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Unread 25-05-2009, 01:08
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EricH EricH is offline
New year, new team
FRC #1197 (Torbots)
Team Role: Engineer
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Rookie Year: 2003
Location: SoCal
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Re: Did Lunacy really level the playing field?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Pockets View Post
Just curious, how would FIRST go about "leveling the playing field" if that was their aim?
[...]
So in a sense FIRST naturally balances the playing field.
You asked. I answer. Take a game like the set between 1999 and 2004 (inclusive).

Wait, what?

The common element between the games included is that they all have multiple types elements to control. Some are easier. Some are harder. Strategy may be easy (1999, control the puck, win the game) or hard (2002, ball or goal? You need both...) or impossible (2004, my team's strategy discussion turned into rock-paper-scissors before we figured out how to neutralize one while doing another). Oh, and do you a) do the winning strategy or b) do a complementary strategy that will get you picked? In 2004, my team could team with any of a particular class of robot (not our class) and do really well. But if you paired us up with a team similar to us, we'd most likely lose. We had a winning strategy. But we picked complementary strategies given the chance. I've explained in some of my previous posts in this thread how the balancing works in this kind of setup.

To some extent, you're right, the field is self-balancing. However, this is only to a certain extent. Some teams have perfected drives that work really, really well. They didn't use those this year because they couldn't. But, given a chance to use them to optimum effect, they will. Same with arms/lifts. Same with ball collectors. It's not totally balanced, because those teams have the experience, but they are willing to share that experience.
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Past teams:
2003-2007: FRC0330 BeachBots
2008: FRC1135 Shmoebotics
2012: FRC4046 Schroedinger's Dragons

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