Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur
Dick,
A number of things need to happen for a looper bot to be successful:
1> The looper bot needs to get into, and stay in, position. 469 does an excellent job of this in autonomous.
2> The pump (looping) needs to be primed. Without balls being scored the looping strategy is a weakness as it leaves teams 3 vs 2. 469 also does a good job at this in autonomous by shooting 2.
3> The looping strategy requires that the opposing defender bot be neutralized. This can only be done if the defender is poor, the striker is very good at pinning, or the looping alliance can bring forward the third bot. Cass Tech elim rounds showed the looping strategy at it's best, but if you look at the seeding rounds you'll see holes in the strategy. In effect, the looping strategy only works if the whole alliance in in sync with what needs to happen.
4> The looping strategy also requires that any balls that miss the goal (469 had quite a few) are then scored by the strikers. This again means that loopers require their partners to be good (and probably be able to change zones).
In essence, a looper bot can only be as good as it's alliance partners, and cannot carry any alliance. They are the ultimate alliance bot this year, much like the ramp bots were in Rack-N-Roll. Without their alliance partners being able to support their unique gamestyle they will be just another ineffective bot.
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And this I believe is the perfect summary of why loopers aren't the unbeatable robot. We had a first week Regional this year, and we have been designing a looper bot from the very beginning of the season. Similar to 469 we have the means to lock onto the tower, and redirect the ball as it falls down our ramp. Locking to the tower was an obvious requirement because if you didn't you would be pushed out of position and thus incur a penalty for being outside 84". Redirecting was also obvious if you went the looper route because its better to keep the opponent guessing.
What we found at our regional is that without the pump being primed then the looper bot doesn't work. Lucky for us we also have an adjustable kicker and an awesome vacuum possessor because those were the only things that allowed us to win. We could not find a striker bot throughout the qualifiers that would score for us if even minimally defended. We did a good job getting one or two balls in during autonomous but with DOGMA those balls are back in play before you can lock to the tower. We had to do the scoring ourselves and since we couldn't be in two places at once, we spent most of our time jumping between midfield and the front to score. We hope to finally show off our looper bot once we can get some good teammates at Nationals.
Looper bots aren't the end all, be-all game ender, they are merely an important part of a well balanced aliance. You need strikers and defenders as well. As mentioned above, most of the actual people in the elims will probably have a looper bot, but then again every decent team in Rack and Roll had a decent ramp-bot. Being a specialist with a good team is how the real world works, because you can't do it all.
It is a team sport and diversity makes the game better. You will find a NFL team made up of the best quarterbacks will get stomped by a team that has mediocre specialists in the proper roles and positions. Pick your specialty and rise to be the best you can be, and enjoy the game. I am in awe of the tweaking it took 469 to be as good as they are, because I know how difficult it was to make a decent looper. There's a lot of work in that 469 robot and I wouldn't dare penalize someone for playing the game well.