Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

I just looked at this fairly recent picture on CD:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pi...gle&picid=6809

And it brings up the question, why are there only TWO balls in that stationary goal?

An alliance starts with 6... getting 2 is just poor. I wonder, how have human players in general performed at regional events? Are they getting at least 5 out of the 6 balls they start with into the goals or is it really bad in general? Did teams just let anyone out there to shoot or did they actually have tryouts for human player?

Small balls are worth so much this year if used well that it seems a waste to miss 2/3 of what you are guranteed in a match.

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

if that is the clock on the left side, the match isnt over - theres still 25 seconds left - maybe they havent shot the other 4 yet?

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

One minute and twenty seconds for two players to shoot one ball each? Seems hardly realistic.

If the indeed was actually true, then the human players should learn how to manage their time better :)

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

From what I saw at NJ, some HPs were very, very good and some were pretty bad.
It could have been lack of practice, pressure, stress, or lack of sleep.
I saw one short girl shooting 9 for 9 while another tall guy missing half his shoot because he was throwing them too hard.

I definitely agreed with you, 5 of 6 balls into the fix goal should be the average. (unless the teams are holding back the balls for another strategy?)
:)

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

This is possible, but I do remember at least a few matches where there were only 2-3 balls in the goals for one alliance at the end of the match. From what I saw, there was a huge difference among the human players- some were OK (it would be unGP to say "bad" :)) and some were very, very, good.

I remember in particular one of the playoff rounds at the NJ Regional...ok, so I don't really remember because I can't tell you the team name or exact match (this being my first ever regional, I was slightly exhausted by the time 3:00 Saturday afternoon rolled around :)) but I'm sure someone else can give you the information. The point is, their human player made most, if not all, shots they took. The stationary goal was pretty much completely full at the end of the match. It was ridiculous. (Good ridiculous.)

Another thing possibly worth mentioning is that the goals aren't solid- there are obviously gaps between the PVC piping, so some shots that were on target actually slipped through those gaps. I realize that's part of the game, I'm just pointing out that this could account for low scoring without the blame being placed on the human player.

Our team comes from a very small school and we don't have sports teams at all, so we didn't have any kind of tryouts or anything. Our human player was selected mostly because he was an upperclassman who expressed interest. We just got lucky in the fact that he was pretty darn good. :)

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

Some of the people on our team are so horribly bad that I don't even want to watch. I understand missing a couple because of pressure, but taking a minute and a half to shoot two ball, if that, is lame. I was shooting probably a ball every couple seconds. I made 10 out of 10 doing that. Shooting the balls into the stationary goals in easy.

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

yea.. i was taping some rounds for scouting purposes, and when i was putting them together yesterday I noticed a human player heaving the balls one handed. This guy was missing the goals by five feet every time. I mean, I don't want to be mean or un-GP, but get some common sense. If every shot is off by five feet, one behind the goal, one to its left, and one to its right, you need to seriously reconsider your throwing style.

I must commend the shooting of team 869?- Cordis- those guys had a ball catcher bot, and i swear their shooter made all 18 shots. crazy stuff.

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

Most people that have decided shooting 90% should be standard for all HPs have never been an HP. Ridiculing people for not making every single shot is like making fun of drivers for not hanging sometimes or dropping the big ball or falling over.

People miss because it's hard. Some people just have bad days or they are distracted. I missed all 10 shots in 2002 once, not because I was bad just because soemtimes people miss. It's really not as easy as it looks.

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

I averaged 9 or 10 balls using the stationary goal. I was also one of the top two shooting at the mobile goal from various postitions. I just hope Ill get a shot at UCF cause we have a bunch of good shooters.

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

true true...a lot of people seemed to be folding under the pressure at VCU from what i saw...

another hinderance i saw was that many people would shoot shots extremely fast so that they could shoot more when their bots herded more balls...however the rather wobbly goal was causing shots that should have gone in to bounce out or miss the back...people were shooting too fast...if they had waited another second...things would have been a whole lot different in terms of score

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

the best HP i've seen is 126's. she shoots almost 100%, and is just smooth and consistent

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

Im surprised no one has mentioned team 33's shooter at VCU. Because of him, Buzz 9 won that regional. I mean, they had a good robot that gathered EVERY BALL on the field, but they had the shooter scoring the points. The whole crowd got into it, yelling the number of consecutive shots he made, 1 right after the other, it was great. Our shooter made 2 out of 3 every time except once, but we had a cap/hanging robot so he didn't get many chances. Well good luck to everyone Atlanta. I wish team we could be joining you guys, but semi-finals won't get us there. See ya next year!

