Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian Curtis
FRC games are usually easy on paper, but as Bill Parcells said, "You are what your record says you are." Not your team in particular, but FRC as a whole. FRC as a whole has a fantastic track record of inspiration, but not a great one at scoring points.
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I should have put my post in the context of elims. You're right, the average robot can't do much in quals, but elims remove at least the (theoretical) bottom 50% of robots to begin with. I also suppose I have knowledge paradox in that I don't remember what it's like
without a mostly decent autonomous mode. To me a scoring auton is just a given for my team. There's also a very large difference between this year and 2010: the top of the key. I expect scores (adjusted for penalties and goal values) to be at least slightly higher this year.
Personally, if I am against a pure troll bot I already know how to gain a very convincing point advantage by the end of autonomous alone without any fancy movements (our bot is setup for it, but most bots I've seen thus far cannot be the bot we can be in auton). If we assume that teleop penalties and scoring are roughly equal, then it simply comes down to one robot making sure it's full on balls before endgame. Then it goes unabated to the basket to score -- unabated because the entire opposing alliance is trying to balance. 12 points in auton + 3 balls during endgame > 20 points from the troll. So then the elims picking becomes "who fits our autonomous strategy", "who has the highest accuracy" and/or "who can deliver balls across the field" rather than "who scores the most". If the pick lists run dry and a 1st seed must pick a box on wheels, then perhaps I'd pick a troll bot. I'll hold that call for Weeks 1-2 though.
A match with 2 trolls during quals would be an amazing resource to a high-caliber team, however. So it's not like they won't have their place -- but they're more like pawns rather than game breakers. I'm simply being blunt by putting it that way.
edit -- hypothetically speaking as if troll bots were still valid --