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First off, our strategy is to control all three goals. MOEHawk, our robot, is the result of the strategy we sought to employ.
We, like everyone else, would like to get big time QPs. With our strategy, it's more difficult to accomplish than with other strategies. However, we have had matches where we have scored 96 QPs for us and our alliance partner. Given the average QPs for the regionals so far, that is a good score. If we could do it consistently, we may even get close to the top 8 seeds.
No one who spends long hours machining and drilling and deburring and painting parts wants to see them bent or broken. However, we realized going in, that when you grab and hold goals in the first 5 seconds of a match, you can expect some heavy hitting the next 1 minute and 55 seconds.
Fortunately, we have an awesome pit crew, the true Miracle Workerz, who have found ways to fix whatever has been broken, match after match.
We have made spares for situations in elimination rounds where we may get beat up enough that we cannot quickly repair MOEHawk. Hopefully, we will get another opportunity at Nationals to strut our stuff in the elimination rounds. We have learned much at VCU and Philly.
So, is a robot that controls three goals, may or may not get high QPs every round, and needs lots of TLC from the pit crew, a viable strategy/plan? Maybe or maybe not. However, I can tell you that the students that are part of our pit are learning first hand how to problem solve on the fly. Our students learn how to prepare and plan before a regional. And, by the demonstration of things like our "MOE PARTS FOR SALE ON E-BAY" sign at Philly and the MOE Mauler Award, we definitely have a sense of humor about it all.
May the best robot/strategy win.
Good luck for teams attending upcoming regionals. Maybe we will see you in Florida.
-J-
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