[FoleyEngineer]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I've been busy with at my own regional, so I haven't watched any of this district. However, it's obvious 469 is doing much better in qualifications this time around than they did in their previous district (where they were shut out multiple times and lost four matches).

What's the difference? Are teams buying into the 469 system more now that they've seen what it can do? Are the robots just better at scoring at this event (especially with two more weeks to work on them)? Are fewer teams attempting to defend against 469 and just attempting to maximize their rankings? Some of each? Something else?

It's kindof strange... we seem to have a huge gulf at Troy between what I'd call "good" scoring teams who can control the ball, kick, score, etc. and "other" teams that can't seem to do much of anything - some not even moving. To quote one of my scouts, "They're another team that doesn't work 75% of the time and then spins in circles the other 25% of the time when they do." Surprisingly, there's a lot of that, even though it's week 4 and everyone's second competition. My best guess is that some might have just gotten their bots working today. I applaud them for persevering and getting out there and giving it their all. It just makes for some very strange match scores and results depending on how they are grouped together.

Another thing we noticed personally was how many penalties there were! I think we lost 4 or 5 matches today because of what I'd call "rookie mistakes" - things you see week one but not usually week 4. Reminds me of last year when people continued to enter the orbit balls "over" the side outposts all the way through States and even into the Championship. We've taken to reviewing the basic rules such as "don't bash the opponents tower repeatedly during the last 20 seconds please" with anyone we're not really familiar with. We just try to remember everyone's trying to do their best and heck, let's just go have some fun with our robots! Besides, Dean Kamen came and signed our robot and control board so we win. The end!

Hope that answers your questions a little.