Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I predict

The winning alliance in St. Louis will consist of no fewer than one robot that cannot limbo the low bar, and no fewer than two robots whose primary shooting position is from the outer works.

Bryce Nack has spoken.



PS. Make your last minute bold predictions here. Or just tear mine to shreds and don't worry about it. :D

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I predict that defending your tower from incoming boulders will be more difficult than most people here on CD are thinking.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

The #1 seed at every event will be a low bar bot.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I predict that winning alliances will often consist of at least 1 robot that can do nothing but climb and play defense (and scale the easier defenses), probably with a cheesecaked climber. All 6 bots on einstein will have climbers. The top seed at every regional will be a low bar bot, but the 2nd seed may not be. And I'm willing to bet that 1st seeds will win strong regionals, but weak regionals will not be won by 1st seeds.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

2056 will lose their first regional, and win their first championship.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I'll challenge that with, At least 1 event will have a non-low bar robot as #1 seed captain.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I'll raise you that no less that 20% of events will be won by an alliance captain that is not low bar capable.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

The Portcullis will quickly become the most popular defence to be chosen by alliances and audiences alike.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

254 will have a 3 ball auto by championships.

Also championship winning alliance will be 3 cycling robots who all shoot in the high goal from the outerworks.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

The top 20 high goal shooters in terms of OPR will all have some form of alignment other than driving manually, i.e. vision targeting

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Replace outerworks with batter and I agree.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

How do you expect 3 separate robots to efficiently score from the batter? That seems like a nightmare even without a defender. If you add a defender into the mix (which I think we'll see in nearly all eliminations matchups) the scoring will become abysmal.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Easy, same way that 2/3 bots used the position under the pyramid facing the center high goal in 2013.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

To clarify, I mean up the batter against the castle wall as a hard stop, not just getting close to the batter and shooting.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

The world champion alliance will not have a high goal shooting robot. ALSO, they will have their division's best robot at playing defense on the opposing alliance.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

there will be at least one time during Einstein play where a robot will become stuck underneath the low bar, or flip itself attempting to traverse one of the other outer works

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I think you will see a few things develop over the next few weeks.

1. I think as scoring of boulders increases and inbounding becomes something that you are forced to do as boulders come in, instead of as your alliance needs them, you will need to have a presence in the secret passage to keep the enemy from short circuiting their cycles and easily running up the score. Therefor, defense will be critical and will be something you see on 6/8 elimination alliances at every regional up until district championships and Saint. Louis.

2. Tall robots will be the landfill robots of this year (a bit biased... but looking at #1, congestion issues at the batter and in the courtyard in general, and ease of manipulation of category A and C if you built tall, etc.)

3. Least bold prediction: Climbing will be much more like in 2010 than 2013.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

ITT: people predicting that their robot design will win Einstein.

Here's a bold prediction: the portcullis will be knocked over or broken at least once this year.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

The alliance that wins Einstein will have a rookie team that was the first pick by the alliance captain. That same alliance will not have been a #1 seed in its respective division.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

At least one low goal will be scored on Einstein.

Not every robot on the winning alliance will hang.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

The winning alliance will be able to breach the outer works within 30 seconds (after autonomous)

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

The top 25 teams in FRC (measured however you would like -- FRCTop25, Looking Forward top 25, whatever) will have a greater percentage of low bar challenged robots than FRC as a whole.

In the elimination rounds, over 50% of low bar capable robots will never use the low bar.

Captures will occur in fewer than 30% of qualification matches across all weeks of regionals/districts. Of these captures, more than half will be achieved entirely through low goal scoring.

Matches in which all three robots make a high goal auto shot will occur, on average, less than three times per regional. Multi-ball autos don't count, but these will also be rarer than many are expecting, much rarer than they were in 2014

An 8th seed will make Einstien, and make a deep run there.

So will a rookie, and not as a 4th team.

No robots with Rhino tread modules will make Einstien.

A record number of backup robots will be used, both at championships and at regionals/districts

A highly favored alliance will loose in the finals due to a roboRIO brownout related error.

Scaling will start the season rare, but become practically a necessity for einstein teams.

Related, a cheesecakeable scaling device will emerge later in the season.

Across all week 0.5 and week 1 events, the number of triple tortugas will approach double digits.

A robot will successfully, if roughly, perform a barrel roll crossing the ramparts. People will be talking about it for years.

A majority of robot redesigns this year are going to be focused on swapping from a variable position to a fixed position shooter. The number of batter shooters will increase dramatically as the season goes on.

The category C defenses will never be used past the divisional quarterfinals.

Somebody is going to do something stupid with plastic pneumatic tanks, resulting in a hard impact to them during a defense crossing, catastrophic failure of the tank, and will subsequently re-open debate about these things.

