Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

To those teams participating in Cowtown Throwdown in Kansas City this November 5th, make sure that you take note of the rule changes. You can see them at this link:

http://cttd-robotics.com/files/2011_...le_changes.pdf

Interested to hear other teams thoughts about the rule changes.

Good luck everyone. See you there.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

Thanks for the update! 3397 will be there! :D

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

These rule changes are going to be interesting to see in action.

I can't wait!

Good luck everybody!

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

It looks very similar to IRI:

Bottom row increased in value to equal the middle row.
- For teams capable of filling the rack there is some advantage here. At the KC regional I rarely saw an alliance go over 4 logos. May not make much of a difference at this event. Especially since the top 8 cannot pick amongst themselves. (However KC was a week 2 regional. Some teams have gotten a lot better since then, and Bombsquad is coming to town. Maybe it will play a role.)

Uber tubes allowed to be hung during teleop to act as doublers.
- I like it. Missed Uber tubes clog the scoring lane for us, and become an extra obsticle. Now we can do something productive with them. Advantage still goes to those that can hang them in auto though, which is as it should be.

Minibot scoring adjusted to 20, 20, 15, 15
- While this rule change does diminish the advantage of the fastest minibot, it still makes it imperative that an alliance get two minibots up. Consistancy over speed. We may have to build a back-up that can still climb with partially smoked motors in the event of a catastrophy.

Alliance selection maintains the serpentine, disallows picking amongst the top 8, and allows teams to select a 4th alliance member to rotate in as needed instead of the traditional back-up system.
- Very happy to see the serpentine preserved. I believe this is a departure from the IRI set-up this year. There is some concern that teams will be fighting to be #9 instead of alliance captain #8 in hopes of making themselves available to the top alliance captains. Inspite of that concern I do applaud the effort to make this the most competative set of elimination rounds the CowTown has ever seen.

Lots of other subtle changes to look over as well.

I'm hoping we get 32 operational robots to make the new alliance selection system work. We nearly ran out of functional robots last year and eneded up parking a dead one in front of a goal at one point instead of playing active defense for the CTTD version of Breakaway.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

Changes look terrific...

#3481 the Bronc Botz are SO excited to compete at our first Cow Town ThrowDown that we're traveling all-the-way from SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS!!

We're in the process of changing our arm structure and adding an _actual_ #148 Raptor gripper that was awesomely gifted to our team by the Robowranglers (THANKS JVN!)... so, hopefully we'll add some offensive capability to our excellent defensive capability/history...

See you all in KC!!

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

It looks like we are at our 32 team max according to the website: http://cttd-robotics.com/pages/compe...tion/team_list

1. 16 Bomb Squad Mountain Home High School
2. 935 RaileRobotics Newton High School
3. 1094 Channel Cats River City Robots
4. 1108 Panther Robotics Paola High School
5. 1444 Lightning Lancers Engineering and Technology for Lutheran Youth
6. 1710 Ravonics Revolution Olathe Northwest high School
7. 1723 "The FBI" Independence School District
8. 1730 Team Driven Lee's Summit High School
9. 1764 Liberty Robotics Liberty High School
10. 1769 Team X J.C. Harmon High School
11. 1775 Tiger Bytes Lincoln College Preparatory
12. 1777 Viking Robotics Shawnee Mission West High School
13. 1785 United Robocats Blue Springs School District
14. 1802 Team Stealth Piper Robotics
15. 1806 S.W.A.T. Smithville High School
16. 1810 Jaguar Robotics Mill Valley High School
17. 1825 Metro Homeschool Robotics Metro Homeschool
18. 1939 The Kuh-Nig-Its The Barstow School
19. 1984 Raider Revolution Robotics Shawnee Mission South
20. 1985 Robohawks Hazelwood Central High School
21. 1986 Team Titanium Lee's Summit West High School
22. 1987 Broncobots Lee's Summit North High School
23. 2164 The Corps Harrisonville High School
24. 2345 K.A.R.S Kearney High School
25. 2346 Celtics Archbishop O'Hara High School
26. 2353 The Legion The Pembroke Hill School
27. 2410 Metal Mustang Robotics Blue Valley CAPS Center
28. 2560 Robodogs Grandview Senior High School
29. 2874 Eagles Grain Valley High School
30. 3284 Camdenton 4H LASER Team 3284 Camdenton High School
31. 3481 Bronc Botz Louis D. Brandeis High School
32. 3784 Bit by Bit 4H Club Bit by Bit 4H Club

