Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

1114 and two bricks to pin their opponent into a corner (This is a winning week 1 combination, IMO)

Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

This. The important thing this year will be having three good members, and In this case I consider "good" to most importantly being good drivers. A single weak robot one an alliance could spell that alliance's doom, because that is going to be the bullseye of the alliance, the one that everyone hunts down mercilessly. There will be no carried alliances.

Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

I think every alliance needs two robots to play as scoring members and one robot that plays for Empty Cells and Plays Defense. It'd be nicer for the third robot to have scoring capabilities but, they're not that important as long as that robot is strong elsewhere.

IMO, I think this year we're going to see a lot of mid-numbered alliances winning. Alliances 3,4,5,6 will have much better selections than 1 or 2. This is not the year you want to drag a robot to victory.

Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

Somehow I think their week one opponents like 71, 111, and 217 might be able to best that. ;)

Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

I disagree with this sentiment and I'm not sure why it's so common.

This year there is going to be an even bigger gap between the good robots and the bad robots. There will probably be fewer good/elite robots than in year's past, which means having the number one pick is all the more important. Especially at regionals, where most regionals really only have 1-2 robots who are very very good.

If you're picking from the #3-5 spot, you get a better second pick, but your first pick is probably a significantly worse scorer than the #1 pick of the regional. I'd rather have an alliance with 1114, 148, and a third bot that can drive very well than an alliance of three average scoring robots, or two average scoring robots and a very good defender/pinner.

Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

This is amplified by the fact that it's a week 1 regional, and dominant teams who've had test/tweak time already will significantly outperform historically dominant teams who have not been able to tweak.

Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

You may be basing this on robots' pictures that you've seen but I highly disagree. There will be a big gap in the teams that were able to practice on full fields and had at least a full week to debug autonomous camera tracking, and tele-op camera tracking. There's bots that might look similar in functionality but based on teams we've talked to its still the same team numbers who actually know what they are doing and its clear who will come out on top.

+Its a bit more leveled this year, but not a big difference from previous years.

Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

People say that every year. And frankly, while it is much more common in the serpentine era, 50% of the time the #1 still wins at the regional level.

At the Championship level, the playing field has been considerably leveled and the #1 does have less success in the serpentine era. Whether that's because of the 3rd partner or purely because of 85 teams and 7 matches not yielding accurate rankings is a debate for another time.

Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

Sean,

Do you know the percentages prior to the serpentine draft? IIRC someone on the GDC compiled it and it was astronomical but I don't know if I've ever actually seen any numbers.

Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

Think about it this year though. In previous years if you didn't have good drivers maybe you didn't score much. Doesn't matter much when you have another team that has drivers who can outscore any two other robots (and sometimes three!)

But this year if you don't have a good driver you actually become a target! You make it easier for the other team to score. Imagine the ultimate scenario where one of your partners doesn't show up or can't move. In previous years not moving meant you didn't score, but you didn't actually detract from the team. This year you're trailer will be filled and you will actually be making it easier for your opponents to score.

That's why I think making sure that all three of your drive teams can play keep away is going to be the most important aspect of the alliance this year. Not being scored on is the most important thing, scoring is secondary. We'll have to wait to see for sure, but that is my prediction.

Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

i think you could even get away with one amazing dumper and 2 boxbots / herders. all they have to do is go around and pin!

Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

I agree, as long as those boxbots have the drivers needed to keep from being scored on.

Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

Kids kids kids...we find out in like 6 hours :rolleyes:

Speaking of which...I need sleep...waking up in 3 hours. =P

Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

Here's my prediction for NJ.
Team 25 will team up with 103 in '09. In '10, add 359 as their 3rd partner. hehe.
Oh! my bad, are we talking about types of robot alliances or teams that will align with each other.

Re: Pre season competition alliance
 

I think the 1st pick will be more important than ever, especially if a good robot is making the pick. With the assumption that any robot can drive a good drive team can impart some very important strategies to the third team. You cannot however teach a second pick how to score as easily.

My thoughts are if you can get a good enough second pick, that the third picks will have a much smaller gap (like previous years) in talent. And if you have the best robot on your team, then it is not scoring on you, hopefully.

Plus if you can get two robots that can pin you can essentially turn it into a one on one match against the robot of your choice. i would take one of the best robots at the competition verses the opponent of my choice.

I am foreseeing more wins from the top 2 alliances (#1,2), and in deep fields we may see the well rounded teams of the last alliances (#7, 8) winning more than the middle 4 alliances.