View Single Post
  #7   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 01-12-2012, 11:21
MichaelBick MichaelBick is offline
Registered User
FRC #1836 (MilkenKnights)
Team Role: Alumni
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Rookie Year: 2010
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 734
MichaelBick has a brilliant futureMichaelBick has a brilliant futureMichaelBick has a brilliant futureMichaelBick has a brilliant futureMichaelBick has a brilliant futureMichaelBick has a brilliant futureMichaelBick has a brilliant futureMichaelBick has a brilliant futureMichaelBick has a brilliant futureMichaelBick has a brilliant futureMichaelBick has a brilliant future
Re: How to Win a Robotics Competition

Quote:
Originally Posted by edwardj View Post
I'm not a scouting expert, but I think people tend to overcomplicate scouting with incredible amounts of data.

At a robotics tournament, the main difficulty with scouting is because there's way too much data on everyone's robot, and it's hard to process all of that data.

In my opinion, robots that I've seen fall into three categories (especially at FRC regional tournaments):
  • Definitely want on our alliance
  • Maybe...
  • No way!

There's a LOT of "Maybe" and "No ways". Usually your first pick is pretty obvious, but the main problem is -- for your second pick, you run out of "Definitely want on our alliance", and how do you pick between the "Maybe..." or the "No way!"s that are left?

By then I just wouldn't really care, because it's very difficult to determine a better team from a heap full of "Maybes". Using a simpler vs. more complex scouting method is unlikely to influence the overall success of your team -- luck is more influential at that point.

Which makes me think: it's really bad game design to make a game rely on sheer luck. If good teams cannot consistently win over worse teams in the competition, it's a broken competition.

Even though poker's core game is luck-based, there's still a lot of strategy around a poker tournament -- where better players can consistently win over lesser players.

FIRST has a lot of goals with the competition -- and evaluating the most "talented team" at playing the game is the point. Inspiring students to learn more about science and technology is -- and they do a great job at it.
This is especially untrue at championships. While many of the powerhouse teams have relatively equal robots, the 3rd robot makes all the difference. Even at regionals a third robot can make much of the difference between winning and losing.
__________________
Team 1836 - The Milken Knights
2013 LA Regional Champions with 1717 and 973
2012 LA Regional Finalists with 294 and 973
To follow Team 1836 on Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/MilkenKnights
To go to our website, go to http://milkenknights.com/index.html
Reply With Quote