[archiver]

Posted by Patrick Dingle at 04/27/2001 10:08 PM EST


College Student on team #639, Red B^2, from Ithaca High School and Cornell University.


In Reply to: Back to Defense for a minute.
Posted by Andy Grady on 04/27/2001 8:11 PM EST:



I agree. in fact I think defensive bots are often the true masterpieces. In 1999, I had the pleasure of spending my first FIRST season with team 190. Granted, we had the ability to lift the floppies 8 feet and lift ourself off the ground onto the puck, but our primary strength was defense. Our defensive abilities were twofold. First, we could lift up half of the puck over a foot off the ground. When we pushed the other end of the puck into the corner and lifted our end up, I don't think another robot ever was able to get on the puck. Second, this was 190's first of two years with Translational drive. This allowed us to turn all our wheels tangent (or at any 22.5 degree increment) to the puck, and spin the puck around. This was extremely helpful to keep other teams from getting at the puck, especially when we had our side lifted off the ground. Although I was not actively involved in the team this year, it was the completely unreal electricity that I witnessed during watching every match that inspired me to become more and more involved in FIRST (and as a side effect, pursue a career in mechanical engineering).

Patrick

I think without any defensive aspect of a game, all teams will quickly realize what the optimal scoring strategy is, and the result is every match having the same strategy. When you have defense, your strategy completely changes every match, depending on the ability of your opponents.

Patrick

: Hi all,
: I'm posting this in reply to Bill Beatty's post entitled Defense, A Fancy Word for Poor Ablility. First off I give congrats to you Bill on a supurb robot and a great year...however I must say that I am just a tad disturbed by your comments about defensive teams.
: First of all you are entitled to your opinion, however in my seven years of FIRST I have been a part of teams that have specialized in defensive play, and in my eyes, no way, no how, were those robots lacking in ablility! Also you have to look what happened this year...sure the finals seemed exciting from your standpoint, of course you also gotta take into fact that you were in every single final, and you won every single competition. Frankly, I sat there and I watched, and I knew (no offense to any of the semifinal teams) that the Beatty alliance was going to win. Now to me, thats not exciting, there was little hope for an upset (though the Cheesy Poof/Wildstang alliance came very close and I applaud them)and as soon as one mistake was made, the match was over...NO DRAMATICS!
: Maybe I am wrong, but to me I was having alot more fun watching teams perform offensively and defensively at the same time. Some of the most fun, lighthearted matches I have ever been a part of have been some great defensive rounds. Heck I remember how much fun it was to mix it up with Delphi and Kokomo in 99 when i was with PARTS, and afterwards Andy Baker and I could just sit back and laugh about it in good fun. Isn't the fun what this thing is all about? I will be the first to admit that in 99 my team did not have the strongest robot, we were not the prettiest, but the only thing that helped us run with the big boys like Delphi was the fact that we could play defense. Defense helps shorten the gap between powerhouse teams such as the Delphi's and Beatty's in the world, and the smaller teams who may not have the money to put out an amazing feat of engineering, but have the heart to fight their way into a chance at that gold medal.
: With all due respect Mr. Beatty, maybe its not the smaller defensive teams who are afraid to put their designs against the other, well funded, well engineered teams. Maybe its the well funded, somewhat fragile engineering masterpieces, that can't take a hit.

: Thanx,
: Andy Grady
: p.s. I appologize to anyone I may have offended with this e-mail, that was not my intent, these are only my opinions they are not always on the mark.