Driving Skill
 

After extensive thought about this years game, and discussion on the multiple strategies with my team. I have come down to one major conclusion about this years game, before it even starts...it's all about driving skill. This is not a battle of who has the stronger robot, who can stack higher, who can push more totes. This is a pure blooded, man and machine versus man and machine, brain versus brain, driving skill challenge. This year more than any other year will show who the true best robot drivers in the world are. Thats all this game is. You can strategize til cows fall from the sky, but in the end the only thing that makes a lick of difference is how good are your drivers. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, and actually from what I saw at UTC, this game may be the most exciting ever (barring the autonomous period...sorry FIRST, I just can't buy this one). I just kinda miss the old days when the game was about putting the ball in the goal, and the machines made the game.

Good Luck All,
Andy Grady

Addendum...
 

Which reminds me...to Colleen from 190...

Don't ya wish that you and I could have just had one shot at going toe to toe this year with this game, just to see who the real deal was? :D

Good Luck, Keep DJ in line!
-Andy Grady

That is very true... our team has two main teams who alternate (driver and controller) between matches. The team that does better in their qualifying matches goes on to compete in the finals and elimination.

For practice, we had driver tryouts Saturday before ship... the afternoon was then drive practice for the groups. Sunday, we got there at 2pm and practiced till 9pm. On monday it was 10am-9pm that we practiced along with Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday, we practiced to 5pm, cleaned up, and headed up to BorgWarner. We practiced till around 9pm there and did a demo for the President of BW.

Our drivers, in their free periods also did driver practice. One driver, Dana, seemed to have no classes and drove for 3 days straight for roughly 7 45-min periods each day. I've videotaped the process from driver tryouts to wednesday night. The accuracy has increased so much it's hilarious to watch the video from Saturday's tryouts :)

I think that 2001 was the last year that the machines made the game.

And you're right, it is completely about driving skill. Ok, so maybe not exactly that - it is less driving skill than awareness. Anyone can drive the robot, but the skill comes in seeing where the robot needs to be before the robot actually needs to be there.

I like the emphasis on awareness that has been prevalent for these past two years. It goves the rookie teams a more fighting chance - while the veterans will always have the advantage when it comes to robot design, If a rookie team knows what its doing in the competitions it can remain extremely competitive even if using only a crude robot.

The other excellent thing about this theme is that it turns FIRST into a much more exciting spectator event. Watching teams outmanuevering each other is a lot more exciting than watching robots perform the same repetitive action match after match.

Hey...how come she's gotta keep me in line?!?!?!?!?!? I do however agree with the fact that this year is going to be up to the drivers execution and on the fly strategy....something you really can't teach, it just happens with experience. Im personally glad that we have some experienced drivers on our drive teams, as well as an influx of new natural talent. Should be a great competition to watch, and to experience....see you in Manchvegas Andy?

Andy-

I'd give anything for a little head-to-head competition with ya this year.. because I totally agree, it's all about the drivers, and like Deej said, the on-the-fly strategy of it... my, undoubtedly, two favorite parts of FIRST :)

Hmm.. maybe at some off-season comp they'll allow some old-fogies to drive the robots and we can see what transpires. You can even have Deej on your alliance... who wants to be on my side??? Maybe I can win that good ol' shirt of Deej's off his back one more time ;-)

This year, though, will heavily involve driver skill, and its a conversation some members of our team just spent close to two hours arguing about. We're taking a different approach to stage crew this year than we have in the past, emphasizing the importance of driver skills and, I hope, helping better our chances of achieving our team goal (to win!).

Start finding your robots boys (I call 190's), and we can have a little friendly battle over the summer maybe :)

in reference to 'winning': there is a magical combination of driver skill, machine finesse/power, and LUCK.

i think that last years game, was mostly power, machine power.
strategy was pretty simple.

this year is very similar to last year, if you think about the concepts, but much more complicated. i think it will be just as exciting, if not more...

this year, due to the relative complexity, will require strategy strategy strategy, there are so many types of bots (koth limbo stacking defending etc..) and i think SKILL will be very important.

thank god our drivers have no life.

Colleen,
I've got a whole pile of veterans over here yearning for their old "glory days"... you want old 'Capn John' on your alliance again? haha... that is... unless your anti-Clarkson?

I agree with you guys entirely...
The pre-match strategy is going to be more important than ever, but the real key this year is on the field coaching, and driving.
I think we're going to see some incredible stuff... I just wish I could see it all... yay for SOAP.

edit:
Why does 2001 feel like it was 10 years ago?
/edit

It was.. in binary.

I dunno Cap'n John... you may have the Nickma stigma :P


We'll see what this pans out to be... will there be any strategy bibles for this game? Not that I think it can help. The majority of the match will be decided in autonomous mode.. the end result by the stage team's reaction to whatever the heck came out of those 15 seconds. I cannot wait for next week.. I just hope the robot can keep up :)

Definitely wish I could be coaching for all these competitions this year... it's seriously going to be a great competition!

I'm game :cool:

As one of the veterans "Yearning for my Glory Days"
I'm game

Chris
151 (00-02) Driver in 02
229 (03-??) Coach 03

Hmm...

So far we've got me with Gompei2k3 (and Weiner, operator maybe?).

Deej thinks he can take us on with Gompei2k.

Andy- you going to be driving 126's robot or what?

Hm.. maybe we could do this Friday night before Battlecry.. do a little testing of the field and a little friendly competition at the same time. Who'd have another robot around for Friday night?

We'll definitely have to check into this ;)

Deej thinks he can take us with Gompei2k? Pfft. I dunno what he's smokin :p

I understand that driving is going to be important, but I have felt that a crucial driver is always important. If your team built a great robot, it's useless unless the operator know's it's full advantages and disvantages and can adjust to situtations accordingly.

