During the elimination rounds, we gave 111 a run for their money in Great Lakes, and came out on top. We haven't played the Technocats yet, but can't wait too. We were sweating the elimination round with Wildstang, but scouting them all weekend payed off. Setting up a human player stack of four and being the first one to the bins threw them for a loop. We were able to park in front of the stack, successfully blocking 548. 111 had to stop what they were doing and come over to help try to knock over that stack. Our driver and machine held their ground, fending off 2 powerful robots, keeping the stack intact; winning the match. There are many ways to win this game. That's why it pays to scout effectively and have different strategies to throw people off. Having good drivers also makes a huge difference. Motorola, the Cats and 27 among many other teams have a second 'bot to practice with. Having the practice machine definitely helps the drivers fine tune their skill. You can easily beat 2 robots on the ramp with a stack of 4 and 15 bins in your zone. I mean absolutely no disrespect to 111 or the Cats. They are awesome machines! Both teams raise the bar for stellar engineering and incredible performance every year. Which means everyone else must do what they can to keep up. However, to say the KOTH's have the game all but won is a bit of a stretch.:cool:

111 and 27 certainly have great robots! I have not yet seen 45 live in action, so I can't wait for nationals.

Wildstang - are you going to have the wing we signed at GLR on display at nationals? That was a really great match, and we'd love to come and talk to you guys about everything that has happened since Great Lakes.

See you all in Houston!

Jeff Alpert
Team 469

Jeff,
I will ask, but I know that the sheet has already been replaced. (I feel cut every time I looked at it.) I think one of our drive team took it home to hang in his room.

favorite koth bots at canada and chesapeake have been:

188, 378

314, 306

all of your guys' bots rocked

good luck at nationals...too bad I wont see you there.

SO far I've only seen about 5 sole duty KoTH bots. 45, 68, 111, 179, and 229.

I'd rank them as follows.
1, 111---It's fast, it crabs, its a wedge.
2, 229---It floats, and its got big numbers.
3, 45-----More power than a bull
4, 179
5, 68

and heres why 45 and 111 spend plenty of time trying to defend HPS(human player stacks) as compared to just sitting on the hill. This definatly helps to boost there scores when they succeed. 45 and 68 don't use the all so common wedge design to deflect bots so they rely solely on power. 179 and 229 are both slow to the ramp which could hurt if someone suctions on first. 111 and 229 are impossible to get past if there on the top, because of 111's small width it may be possible for a bot to get bye if its teammate is also trying to get over the ramp.

Some people have posted numbers for stacker bots. Are we talking KoTH as any bot who can stay on top or a purpose built ramp controller.

60

Lest anyone conjecture as to our design...
The ramped wings that are part of the 111 design were done as defensive devices. It turned out that they nicely push bins in autonomous and shield well on defense of human player stacks too, but that came later.
Again, thanks for all the kind words.

I agree with your assessment based on our past performance.
Although, in my bot's defense: We have a high gear of 11 ft/s, but due to our drivetrain troubles at UTC, we never got to use it.

We should have a 4-5 sec autonomous by Friday in Houston.

Our performance will be primarily determined by whether our pit crew can work the bugs out fast enough.

Thank you for your compliment though!

new Idea
 

Hey i would like some feedback on this....

What about 292. Ya, i am the driver of the team so i have got to see what people think about us. We have never had a big name to get noticed by, but i thought that our performance this year would do that. We were at Buckeye, Great Lakes and Midwest. Out of all of these three regionals we were not on top of the ramp in 1 match. That one match we got tipped over. Does everybody just not know that. We were #1 seed at Great lakes, the largest Regional, and 1# seed again at Midwest. There we went on to win the entire thing. If i sound to boastfull, tell me and I will stop. Sorry for the rudeness.

45 and 111 are awesome bots. Loved picking each of them at the different regionals. See you guys in Houston.

Tyler - Driver (292)

Re: new Idea
 

Tyler,

I attended all three of those regionals and also AZ. I can say that your team has gotten the nickname from Truck Town of "The Genorator". Please don't take that negatively, it is not at all directed that way. As the coach of team 68, I know I can speak for myself as well as my brother, the driver, in saying that you are one of the teams that I look forward to working with on the field!!! I know we like working with both you and your coach, sorry to leave other team members out. I really wanted to get paired up with you or team 648 because of the connection that I feel I can get from the drivers and the coaches. I don't mean to leave teams out because I love working with a lot of the teams on the field. I just feel that both 292 and 648 cut to the chase telling what they are able to do and do well.

292 - I had looked forward to teaming up again with you at Nationals until this afternoon, when I discovered that you are in a different division. I wish you the best of luck at nationals and if you need anything please feel free to stop by team 68's pits.

Thanks
 

Thank you for your words Mark. They are good to here. Could you clear up the Nick name " The Generator". i dont see any negative thoughts with it, i just would like to know how you got it.


I love your robot. Truck has always been a fierce competitor and a wonderful ally. good luck with your bot at Nationals.

Well I was talking about all of the robots that have competed as of now this year. But it seems like even though the year isn't over two teams were pointed out as the most dominent KOTH robot. So being as it may out of 18+ regionals thus far I want u the FIRST teams to highlight the top 5 KOTH robots that u saw at the regionals u participated at! (this includes both stacker, dead wrecker, line tracker etc. robots) Base your decision on overall performance during the competition and the teams ability of keeping the opposing alliances off the hill.

This thread has been a very friendly one and I enjoy hearing all of your opinions. So as Always post freely but Keep It Clean


522 is my choice as an excellent KOTH robot. I have seen Team 522's robot in action at the NYC Regionals and in most of there matches if not all of them they have managed to prevent other robots from sitting on top of the hill. And this is due to there selected choice in drive train material & and that the Drivers of their robot have that "MAGICAL" touch to them. Excellent Job guys and I wish you much success in all of your upcoming Competitions.

Re: new Idea
 

Hey Tyler, a big name didn't get you to the top of the list on Saturday, a great robot and drivers did. You have a great team and bot and you proved it to everyone at Midwest. Too bad we weren't able to make it happen last week, you would have had two wins back to back. You certainly have our respect and admiration.

Re: Thanks
 

Sorry for not getting back with you sooner, being on campus, the computers wouldn't let me post to this forum for some reason. Anyways... the reason we call your robot the generator is because we just think it looks like one from the stands. I have had the pleasure of watching your robot approuch the field and based on this I can see where the rest of my team is getting this nickname from. From the big tires to the side panels, it just reminds some of use of a generator we hope to have on our big truck by nationals. Again I wish you the best of luck and it has been great working with your team during matches this year!!!

Mark

The Generator... intertesting Mark. I like it. I understand how you got that name for our bot now that i think about it. Good luck to you at nationals, and have a safe trips to Texas.