Predictions of EvilInside
 

Well, in response to the Car Knack & Jr. predictions, I will make my own.

1) The winning alliance that will win will consist of a KOTH robot and a fast robot with minor stacking ability.

2) The division winners will all have at least one team with a pre-planned strategy and good strategy on the field, which will overcome all the other aspects of the game.

3) Autonomous period will be just a setup phase for the teams, and will be relatively boring to the people who watch NASCAR for racing, not crashes. If the people like crashes, they are in for a treat. If the robots do not break in autonomous mode, they will within the last 30 seconds. Pit crews beware.

4) Anyone selling concessions is extremely greedy :P

5) Nationals will be huge and loud, but the more vacation-oriented teams will want Disney back.

6) The shutdown switch guy needs to be fast enough to prevent terminal damage to robots.

7) Finals will consist of the best robots, with vacancies filled in by the most complete robots.

8) If rookies build a drivetrain with a lot of armor, they may survive long enough to get in the finals.

These are my predictions, and everyone please make sure their robots have everything bolted down tight with zipties around everything, I expect a lot of destruction. . . .

6) If the autonomous

Re: Predictions of EvilInside
 

Id expect that any serious team would have a preplanned strategy. If you dont, you wont be making it to the finals, and if you do, youll be screwed.

Autonomous mode will more than likely predict the outcome of the match during finals. Whoever can get the majority of the boxes on their side will have a much better chance at winning, even with inferior robots.

Finals are always filled with the best robots. It doesnt matter what the competition is. The most complete robots will be the best robots.

Why cant a rookie make a great stacker, or a very very manueverable bot. If they can stack very well, they will be very valuable. It doesnt matter what aspect of the game they can fill, as long as they can do it reasonably well, they will make it to finals. Why does this year make it any different? Rookies have always been in the finals, and they will always be in the finals.

If veteran teams can make robots that are not armored drivetrains, why cant rookie teams do it. Already, I have seen many rookie bots that are not driving tanks, but look to be very competitive. My other point is if a bot can move under the bar and is very manueverable, they can block the opponents very effectively. Remember 64 last year? they were very manueverable, and could block their opponents.

Just my thoughts, back to clas now :mad:

Cory

First, The Great Car Knack, and his son, The Great Car Knack Jr., have spoken. Rarely are they ever wrong.

However, I do believe that some rookies might be in the playoffs. I was taught to do my homework on other machines, and while it looks like familiar names from previous years will be there, I suspect a rookie will come along with a design that will blow all of the veterans away. Autonomous mode will definately be the early determiner of strategy and possibly even the winner, and there's always a kid out there who you least expect to really blow you away with their programming/design/electrical/etc. work.

It will indeed be interesting to see the robots that will defy all previous designs. Much like 2001, there are several types of robots to be built - under the bar, on the bridge, etc.

The 'Elite Eight' teams will be an alliance of several different types of machines - undoubtedly 3 Bin Stackers will not win the game, nor will more than one King of the Hill. However, for the final alliance, I'm betting on a King of the Hill, Bin Stackers (just for safe measure), and an Under the Bar bot that will aid in the final pushing match.

But those are only second year FIRST predictions... and I've learned never to second guess the Great Car Knack.

Amanda

I'm betting on a few unusual bots to show up too, with skills not demonstrated by other teams. Thats always been my favorite thing in FIRST, the unusual bots :D eg. last year with our pneumatic bot lifter ;) :)

I-80/90 Road Kill...
 

As to the Great Car Knack, & Car Knack Jr., I can only say that I both shutter and smile as I read their predictions each year. As to how I would judge their correctness, I will keep that to myself.

But... ...I will say that betting against the Beatty's is typically not a winning strategy.

They have a share in 1/4th of all Grand Championships (and this with sitting out the first 1/3rd of all championships -- they joined in year 5).


Heaven help those who have not considered "the Beatty Maneuver" when planning their machines.

I saw it coming the minute I saw that FIRST parked a big fat 50 points at the top of the ramp.

Can the Beatty Maneuver be parried?

If you can't beat them should you join them?

If you can't beat them, should you BEAT them? ;-)

Stay tuned for another exciting edition of I-80/90 Road Kill...


Joe J.

P.S. A hint from Dr Joe as the design of CD8 -- When I was pitching the concept that became CD8 to our team, I described it with words like "one machine riot" and "imagine the scene from Terminator II where the liquid metal guy takes a bullet in the face, shutters a bit, and them keeps moving forward." If Car Knack is right, all I can say is, "Bring it on..."