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Re: [FRC Blog] - NASA Grants and Something New for 2015
Alright, I've given some thought to this.
We won't be seeing a 2v2v2. This would require the eliminations to be much bigger than the format they are now. Bo3 would NOT work, and BO5 could result in 2-2-1. What do we do? First team to 2 points? Well, that could work. Let's assume we do that. In each round, the first alliance to win two games advances. That means we will have 3 * 4 = 12 alliances for the quarterfinals. 12 * 3 = 36 teams. That's a lot of teams in eliminations. In fact, at the New York Tech Valley regional, I think there may be only 34 teams. I am sure that other regionals have enrollment numbers as low as this.
On the topic of a 4v4. This would allow for the current elimination round rules, bo3, and it would create 2 * 4 = 8 alliances, just like now. 8 * 4 = 32 teams. That means at regionals such as the New York Tech Valley regional, only 5 (or less!!) teams will not be picked. But - how would alliance selection occur? 1-8, 8-1, 1-8? The 8th alliance would get destroyed. 8th, 9th, 24th pick? The first alliance would have 1st, 15th, 16th. Sure it may reduce the powerhouses that number one alliances can wind up being, but the middle teams (3-6) would probably end up being the strongest due to best pick numbers. Look, we all know - some teams are better than others. What if you have multiple robots that don't work at the end of quals? Would a team have to pick a nonfunctional robot, and force themselves into a 3v4, or a 2v3 in reference to previously posted ideas? 2v3 isn't fun, I think we all know that.
Maybe it could be a return to 2v2. However, I -highly- doubt that would happen, unless they change the pick order of alliance selection. The number one team would be an absolute powerhouse. Unless they went 8-1. But then, it only allows 16 teams to be picked. It would incredibly stimulate competition on performing well, and you would have little room for error in your robot design. Unless they went to a 16 team bracket, which honestly would be a bit much... fitting 16 captains onto the field would be a bit crazy. Plus, we're up to the 32 teams again. Now a team might be forced into picking a nonfunctional robot, given the competition be small enough.
Anyways. I'm just looking at the math. Yeah, big regionals could handle it, but the small ones wouldn't be fun for anyone. Number one alliance would wind up with 2 powerhouses and 2 run of the mill robots. The lowest alliance would have a semi-powerful robot (enough to seed 8th), two run of the mill robots, and possibly even a non-functional robot, if the regional is small enough.
Perhaps they tried to fix this with inter-district play, but there have got to be some regionals aside from the New York Tech Valley Regional that have less than forty teams.
Should there be a field texture change, I think it would be an uneven ground. It is something we have not seen for a while, except in 2012 in the middle, but this is a completely wild guess. I think it would be a huge blow to teams with mechanum wheels, however, because they now have gravity working against them too if they are being pushed by another bot on said uneven ground. That would probably actually increase the popularity of the oh-so-powerful multi-CIM drives, due to being able to push robots even when you are on the low ground. I doubt that it would be a shooting game should there be uneven ground - defense would be incredibly, incredibly easy. One nudge and now you're at a whole new height. I couldn't imagine it being too uneven though - it might cause drivers inability to actually see the bot if its too small...
As far as I know (my freshman year was 2012 and I never really looked into past years games), we haven't seen field hockey. This could be a real possibility, I think. With big enough balls you wouldn't have the problem of robots getting stuck on them. Plus, bumper rules could change and require much lower bumpers. I think mechanum drives would absolutely strive here - agility is very important, and there probably won't be much "sitting still" time if your robot is fully functional, unless you're playing a goalie role.
For all we know, they could take 2009 and make us throw frisbees into other bots. We can't be sure, and I think all ideas should be taken with a grain of salt.
Just my two cents.
Last edited by jtrv : 02-10-2014 at 18:06.
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