Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Compton
We were part of that cohort, I think, and my kids will want to take a look at why were were passed over as they plan for next year.
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I would consider what your goals were in the beginning of the season and how you achieved them.
If your goal this year was to win a regional/district and make it to worlds, a low goal bot could easily do that. A good example is Team Dave 3683 at Greater Toronto Central Regional. They were 9-1-0, ranked 1st and pretty easily won all their elimination matches.
If your goal this year was to be extremely competitive (win a DCMP, CMP division, or compete on Einstein), a low goal bot was not really feasible. Of all the robots that touched Einstein's carpet, I don't remember any low-goalers. I might be missing one or two, but I'm fairly certain almost every bot was high goal or defense.
That in mind, most alliance captain's goals in St. Louis is to first make it to Einstein, then be competitive there. I think most captains rightly concluded that you needed at minimum 2 powerful high goal robots, and a defensive bot.
Since you guys were primarily low goal scorers, you most likely didn't meet the criteria of what alliance captains were looking for.
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If your goal for next year is to be competitive on Einstein, you'll have to identify what robot role will be most desired on Einstein. This year it was high goal scorers. Last year it was robots that could make stacks 6 high and cap it themselves (minimum 2).
I would forwarn you that having an Einstein competitive robot does not guarantee you a trip to worlds. There are many teams this year that could have been competitive on Einstein but never qualified.
A good example is team 120. We were ranked 1st at Buckeye and passed over them because 781 could put more boulders in the tower. Even though 781 was a low goal bot and would get less points, we knew that we would be the only alliance that would be able to reliably capture and the 25 point bonus would almost assure us wins. So we didn't need a high goaler.
I can't speak to 120's other events, but I suspect something similar happened. Their robot wasn't quite what was needed to win regionals. Had they not been a HoF team, they would not have been in St. Louis. But luckily for 330 and 2481 they had an automatic invite, and their fantastic machine was available for selection.
If you look at the finals matches on Einstein, I suspect 2056's defense bot, 1405, was primarily told to shut down 120. This makes the battle between 120 and 1405 the most crucial part of the finals matches and where World champs was won and lost.
However, remember when I said we (4039) passed them up at Buckeye? We thought they weren't what we needed to win the regional, although they were what was needed to win World's.
There is a risk that if you want to be competitive at World's next year that you'll never qualify. So it's not as simple as finding the right robot role and building that robot, you really have to identify what your goals should be.
Usually Einstein-capable robots are highly complex and take a whole season to tune to perfection. The power-house teams (2056, 254, 971) are the exceptions.
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My advice for if you decide that your goal next year is to compete on Einstein, is to identify how to score the most points per second in next year's game. This year the low goal and high goal took approximately the same amount of time, but one was worth 150% more points. A reliable high goaler was also way, way, way harder to build. But if you did it well, you had a good shot at Einstein.
But please remember Karthik's advice, which is applicable to 95% of teams:
“Reliability and consistency are paramount. If you do ONE thing, every single match, without fail, you will beat the guy who does many different things poorly. Every time.“
You just need to identify what that one thing is, and it likely won't be the same for winning regionals and winning worlds.