Long post - this year's game was tough - here's why:

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Posted by Patrick Dingle at 04/11/2001 7:14 PM EST


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


In Reply to: Re: Long post - this year's game was tough - here's why:
Posted by colleen - T190 on 04/11/2001 6:52 PM EST:



For rookie teams, I think it was especially difficult. At New York City, our first round we scored 168 points. All our robot did was go over the bridge with another robot, and sit in the endzone. The Robowizards balanced 2 goals. This was the HIGHEST SCORE for a good three hours. From that point on, it was just a series of disasters that brought our ranking from 1st all the way down to 31st out of 35. Our second and third matches, our team messed up the alliance. We fell over in both of these -- once on the bridge, and once while attempting to score a big ball. During our final 8 matches, similar things happened. One robot would always screw it up for the entire alliance. In one match I remember, One of the bots tried wedging themselves under the bridge AFTER two goals were balanced, and they couldn't unwedge themselves. This turned a 320 into an 80. In another match, a coach on another team hit the red button, so we got zero. In all other matches, our allies never did what they claimed they could do "100% of the time". We designed our robot to balance a goal, but we never tried it in a match because we took other teams' words that they could do it much more reliably. It never happened. We never tried balancing a goal.

Bring back a game where teams have an opportunity to prove themselves... We sure didn't have that opportunity at our one and only regional. Sure, we had 2 matches where our robot screwed up, but we had 9 other matches where we did exactly what what asked of us. In many matches, we went to the endzone as instructed, only to wait as another robot miserably failed to clamp a goal... The same robot that could "balance 100% of the time". We then watch other teams compete, who also just go right to the enzone, who get 300 points because THEIR random ally balances two goals. This team ends up with an average 20 points higher because of this -- and they make it to elimination matches.

I agree with Colleen -- it is very difficult to control your own destiny.


: The main reason I found this game tough was that you really couldn't control your own destiny.. either everyone worked and it happened, or it didn't.. and unless you were the team breaking down.. there wasn't much you could do to change that.. you can only push so many robots over the bridge, put up so many balls, and balance so many goals to walk away w/ minimal points..