[archiver]

Posted by Mike Sklar at 03/03/2001 11:37 PM EST


Engineer on team #21, ComBBAT , from Astronaut H.S. and Titusville H.S. and Brevard Community College and Boeing Company and NASA-KSC.



The KSC results below are correct. But here is the inside scoop. Once again Heatwave #312 did it. For those of you in this game for a while you know thay come up at the top all the time.

There were only 2 teams at KSC (out of 44) that could really manage 2 goals properly. Properly meaning before 30s left. Heatwave and 342 a Bosch team from SC. Many think they can but live in a dream world. the biggest problem out there is people think 2 goals at 17s left (3x multiplier) is better than 1 goal at 1 minute left (5x multiplier).

For those of you confused by the scoring here are the major descriminators or break points:

2 goals > 30s left = 8x multiplier
1 goal > 60s left = 5x multiplier
1 goal > 30s left = 4x multiplier

The biggest problem out there is Mgmt/Leadership of the alliance. If you can do this you'll go far.

Here was the difference in the 2 top teams/alliances at KSC today:

Team #342 Bosch can handle both goals (matter of fact due to traction problems they are weaker just handling 1 goal) and have an excellent machine. They were the #1 seed. However they do it alone carrying 1 full goal over the ramp to the other side, getting the second goal and balancing them.

Team #312 Heat wave uses a 2nd robot to cooperate and place the 2nd goal (full or empty) onto edge of ramp, they then drop of their goal and balance both while on the ground. The coperation makes it quicker. In the finals today they did this with 1:02 left (got high score of 490), 57s left and 44s left.

That's the key. It takes cooperation to get both goals before a minute.

PS - My ComBBAT team slipped from #2 seed after 6 matches to 10 seed due to a few bad matches today. Reason each time: We could not manage/lead the alliances (even though we were the #2 seed). But we were drafted 1st (hey aren't you supposed to get a $1M signing bonus for that). And in the tourney matched up with #342, #37 Cordzilla, #267 Motorola, and #147 Deep Thunder. We could not match the Heatwave alliance and came in 2nd, and got the Finalist trophy.

Good time had by all. Next stop for us Houston!