[Coach Norm]

We competed at Alamo Regional this past weekend.

We had a great time and were honored to be in the quarterfinals against 418, 16 and Rookies 3841. We were picked as the first choice for 3847 (rookies) at number 8. They were completely taken off guard when they moved into position to be an alliance captain. They then chose Cyberwolves, 647 as our alliance second alliance partner. 3847 had lost their tube manipulator early on Friday. Both of these robots showed Field communications before our second match started but lost communications right after the match started. 3847 regained it and worked extremely hard at pushing tubes in our lane at the Red alliance end. We chose not to throw any tubes into the field as an alliance to try and limit their opportunities to stray tubes. Our plan was to push tubes into our lane as there were entered with two robots and have one robot score tubes at the other end. 148 put up two ubertubes in Auto while 16 attempted but just missed. In both matches, 148 and 16 deployed their minibot resulting in 50 points for them. We were crushed both matches by these this powerhouse alliance of hall of famers, but by limiting the number of tubes on the field, the minibots were 50 points of each match.

Minibots proved to be the difference the later in the tournament it went. Rounds with four successful minibots did occur in the elimination matches a few times.

Many teams had minibots that would climb the pole but deployment proved to be very difficult. 118 has a very impressive minibot that is extremely fast, (if you have not seen it, check out Magic's minibot youtube) but they had difficulty getting it deployed during the matches. 118's early match loss was to an alliance(2158, utilizing a strategy of pushing tubes into the opposing teams lane to starve them from scoring. The opposing alliance also deployed a minibot I believe. The final match score was 30 - 24.

Alamo had 17 rookie teams in attendance. Many of the teams did not understand all the rules, so it was very important to explain the some of the basic rules before the match.

Key points I noticed:
1. You need the Driver Station update (bring it on a USB for others)
2. You need the correct CRio update (bring it on a USB for others)
3. Picking up off the floor is huge importance.
4. Do not just liter the field with tubes if you an underpowered by a strong offensive alliance opponent.
5. GET A MINIBOT that you can DEPLOY.
6. DEPLOYMENT IS KEY. Slow and steady will put you in place for high seeding or selection in the next week tournaments most likely. As the season progresses, the minibot times will improve as well as the consistency of deployment. This will most likely take a larger roll after week 2.
7. Defense can be played by limiting the number of tubes as well as working to limit your opponent alliances' from scoring logos by strategically removing the tubes they need to complete logos. Push them into your lane where they cannot be retrieved without incurring a penalty.
8. If you are opposing a stronger alliance, aggressive driving is a must to make it more difficult for teams to pick up tubes. Robot to robot contact in the bumper zone makes it more difficult for teams to pick up tubes in optimum position for deliver to the pegs.
9. Stay away from the opposing teams tower in the last ten seconds. Red card
10. Many teams received a red card for a possessed tube hitting an opposing teams tower. (G23)
11. Pushing/Herding of tubes resulted in penalties as well.
12. If you have a robot who cannot hang tubes, push tubes forward to your alliance zone but not much closer than the towers since it will cause difficulty to maneuver to pick up tubes.
13. It seemed some aliances who had two/three teams attempting to score in auton could have difficulty if two robots ran into the driver station wall at the same time. The driver station walls would shake and rattle. I believe this might have caused some problems with lining up with cameras via imaging and/or with range finding of some sort.

LOGOmotion is a fun game for not the teams but the fans. The minibots are a huge fan favorite at the end game.