For the first time since an equivalent statement was added in 2012, FIRST will act on the blue box under section 3.1.4 of the game manual, re-scaling the tower strength for championships. People will be disgruntled by this.

People will like this game less in April than they do right now. Reasons cited will be similar to Aerial Assist: robot fatigue, scoring/penalty inconsistencies, in addition to a less severe repeat of 2010's tendency to cause robots designed for the tunnel to blur together when viewed from a distance.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Every team will wish they had a climber, and climbing will be shown to be way more valuable than expected.

The difference in performance between short and tall robots will be a lot less extreme than everybody is predicting. In the end it won't make a huge difference if you're tall or short if you can play the game effectively.

The qualities that describe most elite teams will be: Low bar capable, with an unblockable shot, and a climber.

Defense will play a factor in every single playoff match, but very few qualification matches.

The overall high score at most events will come during quals.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

On Einstein, at least one alliance in every round will have both breached the opponents' defenses and weakened the opponents' tower with 1:15 left in the match.

No scissorlifts will be in the CMP division finals.

There will be two Dean's List Finalists from the same school.

The CMP Chairman's Award will go to a team that is not American.

One Einstein alliance will be made of teams from the same district.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Categories B & D and the low bar will be, on average, the first to be damaged.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

This.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Why, with almost everyone (on CD) at least claiming that they can go under the low bar the value of it had dramatically dropped, at least in my opinion. My bold prediction is that only half to 3/4 of the robots on Einstein will be low bar bots.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

There will be a robot on Einstein that has a cheesecaked climbing device. :D

A #1 seed will pick the best robot available and be respectfully declined. The #1 seeded alliance will face that robot's alliance in the finals and win. (At a regional)

Someone will make a paper airplane that makes it into one of the towers on Einstein.

The winning alliance on Einstein will consist of all first time Champs.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

There will be teams on Einstein that score their only boulder during autonomous.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I almost guarantee it.

I'd wager > 75% of all captures will be done primarily with low goal scoring (5+ balls).

That will be the biggest surprise of them all. Due to just the sheer mass quantity of them, I think like last year with mecanums, it's just bound to happen.

I sure would like to know how that will happen. I keep hearing whispers about cheesecake lifting, but that sounds crazier than cheesecake can burglary last year, which I don't think ever happened.

That's a bold strategy Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for 'em.

This also in; the amount of defense played on said batter shooters will also increase as the season goes on.

I hope that's not the case. C plans to be the first one we damage.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

No robots with swerve drives will make it to Einstein.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

The 2016 Palmetto regional will be the most watched regional during week 0.5.

It will also be the most watched palmetto regional ever.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Here's my set of predictions:

1) There will be at least one regional where the event is decided by a crossing that is missed by a referee, causing Chief Delphi to grab their torches and pitchforks.

2) There will be at least three alliances in the top three seeds throughout the season that picks a random third robot, only for their capture to fail because that third bot rolls off the batter when they try to park on it.

3) More than 70% of winning alliances will capture in the finals matches that they win.

4) At the Championship, out of the 24 robots that play on Einstein, there will be less than 10 that scale.

5) Barring a robot comms issue, every match on Einstein will have a breach on both sides.

6) The Einstein winning alliance will have at least one robot that does not go under the low bar.

7) The most high goals a single team will score in a match is 10.

8) 1678 will be on Einstein again, moving into the sole owner of second place for the record of consecutive Einstein appearances (177 is in 1st, 1678 and 67 are tied for 2nd)

9) Michigan will have their 4th HoF team.

10) The following countries will be represented on Einstein: USA, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Australia.

11) A district championship winning alliance will have two of their alliance members on the same alliance on Einstein.

12) A VERY controversial call will knock an alliance out in some level above the division semifinals.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

The rough terrain will be the least common defense this season.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Here are some cheesecaked canburglars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssRfFHOz2tM
Cheesecaked lifting sounds crazy though.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Which robot? There were like four can burglars in that video.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Several winning alliances at the regional level will be composed of three low goal only robots.

Cheesecaked climbing devices will be somewhat common at state/dcmp

179, 33, and 1477 will be on Einstein

2 Indiana teams will make it to Einstein

118 and 4334 will beat 1114 and 2056 at GTR

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Bold prediction:

More than half of the predictions in this thread (as of the time of this posting) will be wrong.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

1. There will be a Tortuga on Einstein.

2. A regional will be won without a single high goal

3. There will be at least one backup robot playing on Einstein

4. Not a single Rhino Track drive will be on Einstein

5. The winning alliance on Einstein will have 3 hanging robots

6. Not a single 3 ball auton will be completed

7. There will be at least one IFI team on the winning alliance

8. There will be one robot that will catch on fire during elims at a regional

9. There will be an instance where a robot landed on top of another.

Is This Bold enough for you?

