Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Schaddelee
...Consistency is the key word ...
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This should be the winning alliance's best attribute. Even more this year than in the past IMO. I believe most or all of the alliances at this year's IRI will have the
potential to empty the field of upright totes, but even without the 135 second time frame it would still be a tall order to coordinate and fit 9 to 10.5 stacks on the platforms. The alliances will need to develop their chemistry (or renew their existing chemistry) very quickly in order to make it far.
I think another important factor will be an alliance's ability to not push their individual robots to their absolute potentials. There are a few teams that were rock solid consistent all year preforming at their best (148 seems to spring to mind), but most teams had trouble staying consistent. This year's championship winning alliance was an excellent example of relieving stress on the individual teams. If a can was dropped by 118, 1678 was there to still use it, because they themselves (due to an excellent third robot in 1671) were responsible for less than their full potential in the alliance's strategy. For that reason I don't think we'll see any of the teams on alliances attempting to handle more than 3 cans on their own, and instead spreading them evenly (3,2,2) among the whole team, which should reduce the stress and leave room to recover fallen cans.
Due to the two additional cans, I think we'll see quite a few more multiple robot recycling container sets and (dare I say?) even a few 32pt autos. I believe the alliances will all be very evenly matched, and it will come down to which alliances have the most organized and developed plan.
TL;DR: IRI won't disappoint, and that last prediction is obviously the best thing I've seen in a long time