In 2000, driving technique was nice to have (the faster you could move from goal, to ball, to goal, to other goal, the better you were.)

In 2001, timing and accuracy was key. If you could place big balls well, but your drivers hands weren't steady.....you wouldn't get the big ball too often. If our driver (with the ramp bot) couldnt' line up straight, it was all down hill from there.

In 2002, this might be the only exception. Brute force won this game (Hooray for the beatty machine).

Best of luck to you all this year.

Allen

Challenges!
 

Well, I'll see if I can manage to convince my teamates to let me use the mighty Gael Force robot for our little challenge. Though I don't know. I think you can keep DJ...eventhough I taught him everything I know...he may still weigh me down =) Plus, I know he is dying for a crack at me also. So many unsettled scores!

Later All,
Andy Grady

Andy your forgetting we made 2 robots this year i'm sure they'd let you get your hands on that one.

I think that this year, driver skill will be exceptionally important, even for KOTH teams. Some teams will have autonomous programs that virtually end the match in the first 15 seconds, but when things go wrong, the ability to recover will be a matter of driver skill and strategic ability. The ability to think fast on your feet will be the most crucial element of this game, especially when one bin or one robot can dramatically affect the final score. It's going to be a big challenge for all the drivers out there.

To Colleen, Andy and Dj
 

...If you guys are looking for a venue I wouldn't be surprised that we could accomedate you at at River Rage 8, just a thought. Hrm if only there were enough robots we could create some kind of division structure pitting the Alum drivers vs. the HS drivers. See you there and see everyone in Manchvegas for what promises to be a game worthy of being part of the same organization as Hexagon Havoc ;-PPP

-Justin

I think that this year will also have a big part to do w/ driver awareness. I think it will be broken down like this though.

20% working good drive train and robot.
20% autonomous (to get bot to top of ramp fast for most teams)
50% driver skill (awareness and on-the-fly strategy)
10% luck (team-mates, and human placement)

It should be a fun competition to watch though.
But on-the-fly strategy will be fairly important. For instance, your

You have one stack 11 high and you have 7 other boxes in your zone. Your score would be 77.
So...it would be better to knock 2 off your stack so you would have a 9 high stack, and 9 other boxes. This would give you 81.

Good luck to all teams, and enjoy the show fans!

I would like to see someone knock two boxes off of a 9 high stack without knocking the whole thing over :)

Agree
 

I Think i agree with you andy your team is not going to be able to put any boxes on your side if the guy driven cant get straight up the ramp. its all about that stuff.

http://www.firstubergeeks.com/

There ya go...
 

I think the percentages that Tyler threw up there were right on the mark. Automous mode can be key if the post autonomous mode strategy permits. A working robot is extremely important, because all the strategy and driving skill in the world can't save a robot that doesn't move, and of course luck is always involved. Once you get past all that, it is down to the drivers. I always say, drivers are the all knowing gods of their own robot. In the end that robot does what they want it to do, and no one else has control of that. The best drivers I have known over the years (and yes, this even includes you DJ, eventhough I taught you everything I know :D ) could make key moves on the fly with little thought at all. Thats what this year will come down to.

Good Luck,
Andy Grady

All in all, this year it will be up to the drivers. If you have an autonomous program that can accomplish anything at all.... it's up to the operators after that.

As for past years.... just a couple of examples... you may call it driver skill or just luck.... you decide....

2001 - our robot w/ its floor team placed 32 out of 34 at Regionals, and was somewhere in the middle of the pack at Nationals. Our driver teams switch over during the post season, and at PARC with the new floor team they were seeded #2 behind that years National Champs - MOE.

2002 - the driver team that seeded #2 at PARC became the new team. Seeded #1 at Regionals, Finalist, Leadership In Control. #2 in Newton, Semi-Finalists, and #10 Overall at Nationals. Because we were not seniors, we continued in the post season... seeded #6 and Finalists at PARC, #2 seed and Reserve Grand Champion at NASA/MD State Fair, and #3 Seed and Champions at Ramp Riot...... however, due to SAT testing we could not travel to the Duel..... other teammates took over to drive...... they seeded #12.....

.... bad luck.... or is it all about skill?????

I miss driving
 

I too, as a former driver, wish I could drive this year's game. I would have loved to drive in '99, but alas, I was young and did not have the experience needed yet. In 2000, I was the "box-man" and while this was a very busy job, I think I may have preferred to drive (I never mastered falling over and the previous year's driver was still around anyway:D ). In '01 I moved into the main driver spot - and that machine really allowed me to show precision. The game lacked though...it was just a repetitive motion with very limited change involved. In '02 I kept my position, but as Allen already pointed out, the brute force of the machine is what did the trick. All I had to do was give the joysticks a little jog at the start of the match and then keep on pushing forward until we reached our destination or something went wrong. Then it was either just stand there or try to correct by only holding one joystick forward. The one time I did try to drive (Championship Finals match 2), I ended up bending the axle and pretty much wrecking a set of wheels. So much for that one :rolleyes: . Given a different robot last year, I'd be more satisfied (don't take that the wrong way...I mean as a driver). This year I would love to have the opportunity to weave in and around boxes and robots and fight for control of the ramp...and have that precise touch to stack, if our robot so desired to. But I'm old now, and the closest I can get is coach - which will suit me just fine (until those alumni games at the invitationals...HINT HINT...or should I say...BEG BEG!). Good luck to all the drivers this year and beyond, may the autonomous modes not completely replace you:ahh:

Kev