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

If a bold prediction predicts that a bold prediction is wrong, does it make it a bold prediction?

I think we need to amp up the boldness.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

The starting STRENGTH of the TOWER will not be increased.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

So we've had bold predictions for both Value raised at Champs, AND Value NOT raised.

Well, which is it; they both can't be bold. Fight, fight, fight!!!

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I have to agree with this.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

4334 isn't attending an event with 1114 or 2056.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I will singlehandedly win Champs.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Usage of the Category C defenses will be almost non-existent in Qualification matches, but will be used in EVERY match in Eliminations.

There will be at least one match of closed-cycle Stronghold.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

From seeing teams' releases on CD, over 50% of high goal shooters will be able to be rendered useless by a piece of duck-taped pool noodle, especially in Elims.

I'll even go as far as to say this: At palmetto, a quite reliable and quick climber will be MORE VALUABLE than a decent high-goal shooter SHOULD defense be played well.

Some team, I'll even go as far as to limit only to alliance captains, is going to win a regional just by scoring low goals at lightning-fast speed and scaling.

We'll see 3 times as many breaches as captures at palmetto, but this will decrease to about 1.5 by worlds.

Every single defense, at some point or another, is going to get severely damaged. For some more vulnerable defenses, like the portcullis or cheval, this will be about once a week. For things like the rock wall, it may turn into one in the season.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I fear it may be much more common than this...

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Tall shooters will be better than low bar shooters!

Most (>90%) low robots with shooters would have been better off without their shooters, because they miss too many shots.

Some robots will seed #1 without scoring any high goals in qualifier rounds.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

A team standard will be destroyed by a boulder during autonomous.

Ditto for teleop, with the standard falling on the drive team.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Nearly all of the boulders scored on Einstein will be in the high goal!

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

The amount of non-limbo robots that are alliance captains vs. first picks will be almost equal.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

For the first 2-3 weeks of the season, capturing a tower will be a very rare occurrence. There will likely be some regionals or districts where fewer than 2 captures occur during qualification.
This will make many question if the capture standard is too high.

If "strengthening" does not occur, CAPTURING at district championships may become so universal that it will "mess with the ranking". Historically this is around 50%+ for a bonus that involves ranking.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I assume you mean literally damaged, not damaged by the game manual's definition

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Yep, and that's why I added in "seriously." We're talking peices just flying off this bases, major clippings, etc.::ouch::

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

On average at least 1 match in elimination rounds will be affected by electrical systems failing.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Change that to sally port - makes it harder!

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

#1. Low bar at Palmetto. The fabric has already been ripped off one of the low bars and they are just running the practice matches without it.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Sooo... does this mean that our HP is going to get fouled for returning balls to the opposing courtyard if there is no fabric?

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

This season's highest scoring match will take place on Curie, 1114 will be part of this alliance.

The match begins with the first robot, a high goal shooter, driving under the low bar, scoring a high goal and parking in the corner of the courtyard by the spy. This robot will remain in the courtyard in-taking balls from low goal shooters, retrieving balls from it's opponents secret passage and scoring high goals, at the end of the match this robot hangs.

The BDE defenses will be weakened in auton This alliance will achieve a breach of defenses for the BCDE defenses within 30 seconds of the match.

The second robot which specialized on breaching will fall back and play effective defense until endgame, upon endgame this robot hangs.

The third robot spends the match damaging the category A defense and passes boulders to the first robot. This third robot is a rookie who can only score low goals but has an effective drive-train. This robot has a cheesecaked hang mechanism and wins highest rookie seed on Curie.


Match score: 245

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I asked a Q&A question about this recently, mostly about exploiting the field damage. It's Q878, and to put it simply, no foul. However, if the refs think that the robot that broke the low bar did it strategically or intentionally, a yellow/red card may be called.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Since predictions that conveniently favor your team's strategy seem popular, here are some of mine:

Short, high goal shooting robots won't be blocked very often early on if they're driving is good because the defender isn't fast enough to get in the way before the shot.

It will be significantly easier for most defending teams to stop a robot from getting to the batter and shooting than to block a robot from shooting from the outerworks.

A robot with a good drivetrain and good drivers will be able to breach in almost every single match, regardless of their alliance.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Nobody is going to climb the tower.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

No robots will make it to Einstein.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

There will be many broken belts and many tears.

Scaling will not be a factor on Einstein.

A tortuga will cost a major alliance a chance to get to Einstein.

