Quote:
Originally Posted by Bongle
The other big stopping point (which is just as important as stopping after hurdling) is the ability to corral the ball after hurdling. It doesn't matter if you have a fantastic full-speed shooter if it takes you 20 seconds to regain control of the ball afterwards. An arm bot with fantastic picking-up abilities will beat a shooter bot who can't load consistently.
Actually, I would argue that pickup is MORE important than hurdling. A good arm bot is only stopped for 5ish seconds following a hurdle while the arm retracts. However, the difference between 1114 and the field was that they could get the ball back under control almost immediately upon reaching it, while other teams were less good at that. The amount of time you lose with a poor pickup is almost certainly greater than the time lost even with the slowest of arm-retractions. I noticed 25 had issues on occasion with poor picking-up and it seemed to hurt their scoring abilities in the qualifying matches.
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I agree completely with your point that being able to pickup the ball quickly is more important than being a great hurdler. This will become even more so, as defensive strategies develop in upcoming regionals. For instance, will we see more "deny the opponent the ball" strategies as we move toward Atlanta? A fast arm bot should be able to effectively slow down a great shooter if their pickup is not flawless.
I saw several instances in the NJ regional where the ball was pushed or was stopped on the trailing line of one of the quadrants. 25 was unable to pick up the ball in this case, and if they tried the would run the risk of a line violation penalty. They were fast enough that the could zip around the track and get to a track ball and score, but this cost them valuable time. In the end it didn't matter as they won the regional for the 3rd? year in a row, but I didn't witness any teams really trying to stop them.
I know this game was introduced as a "coopertition", and I think that great defense may be one of those cooperative skills we haven't yet seen. As usual, in the early regionals most teams go with what they designed their robots to do. In this game that means either running laps and/or hurtling, but with only two track balls, how many great hurdlers do you need on an alliance? I think the role of the third pick in the elimination rounds will become more focused on defense and endgame capabilities. Of course a great hybrid mode won't hurt.