Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Blake
For Jim/Issac, etal. :
For a 2nd season team... what's the 3 MOST important things to do to optimize your chances to be picked by the top 8?
GREAT webcast... THANKS for sharing!!
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In addition to what Akash said, some things I've noticed...
If you're aiming to be a 1st pick, be the highest scoring robot at an event
If that's not possible, be the best at doing
something, whether it's autonomous mode or endgame. You can shoot yourself in the foot by spreading your resources too thin and building a robot with a poor autonomous, poor scoring, and a poor endgame. Instead, focus on whatever aspect of the game you think will most benefit an alliance. A perfect autonomous mode isn't common at the regional level, and can easily make up for poor scoring / endgame.
Specific things you can do at competition...
- Don't procrastinate.
- Get through inspection as soon as possible. You really look bad if a team has to help rush you through inspection.
- Once you're through inspection, get on the practice field and give your drivers as much time to practice as possible, make sure your autonomous mode works, etc.
- Be on time for your matches.
- If your alliance decides on a strategy before a match, FOLLOW IT. If teams don't come to your pit to talk strategy, you go to theirs 5-10 minutes before the match starts. If you don't like the strategy, try to politely negotiate. Flat-out ignoring strategy match after match is the type of behavior that gets you on a team's "permanent blacklist."
- Be competitive and motivated, but don't be rude about it. Try to make friends with other teams and their mentors. Long-term friendship can play into alliance selection.
- If you don't end up in the top 8, don't go and beg just before alliance selections. Those top 8 teams are sitting down and putting a lot of thought into their final decisions about who to pick. Begging is tacky and it doesn't work.