[vikesrock777]

As the coach for Apple Pi through two events, I don't think I can stress the importance of scouting enough. It truly is important regardless of your team ranking, and I prefer to have some data before the first qualification match even starts.

At WPI, a smaller regional, it was often very rushed to create the match strategy for the next match. Any and all data I had from my scouting team helped expedite this process massively. Without a solid scouting team, I don't think we would have done so well and ended up seeded 2nd. As a picking alliance, the data was massively helpful. Without the data, I don't think we would have been able to win WPI (thanks 3205 and 190!)

At Connecticut regional, we had our pit scouting almost entirely filled out by the end of Thursday. Walking in Friday morning I already had a notebook filled out with a page for each match. I had written down each team and some of their basic information as given by pit scouting. I also included OPR's from Ed's thread (thanks so much for the data!) for teams that had already competed to aid in giving an evaluation of how the team was going to compete. Using this I was able to better plan for what we were up against every time. It didn't always work out the best in the end (we seeded something like 30th due to a very rough qualification schedule), but we always had a strategy going into the match. Going into Saturday, we had all of our match data compiled, which helped even more. We knew approximately how well each robot was performing which helped in the remaining qualifications. Going into elims, that data proved even more useful. We were able to use our data to very accurately predict our opponent's strategies, and make good counter-strategies. With this data we made it to the finals (thanks 558 and 1071!) Without this data, I don't think we would have done as well.

In summary, scouting helps all throughout the event. It is not exclusively for teams who are going to be in picking position. All teams can benefit from it throughout the event. It can help you in every qualification match. You never know, it may even aid you into being in a picking position, or it may be crucially helpful to your elimination alliance!