Three robot scaling will be as common as the loch ness monster.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

You will see a large amount of alliances get broken by picking a bad defensive robot as their last pick. These robots will not be able to prevent good low bar robots from getting to the high goal.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Inter-match setup time will be ages, and the regionals will mostly be behind schedule.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

But that's every year :p
In all seriousness, it seemed like setting up the matches at the week 0 events was actually very quick.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Uhhhh craziest thing I can see happening.

Everyone is wrong about defensive play this year.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I predict there will be no catapults on the winning alliance on Einstein, and that that alliance will have a dedicated defensive robot.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I like this one.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I wonder how 2056 would feel about that.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I predict

There will be one rookie team on the championship alliance. All three teams will be from the Silicon Valley Regional, all will be able to tackle the low bar, and two of the teams will be extremely consistent shooters. The third team will be a support robot with the ability to swiftly and effectively collect balls to make sure the shooters have ammunition.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I predict...

Some team will have figured out how to scale (by having their bumpers above low goal) without the use of any hook/claw/harpoon or winch and somehow levitate from the batter up while barley touching the bar above with some very light extension

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Only robots with both Rhino Modules and swerve drive will make Einstein :p .

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

No 3 Ball autonomous but on Einstein there will be >4 boulders scored in each tower (high goal).

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

This is the hardest read anyone has posted on this thread so far. I'm impressed.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

At some point during the season, there will be a penalty issued for violating G45.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I predict that winning alliances will have to contain robots which able to shoot above defenders / be fast enough to shot while avoiding defenders.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I'm not sure if I'd rather maintain a regional win streak or win the last solo Champs.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Huh. You can continue to win the $1,000 weekly lottery, or the $5B jackpot.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Whoops. :p Make that 118 and 610.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

#2. Cheval de frise at Palmetto. Broken twice. One on the panels snapped in two.

They are taking it out of play until they get a solution.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I forgot the /s for sarcasm

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Make that 3. but it won't break anymore, it's taken out of the choices.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Last year there was a team on Carson that got a yellow card for using the Chute Door to control a tote introduced to the field. There will always be people that don't read the rules.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Fixed by adding a 1/8" steel plate across the whole bottom of the polycarb. After looking at the field drawings, I'm surprised that wasn't there from the beginning due to the countersunk holes for the bolts mounting the panels to the pivot bracket. They were reintroduced to the field around match 28ish (?) and didn't seem to have any issues from there.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

1. Highest scoring match this year will be over 250, it will be in the QUALIFIERS of a division

2. In elims at a district event, the 1st seed will suffer a double or triple Tortuga, allowing the 8th seed to beat them out, and go on to be finalists at that event.

3. At champs, we will see almost no scaling (in both quals and elims) on one of the fields.

4. On Einstein, there will be an alliance that has no US teams.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I will challenge that. It will happen during eliminations

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

I guess we'll have to find out :)
The way I see it happening in elims is if its 3 god-tier teams that just dominate the match.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Definitely during eliminations. People are forgetting that breaches and captures are worth straight points during elimination rounds.

As scouting time increases we will see more overall points but less ranking points

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

At the majority of events, the #1 seed will not be the team with the best W-L-T record.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Captures will be rare. Most teams will breach, and the one with a better auto and better scoring will win. General RP score will be 3-1.

High goals will be rare, and low goals will be more common.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

For the first few weeks of competition, high goals will be significantly more common than low goals.

Both towers would be discarded in up to 5% of the games, including elims, until the districts champs and the championship...

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

From what I have seen, defence is a pretty difficult position to play. Although, Team 1793's method was both annoying and effective... Essentially they just backed their robot up and bumped it repeatedly into the opposing shooter. It was rather hilarious to watch, as the bumps were not even remotely malicious, just rather annoying and just enough to throw off the aim of the shot. I described it as the robot going "*bump* hey *bump* hey *bump* Over here *bump* Pay attention to me *bump* LOOK AT ME, I'M ADORABLE"

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Honestly, in the short time we needed to play defense, 1076 had no problem shutting down an entire alliance from scoring boulders. Zero boulders were scored (across 2 matches) when we were in the defensive area. We just stayed between the tower and whatever robot was coming up trying to score. They'd shoot and miss, or give up on the tower, and we'd turn our attention to the next robot up.

A more coordinated alliance would send 2 robots in at a time, but still, cancelling a team's top robot is quite impactful. In fact, if there is a qualifying match where we are up against a completely stacked alliance, I might just go play defense on them to show the opposing teams what we are capable of, instead of giving up on the 2 win rank points and trying to attempt the tower rank point.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

The tower will have 25 balls scored in the high goal during one match. Almost happened at the NE District Championship. Only 2 high goal bots shooting and one defense bot on winning alliance. Not a 1 seed.

Re: Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!
 

Why?