So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

For those who participated in or watched scrimmages today, what key learnings did you take away from them?

- were you surprised at the types robots you saw or their functionality (theoretical or demonstrated)?
- did the scrimmages change your mind about game play?
- do you like the game better or worse than you did before?

I know this is still early and regionals will tell the true tale in a few weeks, but with more information, these converations can get more detailed and interesting.

[also - thanks to EVERYONE who was involved in pulling together the various scrimmages that took place. Hats off to you all!]

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

I like the compitetion better now that I watched it.

Things that surprised me:
1. The lack of shooter bots, I think galehawks was the closest to a shooter I saw
2. How many bots just drive around for points
3. how many bots had a hard time picking up the ball
4. How intense it was for a preseason event :P

I learned a bunch about stratagy and have come up with some new things for our driving stratagy

thanks for all who made it possible to see online!

ps. I watched the shakedown

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

Teams couldn't do ANYTHING at the scrimmage I saw online last year (Winter Warzone? don't remember).

The game will be very very different in a few weeks than it seemed today.

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

If your robot isn't built robustly, it will break. Why the GDC required bumpers became pretty obvious pretty quickly.

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

I like the game much better after the scrimmage today in Minnesota. Also there seem to be many more collisions and robot contact than I thought. In all, the game is very entertaining to watch and play.

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

The two most important things I saw were robots tipping over and robots crossing lines in the wrong direction and incurring penalties.

It seemed almost every other match robots were falling over. When they did fall over, they blocked a large portion of the track. Referees were also calling impeding penalties on tipped robots the were NOT disabled by the drivers. Basically if you hit you e-stop you don't incur any penalties, other wise be prepared to rack up those 10 pointers.

There were also penalties flying for robots illegally crossing lines. If your robot barely crossed the line, they called it. My suggestion is to keep moving around the field in the proper direction.

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

Can anybody get some videos posted of the scrimmage?

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

We didn't see much from ours (lots of repairs going on). However we drove 3 bots around together while playing some offense. Basically it looked impossible to fit a 3rd bot through an area that 2 bots were working in, i.e. picking up balls or shooting. I foresee major traffic jams. Also I think once defense plays into it (which it will get big) hurdling will go way down. Those balls are just too big to work with when another bot is around. Picking up a ball in my opinion (with a really good fast grip) is key to hurdling, if you get to that part.

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

Looks way more crowded than I expected....

But on the bright side, I'm not as worried about air consumption any more. :)

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

Definitely a lot more intense than i had predicted... and they were very liberal with their application of the wrong-way penalty.

I also learned that 5 hurdles is a LOT of hurdles.

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

I agree.
Similar to last year's game, there will be a lot of traffic.
You would think that with the rack last year with 24 spots to score, it would have been easy to do. Not so with defense, traffic, and especially with a big ball and not much of them this year.
I'm curious as to how effective the little robots that only do laps were able to perform, if any?

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

very effective; they decided many matches at suffield.

one more comment: if it aint metal (or fiberglass) and its hanging out, it wont be attached at the end of the match.

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

Very true. Speeds are very high this year (based on what I saw at the Hyper Mini-Meet in Quincy) and even incidental, non-malicious contact will tear things off. The overpass, walls, and the lane divider are also good at tearing robot appendages off.

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

My only reaction is it looks like they made autonomous worth something again, which is nice... but at the same time they made an easy task doable. Similar to 2006, Alliances that consistently win autonomous will consistently win matches.

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

I agree with that... the one thing i noticed the most is that it'll probably be very hard to hurdle, given the congestion and pushing that's going on all over the place. Because of that, fast bots that have great ball control will be key. but, they can't just be fast - they also need a lot of traction and torque to be able to force their way through the traffic jams, or their speed advantage is lost.

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

As a rookie team member, I was very surprised at alot of things, but since our scrimmage is actually tomorrow can i mention on the group practice that we had today?

1. Surprised at how many bots couldn't drive yet.
2. Surprised we were the only ones testing autonomous mode.
3. Surprised how one person in general diliberately tried to sike us out, and our other rookie team friends.
4. Surprised how many mentors other teams have and how sometimes... it seems like they are doing all of the work and hardly even let the kids drive.

Dont get me wrong of course, i absolutely loved it! I think tomorrow and regionals are going to be awesome and i am so glad that i joined this program, these are mearly the things that stood out to me as a first and last year team =]

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

you hit the right spot. that is a major point in discussions related to how a FIRST team should be run.
I agree though that the kids should be doing 100% of the work, but now that I'm a mentor I can see how hard it is to accomplish that (especially when time is of the essence).

I hope you have a great season!

good luck!

-Leav

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

[quote=PrincessJae;700717]
2. Surprised we were the only ones testing autonomous mode.
QUOTE]

How did your auto mdoe work?

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

The mentors were driving?
This is super-duper illegal.

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

I was at Suffield Shakedown yesterday.

Surprises:
- I don't know if it was just this particular scrimmage, but I was surprised not to see a lot of catapult-type robots. I know they can be unsafe, but I heard so much talk about them on CD that I was expecting a lot of them.
- I was also surprised to see how many robots just did laps around the field. Our team had talked about it, but we decided against it.
- The number of robots which had arms that didn't work was also pretty surprising. I know we've still got more than 2 days until ship- a lot of time in the world of FIRST- but it still seemed like a lot of semi-functional bots.

One of the most useful lessons of the day was how easily robots break in this game. I saw so many parts fly off as robots drove into the divider wall, break off as they got entangled with other robots or the overpass, or just detach themselves mid-match.

The game play itself wasn't too surprising to me. I had talked a lot about strategy with my team members, and we guessed most of what we saw yesterday.

My opinion on the game is still the same as before, as well. It's a lot of fun, but still not my favorite FIRST game.

Re: So, what did we all learn from the scrimmages and play dates today?
 

It was okay. We only have a small range and basically our robot goes straight and punches the ball off. only it doesn't really drive very striaght... and if i turn it too much it goes out of range (our robot turns 360) and were screwed for that 15 seconds haha. i can do it though =]

Yesterday was practice, today's the real scrimmage- i doubt they'll drive then =]