Quote:
Originally Posted by n_ambrogi013
they also provide feedback about how drivers on other teams are to interatct with, which is critical--if an alliance can't function as a team, the abilities of the individual machines can sometimes be negated. so if you can tear your drive team away from the machine for a few minutes, have your scouts talk to them.
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Definitely, the personality of the team that you're considering will have an impact. I'll explain later.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery
While you're certainly entitled to your opinion and to do it your way, I don't think you could find a single team with a Championship banner who'd agree with you. Probably couldn't even find a team who's captained a regional alliance to gold either.
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Bottom line. Nothing replaces stand scouting. Pit scouting is still important, but you can't accurately create a good pick list or proper strategy without stand scouting.
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I'll speak for 330's 2005 team on this one--we couldn't have done it without stand scouting.
A little story from 2005 that illustrates both points: Around noonish on Saturday in the Newton division, 330 was finishing up their pick list. There were 2 teams that the scouts rated about equally, and both were lower than 2nd seed. At one pit, the picker and helpers waited... and nobody really paid attention to them. The other team had almost the opposite reaction. Guess which one got picked?
Now, it's picking time, second round. 330 and their first pick have one more team to choose. There was a solid team there, not flashy, just solid, that the scouts (stand scouts, mind you) on both teams had noticed. They were still available somehow. They got the call and the three teams went on to win it all.
You see what I mean? Personality says a lot about you as a team. It can make the difference between winning and making an early exit. And the stand scouting can spot things that pit scouting misses. Good pit scouting can catch a lot of things, but good stand scouting tells what really happens.
The 2 absolute worst ways to scout, as counterexamples: Not at all, or by rankings. I'm looking at the L.A. standings as an example. 4 of the 6 best robots there are not in the top 5, and one of those isn't in the top 8. There are also some really good "sleeper" teams that are waking up in the bottom half of the rankings. The good scouts will see that and spot some pretty good "steals" tomorrow. And the teams without good scouting, or with "ranking scouting", are going to get a bit of a trailer-filling.