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

I think that people didn't give enough thought into the human player beforehand. Many teams may have disregarded it, think of it as "basketball shots" and not practicing previously.
It is also harder than it looks. I shot for our team once because our HP was helping to work on our robot, it was a practice round, and we had to send someone so I ended up going. I made one out of four :) . I guess it's good i wasn't the HP.
It does add another element into the game though, which is considering HP skill level while picking alliances, which was not as big of a deal last year.

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

I understand there's lot of pressure. I've been behind the driver station the last two years as a controller. This'll be my third year, but as a driver.

On our team, for human player tryouts, we decided to make it pressure and time intensive. Potential HPs had 90 seconds to shoot 36 balls. I got 33/36 in just over 80 sec. The next highest was 24, then 21. It didn't seem that bad.

Maybe our tryout was lacking ear-ringing techo ;)

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

unless you have NO prior experience in sports, you should easily be able to sink at least 5/10 shots in the stationary goal. You are only like 10 feet away and you have a backstop. I can see if you miss the mobile goal, but cmon people, if you know you arent good, give the job to someone else, or at least give the balls to your alliances hp.

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

maybe teams that designed a bot to hang or cap, didnt bother to build a goal or to have students practice shooting, since they will only have 3 balls in their corral if their bot can herd the cat-balls?

we should take a poll - on how many teams did students actually practice shooting into the official goal?

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

I think one of the problems was that the goal posts were a little more flexible than the ones the HPs practiced with--this was partially true for my team at least. Lots of teams missed many shots because they threw them too hard.

But I have to say, MAD PROPS to Team 33's HP!! He was awesome and was responsible for winning them some of the matches, including the championship match at VCU. :D

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

i would have to agree being alligned with them in the finals... great team and HP...

for me on thursday i was VERY shakey because it was my first ever meet/competetion and i was somewhat of a nervous wreck... but into friday and staurday morning i was almost flawless... its comes down to if you had practice, having consistancy and being able to keeping your cool...

*edit* also team 69's hp... awsome job man

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

Our human player went over to the practice field on Thursday evening to practice, and our bot is designed to hang and cap (we can herd in a very limited fashion). After our human player won the position, he had to practice shooting, along with the two back-up shooters, at every meeting. And I know he plans on practicing between now and Annapolis. By the time the top 8 teams were thinking about alliances, our human player hadn't missed a single shot in four rounds. And both of the rounds our alliance won in the quarter finals were won by 5 points (1 ball). I bet a lot of human players, after seeing/hearing about the first Regional competitions are doing some practicing...

Heidi

<=========>
Larry proves short people can shoot

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

I'd have to say that my team's(769) shooter was a beast. Nick missed only 2 shots all competition, i watched him, so this is pretty accurate. Most games he had only the 3 at the beginning, but he won us 1 or two of our games ( the others our allainces did and i give props to those teams).

The best shooter at VCU had to be the Killer Bees (#33) mainly because he had the most oppurtunities at shooting, but he didn't miss that much, so team 33's shooter, you're a BEAST.

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

It all depends on the team's strategy - if they aren't worried about shooting and have chosen to hang immediately, it doesn't matter quite as much if the human player is talented or not.

During 818's human player tryouts, I made zero of ten shots. Zero. (I blame it on the fact that I'm only 5'5".) Needless to say, I won't be our human player this year... :rolleyes:

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

Kevin (our HP) was very good and for being his first time. He won us most of our matches and the trophy we won at VCU was manly from him (very accurate made almost all balls given to him, and that was a lot) and some good driving done by us and partners.

Also the HP for our team had to be good because of our robots ball handling device, so he has practiced with the drive crew before ship and also when he was not programming. It also helps that he is very tall. He could reach over the player station if he had to.

I can't speack for him but thanks all. See ya in Nationals, Detriot, or Canada!

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

we lost one of our matches at NJ by 15 points. our HP missed 2 out of the 9 shots that he took. our alliance partner missed...................eight. yes ladies in gentlemen, that's right, they missed 8 shots. they must have had at least 13 tries, too. very frustrating.

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

I know that sometimes our human shooter wouldn't shoot untill he had at least 4 balls, this way he got into his "groove" That can possibly explain it.

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

I just wanted to give a shout out to the human player from 126 at the NH Regionals! I dont think she ever missed a single shot! :ahh: You were great!!! :D

Good Job!

Re: Human Player Performance at Regional Events
 

Our HP rarely missed. We did not have that many opportunities to shoot beyond the three at beginning of match. One thing that stands out is in the quarter final match where we won 145-140 our HP made a shot at our mobile goal that was beyond the center line in opponents end, and he hit it to give us the win in the match and to force a 3rd match! He was forced to shot for that after we had capped the fixed goal on our way to hanging. We ended match with 4 robots on bar.