Teamwork
 

This year was my first year being at nationals and I was amazed how well teams who might have never worked together before worked so well and strategized so quickly. The best team work that stood out to me by far was the strategy of (sorry if i get the team numbers wrong) alliance 25,195 and 968 when 195 would dump their balls into 968 it was the first time I have seen it done and I'm sure its not the first time it was done. Great job everyone I met a lot of great teams at nationals and seen a lot of great bots. Team 47 I would also like to mention I like how you guys stick out your opinion about not damging or DQ-ing robots in matches I also think its wrong but its the game but I think its very gracious and professional of your team to do that. Great year and I cant wait for the offseason competitions

Re: Teamwork
 

Drivers for my team told me this story:

We were going up against 233 and some other teams, and we knew it would be a difficult match, so the two other teams and ours did about 15 minutes of stragety talking and trying to invent some way to combat tham. We lost the match 130something to around 15. 233 completely switch the way they played the game. They had more stragety than we did.

Re: Teamwork
 

yeah 233 is a great team great people too I enjoyed being on their alliance to win the boston regional I dont know if you have ever talked to them but they are great people and yes they are also very good at strategizing. how did your team do

Re: Teamwork
 

1-6-0. It was a rather big shock to the team being so pumped after winning Buckeye. :rolleyes:

Re: Teamwork
 

every once and a while the idea strikes-

the idea came up while the teams were waiting after alliance picks. Hey I'd bet you we could..... They practiced for 10 minutes- it worked- they did it.
So while the defenders were trying to pin 25 in the corner the partners were loading up and shooting from the platform.

Isn't it great how a team can think on the fly and improvise like that?

WC

Re: Teamwork
 

it was amazing to watch and that was a great strategy Ill be looking for more of it next year

Re: Teamwork
 

hey it happens but props on winning the regional and its all about fun and im sure everyone had fun i know i had tons

Re: Teamwork
 

I will tell you about Buckeye. Stragety won it for us. We were with 272 and 494. 272 and us were the big defenseive players. We were able to do some awesome blocking. (includeing both teams just standing in front of the bottom goals against a team of two dumpers and a bad shooter). Than when we were for Our offense, 272 and us surrounded 494 as they shot, and we shot what we could try to shoot. That way in order to get to 494 (that was doing the major point scoreing), they would have to though us, but by that time, 494 was empty and we had scored too many points to come back from. Later in the finals it was a little less easy to do that same stragety, but it was alsmot the same.

Re: Teamwork
 

We called that A-Bomb. We practiced it for about 15 minutes before queing for finals and it was the main reason we advanced.

Re: Teamwork
 

Awesome! Glad you thought of it too!

Re: Teamwork
 

I was fortunate enough to have been able to witness this maneuver close-up, first hand. After getting my picture taken with Dave Lavery (new Who-Am-I coming soon!), he told me that this particular tactic was one of the things that the FIRST Game Design Committee and Woodie Flowers had personally wanted to see happen from the very beginning. I believe I actually have a photo of 195 doing this, but I have to see if I can dig it up (I took LOTS of pictures this weekend).

EDIT: Here is the picture. It's not the greatest quality, but it works.

Re: Teamwork
 

SEE TEAM 174!?!?! I WAS RIGHT! :p

Re: Teamwork
 

Wow, hearing that made my day. (As if it wasn't made enough already! :) )

25 wanted a fast, powerful shooter and a team that could pick up all the balls off the field. They picked 968 - an amazing shooter. I am surprised they even lasted to the third pick. 25 also picked us. We were able to pick balls up while driving full speed, and hold as many as needed. The original strategy was for 25 to drive back and forth between the human loader and shooting. 968 was to pick off the field and shoot from the ramp. We were to pick all the remaining balls off the field, play defense, and dump in the corner at the end. While we were talking strategy in the pits, someone (Shaun from 25 I believe) asked if we could transfer balls. We immediatly brought both robots and all the balls we could find to the far corner of the pits (hidden from sight!) and practiced the move for about ten minutes. When positioned perfectly, we could transfer ~30 balls in less than 10 seconds.

We knew we needed to keep this a secret, and ended up breaking it out in the Newton semi finals after we lost to 987, 1503, and 1718. This was by far the toughest alliance we played and we needed something special to get by. Needless to say, the "A-Bomb" blew past our expectations and put two wins up on the boards. That and the ability to rob 176 and 111 (floor load only) of any balls on the field was enough to win Newton.

We ended up blowing a drive CIM and Victor on Einstein, but we able to transfer balls to 968 anyway. This was a great learning epxerience for us. You've gotta be tough to make it this far..

Anyway, I believe that our alliance was the greatest ALLIANCE that has ever existed. Our robots were perfect compliments, our strategies were killer, and our drive teams fit together like hand in glove. This just goes to show that you dont have to have the best offensive or highest ranked robot to win.

This weekend was the greatest time of my life. :)

Re: Teamwork
 

Ditto.

Even though we statistically lost, I still feel we won. Teamwork, leadership, and Brainpower was shown to be very strong with this alliance. Some minor tech things made things come to an early demise, but still. Greatest weekend of my life.

Re: Teamwork
 

...and boy was I proud to see 716's good friend 195 representin' DA CUTT out there on Einstein. It's too bad you guys didn't win the whole thing... if you had, I believe it would be the first time in a long time that not a single midwestern team was on the champion alliance. Jess Jankowitsch and I kept screaming "Go NERD!" and "Go MAVERICK!" back and forth throughout the whole finals rounds. I guess that explains why I have such a sore throat right now. :)

Re: Teamwork
 

Winning 90% of all your matches is insane. In my book, you won along with.

Re: Teamwork
 

this year was a shocking year for me in the way of teamwork because...
our scoutmaster, before nationals, talked to some of the other teams in our area that know each other and convinced them to pool info if anyone made it to Einstein about the alliances coming from the other divisions. it worked well and team 340 helped us alot when going up against 25, 968, and 195. THANX G.R.R. it was great working with you guys!!

Re: Teamwork
 

Was that the match they were with 126, last match of the day? We did alot of strategy for that match. It was kind of funny when the scoreboard malfunctioned, it said we had 186, then changed to 114 points. If it was you guys we were up against, thank you for the great match, we had alot of fun and you guys put up a great fight.

Re: Teamwork
 

Yeah. Our bot wasn't made to take that number of matches without a break in between.

Next year, we'll design with the lessons we learned on Einstein in mind. :cool:

Re: Teamwork
 

25 + 968 + 195 was the toughest alliance we've ever played against even including our 3 regionals we've won this year. Your strategy was very well thought out. Great job on Einstein btw!

Re: Teamwork
 

This is what FIRST games need. The more games that inspire teams to work together, the better. I think groups like the triplets should build "complementary" robots rather than three identical ones. I was thinking, after the ship date; that it would have been awesome too see some teams do something like this. With one team is the shooter, that sits somewhere not moving, and the other being the gatherer, giving the shooter balls.

I want a game like this year. One that promotes team work, where collaboration can work together and make a couple of awesome robots. I hope that they listen to me and that there are more people out there who think like me.

Re: Teamwork
 

As much as getting a game in which teams play specific roles to compliment each other is a great concept, unfortunately you're left with the, "Who gets what" argument. I would be satisfied with a game like this, which always allows the room for experimentation with strategy and teamwork. The "A-Bomb" play was definitely my favorite part of the trip, coordinating and executing a play that has never been done in just over 10 minutes was nothing short of amazing =)