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Originally Posted by Andy Grady
Two words....speed kills.
Not necessarily drive train speed, or speed at picking up balls, or any other system for that matter. If you are fast at the key element to a game, you are going to win.
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Speed and EXECUTION. In FIRST, execution is often a very direct metaphor for accuracy or your manipulation device and/or human players. Your bot has to do it fast, do it right, and do it right the FIRST TIME. A missed shot in 2006, and 3 out of 4 and either that ball is gone, or the defender has caught up before you get another chance with it. A dropped tetra in 2005 was tremendously devestating in a close match. You drop a doubler ball in 2004, and very rarely would you get another chance to cap it. I don't even want to get into what happens when you mess up stacking a bunch of boxes or miss your oppurtunity to knock down the wall in 2003. Etc etc etc.
But beyond everything, there is really one key to winning a regional. Survive. Almost every elimination series is won by the alliance that encounters the least problems with their robots. By the time the eliminations roll around, the bots are beat up, and are being run more frequently than they had all weekend. 2006 Einstein finals, if 195 didn't have half of it's drive system stop working, we may have a different set of FIRST champions. 2006 Einstein semi-finals, if 1126's and 177's shooters both don't have problems, they might have been able to finish off the 25, 968, 195 alliance. 2006 Curie finals, if 70's shooter doesn't have issues, their alliance might have been able to make it to Einstein. 2006 Newton semi-finals, if 254 doesn't start one match with an essentially dead battery, Poof and RAWC might have clashed for the Newton championship. 2006 Greater Toronto semi-finals, 229's shooter has issues and 217's loading system jams. I think you get the message.