. A can battle could of possibly happened in Quals 42, but the likelihood is low that they did.

Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

We agreed not to compete in s2 as a drawn out can battle would lower both of our scores.

Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

Yep, logically makes sense.

Can battles didn't happen much during quarters or semis at champs.

Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

We ran our auto routine in every match during quals. We didn't see a reason to limit the other alliance's score in quals and we were never in an alliance that could put up more than 5 capped stacks. I think we probably agreed to split the cans in the semifinals.

Re: State Power Alliances 2015
 

[quote=The other Gabe;1485536]a few problems with this, at least for me. the first is that your entire alliance has issues with downed containers (which was the main reason I chose 4911 over 2471; I've seen them handle the cans better overall than Mean Machine). While they had a great robot, the main reason CPR advanced so far into playoffs was their brilliant scouting, allowing them to create a super solid alliance in one of the strongest divisions; keep in mind that 492 technically placed higher, qualifying for Einstein (even if they never played a match on there), and that was because they were on the best team in their division. Also CPR would have neither the time nor the ability to go from the Landfill (I have gone to every event they have, and they have never done landfill). for your alliance, I feel like the Skunks would make more sense (assuming you want all 4 containers, if not, 955)

[quote=Dunngeon] "I agree with your first pick, although 4488 performs much better on the right feeder for obvious reasons."
I was visualizing the feeder stations from the step, not behind the alliance wall, sorry for the confusion
The Other Gabe - I'm not sure who you are, but I think I love you (the 'brilliant scouting' remark). :) We work VERY hard on our scouting and felt elated with our PNW District Championship and Curie Finalist Division alliance selections in 2015. Everything that people have commented about the merits of the different robots mentioned are things our scouting team considered. Rather than discuss specific robots, I will say our strategy involved picking very reliable teams that addressed what we lacked (example- sideways can up righting ability). In 2015, ranking was determined by averages. Reliability was critically important. We advanced past teams with greater upsides (and downsides) at World's because of our reliability, or other teams' lack thereof.

Now, with Stronghold in 2016, we may consider a different strategy. Since we are back to the win-loss format, picking a 3rd bot that is high risk-high reward may be something we will consider more strongly. Having a kamikaze defensive bot may be worth our while.

Given our choices, we were pleased with our alliance selection at 2016 Week 1 Auburn Mountainview. We chose 3393 as our first pick because they were fantastic at breaching, had fast, smart driving, and were the best low scoring robot at the competition. Their skill at doing everything they chose to do exquisitely well put them ahead of other high goal scoring robots we could have chosen. For our third bot, it would have made sense to pick a crazy-fierce defensive bot, but none of the bots remaining met our criteria for autonomous crossing, smart defense, lack of fouls, and being able to still be powered throughout a whole match. We might have been able to overlook some fouls, but the lack of autonomous and staying powered throughout the match was a deal breaker. We chose instead 3223, a skilled bot with smart driving. They did a nice job on defense, crossed in autonomous, and were capable of helping us on breaching if we needed it.

We survived the fiercest defensive bot, 2907, in quarterfinals, partly due to 2907 committing fouls (although in terms of risk/reward, they were effective at limiting our shooting). Our survival through quarterfinals was a major accomplishment. No other alliance had to face the type of defense we experienced in eliminations. Then, in semis, we faced Skunks (1983) alliance. We lost the first semifinal match by 3 points. They, of course, went on to win the whole thing. They were simply better than we were. Their victorious qualification match in which they were the only robot of the alliance who showed up on the field was probably the most impressive thing I have ever seen.

To win in Auburn Mountainview, we needed to have completed more features on our robot (autonomous shooting, scaling, vision recognition tele-op shooting). However, these are in process and we hope to have some of them ready for Glacier Peak and all of them ready for Mt. Vernon. I am thrilled with the 39 District Points we received our first week of competition in the historically toughest district in PNW. We plan to just get better and better and I think we realistically have plans to make that happen.

Good luck to everyone in Stronghold!