Observations after week !
 

What did people notice about the game after the first week of regionals is over?

Our team noticed that while the super cell is a game changer it does not just happen. you need a plan, teams where down and a super cell could have saved the match. but with like 25 seconds left teams where like (bleep) no empty cells, o well just have to hope for the best while there teams payload specialist still had all four. My suggestion to get around this by having teams get those empty cells out into play EARLY. You do not have to put it into a bot just stick it on the ground and hope someone gets it. The empty cells look similar enough to moon rocks that if their is a big pile in front of the outpost the payload specialist could put it into play without any one on the opposing team noticing. Then your alliance would just pick it up, put it in a air lock, and tada super cell for your scoring pleasure. (for all payload specialist please do not throw the empty cells that is a penalty, you have to shove them through the hole!!!!!!!!!)

Another thing we noticed unlike last year a broken or a no show bot is a killer. It is easily 30 free points to the opposing alliance. I saw a lot of teams get burned by this. yes i understand missing a match because your robot will not drive and you need the time to fix it. I understand a robot just not working on the field do to something going wrong. but please tell your alliance before hand. however, if your robot can drive but your ball handling systems are not working and you don't show, that is just not right. This years game from what i saw is not as brutal on your bot as last year. there is not as many (extreme) high speed collisions and robots tend to be more rugged because you can't have any parts sticking out that could be easily broken due to a collision. yes you lose repair time but this year you never know if your team will win (think Midwest regional number 8 seed beating number 1 seed 71,1114, and 1000). This is where i will also apologize to one of our alliances for being a broke bot and pretty much costing the alliance the match. our code didn't deploy right, so we would not run. SRRY:(

Re: Observations after week !
 

Empty Cells must be delivered early, as a strategic move.

No robot is dominant enough to win by itself - good strategy can stop any 1 robot...if you're against 2 good once it's a different story.

Also, moon rocks tend to roll to the sides of the field, where they are harder to be picked by robots. A good strategy is just driving the whole way with one of your sides touching the side border, and this way you can easily gather 90% of those balls, in 10 seconds.

Re: Observations after week !
 

At the KC Regional, we didn't have to put empty cells and moon rocks through the hole. The refs didn't give penalties for throwing them.

Re: Observations after week !
 

Lunacy is Epic.

It is by far the most challenging game I've ever driven in or watched. (I've driven in Aim High, Rack 'N Roll and Overdrive). We've found a lot of things to be true and many others to be false. Perhaps many of you should rethink your strategies.

On the Hardware end:

1) In NJ we (all the teams) were having major static issues. It was recommended Saturday morning that we attach a length of Chain to our Robot by the People on the field to reduce static. A piece of wire or other metal will work just fine also.

2) Make Sure your firmware is up to date. You don't want to be the team that can't connect to the field.

3) Be nice to your Ethernet Ports! If possible have one Port used primary for tethering and have one for on field usage. We had two instances where we were temporarily dropped from the field because our Ethernet Port is shoty.

4) Don't Bury you radio! Some teams had their radios buried, not only is this bad for Comms but it's also bad for debugging.

5) Be patient with the field. It's new, give the people running it a break. If you have a serious issue then bring it to the Head Ref or FTA, they will be more than happy to help or find some one to help.

Now, Onto the Game end of things.

1) Keep Moving. A dead robot is an easy robot to score on. If you know your robot isn't going to move in a match DO NOT PUT IT IN THE CENTER! That is by far the easiest spot for HP's to score from, trust me - We filled a trailer from there... In Auto.

2) Be careful with Traction Control. Don't become so reliant on it that you're limited to 4-5 FPS. There are robots that can do in excess of 9FPS, and it's epic.

3) Learn how to pin on the fly. Not every type of Pin requires a wall. Sometimes your robot can act as the "wall" and other times your opponent will act as the "wall".

4) Control a trailer and you control the bot. In most cases if you can push a trailer in a direction you can knock a robot off course. It takes some practice but be creative, you can do it.

5) A good HP is your best friend. Our HP was great, and he won us a lot of matches.

6) They are enforcing G14. In qauls they'll only punish the offending team. So if when we tripled the score our HP lost both of his Super Cells for the next match.

7) A good Auto will win you matches. You don't have score, just move. A good place to start is by driving 10 feet out and spinning. Even the Best HP's can only get 1 in every 4-5 balls in.

8) Picking up off the floor is KEY. If you're HP loaded only you'll need to be paying close attention to other robots, you're an easy target for them.

9) Super Cells win matches. Don't Miss them.

On a personal note, I found this first week to be one of the most fun experiences in my time in FIRST. Lunacy is fast paced and a fun game but it takes some skill and a lot of luck to win. A good robot will not win you a Regional. Teamwork, Good Driving, and Good Decisions win Regionals this year.

-TheFro Out.

I'll have more, after I get some sleep.

Re: Observations after week !
 

wow that's really weird...did they tell you they changed the rules??

Re: Observations after week !
 

for moon rocks no... but for the empty cells they did(we got one first time out)

Re: Observations after week !
 

Which rule?

Re: Observations after week !
 

the one thing that really stuck out to me was that human players are just throwing their balls away. i understand taking a shoot if you have a good look but at the start of the match even when the bots move away they throw all their balls and 30 seconds in they are left with nothing which means their corner is free for easy travel for the opposing alliance.

this game actually is turning out really nicely. this is my 4th year and it is my favorite game. at first i thought this game would be terrible but i realize now that it has more strategy than any game that i can think of and when i was watching matches today at Trenton i saw how exciting they are to watch.

