how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

i know early on many people were doubting the abilities of low-goal only ball herders. now that we are almost done with regionals, how do people feel now? have you seen any ball herders that have really stuck out? how often did you see the outcome of a match greatly affected by a herder?

we here at 1504 are a low-goal ball herder and we just finished up our 2nd and final regional in wisconson. we were the 7th seed alliance captain in detroit and ranked 5th in wisconson (chosen by 3rd seeded alliance). we could easily put in about 30 balls a match in wisconson and were very effective defensively.

Re: how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

oh man...I got a story for you.

Dumpers are awsome...but never have two on a team.

At the end of the seeding matches at Buckeye...The first seeded team 965 (I think that's their number) choose team 123. Both these two teams are dumpers. When it came time to choose the last of their team, all they could choose was the Scarabian Knights 120 as the best shooter of who was left, and the shooter barely made any points at all.

The teams took the first matches by storm and ended easily on the platform, we thought we didn't stand a chance. But the dumpers have one very big flaw...they can only score in the lower goals. Thus, 272 and 174 stuck ourselves against the goals while 494 picked up balls during the times where the dumpers had offence. We took offence and all three of us too to the goal and loaded in about 40 points, and took to the goals again to block for the final period. By that time, there would be no chance for the extra 25 point bonus to even count.

I'd say a dumper is nice to have, but use caution when chooseing one.

Re: how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

actually.. we also fell victim to this during the seeding matches. 2 out of our 3 losses during seeding rounds occured because we were paired with 2 other dumpers, and they didnt allow us to score after autonomous because they just sat infront of both the goals.

Re: how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

2Train Robotics (395) is a herder/dumper bot. They won 2 regionals, Pitt (#1 Alliance Capt) and NYC (#2 Alliance Capt). They are very consistent during qualification matches with good 10 ball auto mode. They have good scouting and form very good alliances for eliminations. In both regionals they picked the best shooter (1038 and 375) with their first pick. I never thought that a dumper could be so successful this year, but they have changed my thinking.

Re: how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

At the beginning of the season, our team thought dumpers would be too easily blocked, inneffective... so we went with a shooter. Well, at Phoenix, we saw how effective dumpers are in autonomous. Our shooter can pan and tilt, so we can easily miss three or four balls, but many teams (dumpers) just went to the side goals and got a quick and easy ten points!

Re: how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

If you get off ten shots with four misses, then that's 18 points. The ten "easy" points is effective against that only when their partners can make up the other nine.

More yet, those ten points aren't all that easy. A mad dash to the opposite corner to stop the dump is just as easy.

The real value a dumper has when they gather many balls and score them during regular play. But again, they must be aligned with a very good shooter, or two, to keep the opposition from goal tending.

You made the right choice.

Re: how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

I disagree. At the Florida regional, the second place alliance was 357-1523-1902. 357 was a dumper (fifth seed - not bad) as was 1902. Since 357 picked balls up off the ground and 1902 was a very effective human loader, they both were able to score to their fullest potential. This alliance with two dumpers beat (in only two matches) the first seed alliance in the semifinals that was led by team 233 (who has just won the Boston Regional). What is more, the three robots they played against (233, 190, 744) were all very good shooters.

Re: how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

I guess than, in my case, the teams we went up against didn't have a stragety against us.

Re: how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

there was one hearder that really impressed me. 213 i think if they kept sucking up balls and just starved the other teams from getting balls they would be hard to beat.

shaun

Re: how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

At NYC the top seeded alliance was a dumper.

Re: how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

I believe at the UTC regional, team 195 had the best 1pt bot, followed by team 716. Team 195 ended up captaining the 6th seed alliance, and 716 the 2nd. I put 195 first because their robot was more robust in my opinion. I was really expecting more of those robots to show up, but I guess us New Englanders don't leave much to the imagination when the game name is "Aim High".... :p

Re: how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

in pittsburgh the first 3 top seeds were dumpers. i never even considered dumpers to be so effective, but there's some proof right there. also 868 at BMR was a dumper and they dumped like 20 at times, probably even more than that all at once, usually making their alliance win.

Re: how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

i agree that having a 1 point score bot on your team is a great advantage. for the most part, they guarantee you 10 points in autonomous. this kind of robot that stuck out and the Finger Lakes Regional was Chuck 84. they went over, got on their ramp after autonomous, and fill up with easily 20 balls. then they sprinted across the field and dumped all of them in under 2 seconds.

Re: how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

Dumpers are only effective if they can push the shooters around. Penalties also play an important role in dumpers effectiveness. At our regional (SPBLI) only 1 penalty was called, and it was an offsides violation. therefore dumpers were allowed to do whatever they wanted. They constantly went into the goal, which should be a disqualification, and they repeatedly flipped other robots that were not even attempting to score. If penalties were enforced i believe that dumpers would have been significantly less successful.

Re: how effective are the herders/dumpers?
 

In a well balanced alliance, the corner goal is often the key to victory. "Well balanced" has many different variables, depending on the exact capabilities of teams (such as the 357, 1902 example), but it almost always includes at least 1 shooter. An alliance dependant on the corner goal (just as an alliance entirely dependant on the center goal) can be easily defended, or starved of balls (in theory, in your opponents are scoring 100% in the center goal, they only have to return 34% of the balls you scored back "into play" in order to win).
In my opinion, the ability to score both the center and corner goal rapidly and consistantly is the key to victory (along with winning autonomous).