Some great teams on the list. Six of them were not at the KC regional. 16 (regional champs in Alamo, semifinalists in Chicago, quarterfinalists in Galileo), 1094 (semifinalist St. Louis), 1108 (quarterfinalists in OK City), 1444 (quarterfinalists in St. Louis), 1987 (semifinalist in Chicago) and 3481 (regional champs in Alamo, 17th seed in Archimedes)

I'm familiar with everyone except for 3481. Welcome to Kansas City. I've seen video of you guys playing defense while 16 and 148 scored on your way to the Alamo championship. I'm looking forward to seeing you score with your new gripper. If you need any help navigating your way through our fair city let us know. We're a friendly bunch. :D

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

Our managment didn't register us in time, so 3397 will not be participating, but you can count on us being there next year. :D

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

Sorry to see you guys can't come.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

Thanks to everyone for the input (thus far) on our CowTown rule changes. These changes are heavily based on the IRI Rule Changes, as mentioned on the CTTD-robotics.com site. Thanks again to the IRI guys for setting us up with this scoring system update. For anyone who wasn't fortunate enough to witness IRI first-hand, the changes make the game even better than before!

Aaron highlighted the most significant rule changes in his post above BUT didn't elaborate on one other KEY subtlety related to Ubertubes...

If an alliance fails to score theilr allotted Ubertubes, the opposing alliance can "steal" those Ubertubes and use them as additional doublers on their own scoring rack! While this wasn't frequently witnessed at IRI (with the high-performing autonomous modes there), at CowTown, this could become a MUCH bigger part of the game!

Thanks to everyone planning to attend and Good Luck to all! Less than 2 months to go.

Mike

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

That's a great point. If a team fails to get them into their scoring zone they are up for grabs. In the original game we saw great teams without a scoring autonomous (like 45) drive their uber tubes into the middle of the field to create a traffic hazard or potential controlling two game pieces violation for herding while posessing. The rule change for Cow Town would seem to suggest the opposite strategy.

I imagine that there will be some uber tubes that do not get hung in a match or two, but I will be shocked if any alliance gets a chance to steal an uber tube and put a fourth one on their rack. That would mean an alliance failed to, at the least, use their bumpers to push it into their scoring zone. That would be either a huge strategy goof, or a complete drive-train failure. :ahh: I've got enough faith in the 32 teams on the list to wager that won't happen.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

It happened more than once at IRI. There may have even been a match in which one side had 5 Ubertubes scored.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

Well, it looks like I've got some video to go watch. If it happened there it could happen anywhere, and I ought to figure out how just in case we have the opportunity.

Did the alliance with the 4th or 5th uber tube dominate the other alliance enough such that the extra tube was not the deciding factor? That would be my first inclination.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

Not to spoil all the fun for those not able to witness this craziness at IRI but in several cases, the "extra" Ubertube was one that actually fell into the opposition's feeder lane when a robot's autonomous failed to hang it successfully.

And I think Gary is correct about the 5 Ubertubes on one scoring rack. I seem to recall that happening in an early match when the teams probably hadn't fully come to understand that strategy "opportunity"!

I actually would anticipate some matches at Cow Town, for any number of reasons, where robots fail to successfully execute their auton and some Ubertubes end up hanging on the "wrong" end of the field...we shall see!

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

Stolen Ubertubes usually either weren't picked up in a two tube routine or were dropped and rolled into a lane.

Re: Cowtown Throwdown 2011 Rule Changes
 

Team Driven is happy to see the out-of-towners coming. We enjoy getting to know new friends and sharing the fun that FIRST brings. Any one that needs help getting around town or has questions, feel free to email us. We are more than happy to help anyone.