Re: Observations after week !
 

Refs at KC weren't enforcing <G21> properly. Apparently, they weren't issuing penalties for throwing ECs.

Re: Observations after week !
 

My $0.02 on this game is that it can be really exciting, at times.

Matches where teams didnt show up, which i was extremely surprised was rather common at Midwest, make the match a cakewalk for the opposing alliance. If all you are is the kitbot frame and electronics thats fine. I can respect a team that at least goes out there and makes an effort; if you break down half way through the match, o well.

To me, the supercells were important but not reliable. I only watched Midwest, and wasn't able to catch every qual match, but it seemed that, yes, while supercells won matches, they're not something that can be counted on. From what I saw the only reasonable way to score a SC is to throw it. Even then you have to hope there is an opponent near that human player, and they still have to make it. It is a good strategy to have the ability to use the SC, but if it takes you a while to acquire/dispense the EC then I advise you not to take on the EC transporter job.

It was really cool to watch teams chase after a trailer and keep scoring on them without having to pin, which would make yourself a target. I applaud you on your driving.

All in all i think this will be a great game, wish they had it last year so I would have been able to drive :( Can't wait to watch it in person at Florida.

Observations By the Numbers [<G14> - 11%]
 

I started this by just wanting to see how often G14 was applied in the eight regional events. In the qualification games, G14 came into effect only about 11% of the time. [NOTE: The only scores I found were AFTER Penalties were Assessed, I do not have the scores without penalties, so the numbers do not take into consideration the G14 prior to penalties, basically numbers might be off]

If my spreadsheet is correct here are the numbers:

With about 86% of the scores reported:

Qualification Games
Number of Games: 577
Scores Reported: 495
Red wins: 255
Blue wins: 240
High Score: 151
Average Score: 50.55
Largest Point Differential: 126
G14 Penalties:
No Penalty 437 (88%)
2x Penalty 21 (4%)
3x Penalty 37 (7%)

Quarter Finals
Number of Games: 73
Scores Reported: 73
Red wins: 45
Blue wins: 28
High Score: 126
Average Score: 60.10
Largest Point Differential: 68
G14 Penalties:
No Penalty 68 (93%)
2x Penalty 4 (5%)
3x Penalty 1 (1%)

Semi Finals
Number of Games: 40
Scores Reported: 40
Red wins: 25
Blue wins: 15
High Score: 115
Average Score: 63.7
Largest Point Differential: 62
G14 Penalties:
No Penalty 39 (97.5%)
2x Penalty 1 (2.5%)
3x Penalty 0 (0%)

Finals
Number of Games: 17
Scores Reported: 17
Red wins: 14
Blue wins: 3
High Score: 121
Average Score: 63.9
Largest Point Differential: 69
G14 Penalties:
No Penalty 17 (100%)
2x Penalty 0 (0%)
3x Penalty 0 (0%)

I would be really interested if someone could parse the Twitter information and report on all the great data contained in those posts.

Re: Observations after week !
 

I attended the OKC regional and here are a few things I learned.

Make sure, you let the refs know if you are having any kind of communication problem with your robot. We lost signal with our robot in 3 separate matches.
This possibly lost us our chance of being in the top 8 teams at the end of the qualification matches.

Make sure your Payload specialist knows ALL of the rules that apply to them.
So many teams (including a team in the finals) lost matches because of stupid mistakes by the PS's.

Make sure your trailer hitch pin is set securely! During our first quarter final match, our robot was hit so hard in auto mode that our hitch pin flew out and our trailer came undone. The refs disabled and we lost the match because there was a free trailer. We had the pin in properly and everything, the head ref checked it before the match. So just because it looks and feels like its properly set... doesn't mean that it is... keep that in mind.

When picking alliance partners after qualifying matches are over, make sure you have a list of teams you want to pick, even if your in 15th place, you may end up in the top 8. A lot of the top 8 teams picked from the other top 8.

At our regional, supercells and strong defense were the way to go.
Several teams did really well because all they did was get a few emptycells moved and then used team work to corral an opponent into their corner.

Having the camera system on your robot will help you do well, but isn't essential to winning. The number 1 ranked robot had a really good camera targeting system on it. The number 2 robot didn't even have the camera on it.

As was said before, having a good robot and a good human player is really important, but means nothing if you don't have a good strategy with your alliance partners. 3 basic robots with a good strategy can easily take down a great robot and its alliance if they don't have a strategy.

I will keep adding as I think of things.

Re: Observations By the Numbers [<G14> - 11%]
 

I don't know why that stat stands out to me, but it shows how the matches are even, or at least aren't soley decided by one dominant robot. The higher seeded alliance was only winning half the time in the semi-finals.

Re: Observations By the Numbers [<G14> - 11%]
 

Yes, your numbers will be way off. In 78 qual matches at Traverse City (did you include us in your counts?), we had 6 penalty-adjusted matches that would look like <G14> applied, but it did not. And there was one match that would look like a 3x but was a 2x pre-penalty. We had 9 >2x and 2 >3x games in quals; 2 >2x and 2 >3x in QF's. None in SF's or F's.

Re: Observations after week !
 

We were at KC (had some mechnanical trouble and no parts to really fix it, just kept patching) I definately saw teams getting penalties for outpost seated player throwing the empty cells over the wall.