Re: Best of the Best
 

Though to be completely fair, they made a modification that significantly increased their competitiveness at IRI. Not that it takes anything away from their accomplishment. I doubt that story will be repeated anytime soon. 2753's second overall selection at IRI got them close...

Re: Best of the Best
 

2865 is gonna dominate Portland Regional, I hope. :D
We got to Quarter Finals in Portland and Semi Finals in Seattle last year, as a rookie team.
:)

Re: Best of the Best
 

I personally I think that there could definitively be some stand out rookie teams. This year's game seems to be fairly simple and a simple robot design could do very well, while something very complicated could fail hilariously.

People are really going to need to watch out for rookie teams. The one I'd look out for is 3136, their robot is looking pretty strong and they got their kicker working the other day. They could act pretty well as a striker.

Side note: Talking about yourself in the third person is hard ;)

Re: Best of the Best
 

1114 is dominating Pittsburgh, 'course it is a smaller regional.. Not quite the domination they showed in 2008, but they have put on a clinic today! Be interesting to see how they handle defense in the eliminations...:ahh:

Re: Best of the Best
 

I'm undecided as to whether or not I think 1114 is as good or better at Breakaway than they were at FIRST Overdrive. Its certainly open for debate.

Re: Best of the Best
 

I definitely have to say that IFI has taken the field again this year...just...*more* than usual. 217 is unstoppable, and 148 is the same design. 1114 seems to be ever more lethal, and I'm sure with the level of collaboration that the IFI teams do, 254 and 2056 aren't any worse.

Re: Best of the Best
 

Yeah, when I saw 1114 come out and dominate the field like that yesterday, my first thought was "Aw crap, if they're this good on their own, I'm not sure I WANT to see them WITH 2056"

Re: Best of the Best
 

469 broke the game

Re: Best of the Best
 

Pretty much. I'm interested in seeing how well their strategy works when against an opponent like 217 instead of on an alliance with them. If the other alliance can clear balls it could make it much more interesting.

Re: Best of the Best
 

The problem is that the other team has two robots to shut down that one that might make a difference. So its pretty foolproof. Remember only one of the other team in the defending zone. The only way to stop them would be to Place a team right in their way in the begining and never move it.

Re: Best of the Best
 

My guess would not be not as well, cause while their system acts like an infinite loop (:P) teams can intercept the balls, and it requires scoring bots to feed the system.

But I would look for them to taken as a quick first pick if they are worlds.

Re: Best of the Best
 

The thing is, so far 217 and 469 are putting 5 balls into the goal/zone in autonomous and the other alliances aren't removing any. If the other alliance can even get some out during autonomous, it goes a long way to reducing the score of 469's alliance. Couple in a few more removed during teleop, and you give the other alliance a fighting chance.

Re: Best of the Best
 

469 just made every scout add a new line to their sheets,"Do you have a way to stop 469?"

Re: Best of the Best
 

With a good forward, I'm not sure much can be done to stop 469. The defender would have to be way better than the forward to even give the other alliance a chance. I think the best way to stop them nay just be to stop them from deploying with a fast auton. The problem I see is that whatever team seeds first will pick 469, and assuming the first seed is deserving of said position, that alliance will just dominate.

The funny thing about this in my opinion is that lots of people thought of this idea. I know a few people on my team did. But everyone said something like "That has to be illegal", then scoured the rulebooks but didn't find anything. But almost no one built it anyway. Credit to 469 for having the guts to do what everyone else didn't. It's paying off!

Re: Best of the Best
 

There are other teams who attempted various forms of ball deflectors. However, of all of them we've seen so far, 469 has the best way to deflect them towards the goal consistently and (easily) the best way to remain in position. Most teams who built deflectors simply tried to stay put using their drive trains, rather than wedging themselves into the tunnel. I know of a couple other teams who will try and give 469 a run for their money, but I'm not optimistic about their chances. 469 executed their design extremely well, and should be the cream of the crop in that class of robot.

We'll see how they do in Troy (and Michigan States) before crowning them kings, though. Their strategy is still very dependent on having one or two capable robots in front of them to help with the scoring and one or two behind them to help add balls to the "cycle" initially.