Best Feeder Bot of 2012

[avanboekel]

To prevent "The best moments of Rebound Rumble" thread from getting any further off topic, I would like to move all of that discussion to this thread. So far, only teams 16, and 4334 have been mentioned as great feeder bots, but I'm sure there are many more (125 comes to mind).

Who do you think is was the best feeder bot of 2012?

[Botwoon]

207 fed 987 and 233 in our elimination matches. We fought with 16 on Einstein, and kept up with them fairly evenly. Their drivetrain and collector were far better adapted to the task, but our shooter allowed us to send them across the field much faster.

As their swerve was so incredibly powerful and maneuverable, my personal favorite for a feeder has to be the bomb squad.

[IndySam]

I think the thread title should be changed to second best feeder bot because the best was Bomb Squad.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by IndySam

I think the thread title should be changed to second best feeder bot because the best was Bomb Squad.

I think it should be changed from that as well because 1st - 16 and 2nd - 4334. The title should be third best feeder bot.

[Gray Adams]

I disagree that 4334 was the second best feeding bot. Whereas bomb squad flew around the field dropping balls over the bump, 4334 simply drove like any other bot can. The lack of a long range shooter really didn't help either. Their ball pickup was very effective, but from what I saw at the IRI elims, they spent a lot of time holding balls in the alley, not feeding them across the field. It seemed like they may have been guarding 4th, 5th, and other balls they couldn't pick up, but I wouldn't consider that feeding, its just defensive play.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by Gray Adams

I disagree that 4334 was the second best feeding bot. Whereas bomb squad flew around the field dropping balls over the bump, 4334 simply drove like any other bot can. The lack of a long range shooter really didn't help either. Their ball pickup was very effective, but from what I saw at the IRI elims, they spent a lot of time holding balls in the alley, not feeding them across the field. It seemed like they may have been guarding 4th, 5th, and other balls they couldn't pick up, but I wouldn't consider that feeding, its just defensive play.

Agreed. 4334 is a good defender of both robots and balls, but it seems to me they don't come close to 207 or 125, etc in throughput (certainly not even approaching 16). Our scouting reflects this, though it's not comprehensive.

That match at IRI that dodar's talking about is a great example. Watching balls constantly shot back and forth across the field was incredible and really only topped by showdowns like the 207 vs 16 on Einstein. I can't think of any matches like that involving 4334? For defense yes, but not really for feeding?

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by Siri

Agreed. 4334 is a good defender of both robots and balls, but it seems to me they don't come close to 207 or 125, etc in throughput (certainly not even approaching 16). Our scouting reflects this, though it's not comprehensive.

That match at IRI that dodar's talking about is a great example. Watching balls constantly shot back and forth across the field was incredible and really only topped by showdowns like the 207 vs 16 on Einstein. I can't think of any matches like that involving 4334? For defense yes, but not really for feeding?

I guess this sort of makes me realize that I've been thinking about regular defense along with feeding. While looking at all of the youtube videos I could of 16 and 4334, I realized, at least feeding wise, 16 is better. On another note, we played against 125 in the Battlecry Finals, and they unfortunately stopped working part of the time. This got me curious about what they could really do, so I found some videos of them in battlecry and watched them in IRI, and they are a very good feeder bot. I also did see 207 and were impressed by them. Notice how 3 of the 4 teams I have mentioned made it to Einstein, which goes to prove a great feeder can really help an alliance.

[JackN]

469

From what I see, there are 3 main feeder bots: 16, 125, and 4334.

16 was very maneuverable, and had a great ball pickup.

125 had a great ball pickup, great strategy, and an excellent shooter.

4334 could pick up balls like no one's business, and fed their alliance to IRI victory.

Here's my opinion:

16, while fast and maneuverable, couldn't send balls over to the other side really quickly. They had to go to the bump/bridge to release the balls, since their catapult, while accurate, was too slow for feeding.

4334 was plagued with the same problems as 16.

125, however, was just amazing. They were quick, agile, and with their amazing drivers and shooter, were able to pick up any ball, and quickly send it over to their alliance side. The reason I choose 125 as the best feeder over 16 and 4334 is because of their consistent and well performed execution of the feeding/starvation strategy. In most every single match 125 was in, you could clearly see the constant stream of balls flying across the field from their shooter to the other side. They were so good at their role, that every match they forced their opponents to venture to the other side of the field to get balls. They even would pick up balls that their opponent's feeders would put on their side and shoot them right back. Because of their excellent execution of feeding, I vote 125 as the best feederbot (so far) of 2012. 256 did pretty good, too...

[Meredith Novak]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

16, while fast and maneuverable, couldn't send balls over to the other side really quickly. They had to go to the bump/bridge to release the balls, since their catapult, while accurate, was too slow for feeding.

16 is perfectly capable of lofting balls quickly to the other side. Delivering them to a certain spot was a much more valuable skill, especially if we were feeding a 3 ball wide intake robot. It was a choice.

Originally Posted by Meredith Novak

16 is perfectly capable of lofting balls quickly to the other side. Delivering them to a certain spot was a much more valuable skill, especially if we were feeding a 3 ball wide intake robot. It was a choice.

I'm sorry if I came off as rude. What I meant was that compared to 16 and 4334, 125 could loft balls at a faster rate to the other side. Your tactical strategy of feeding them to the place you did was smart, and very effective for the partners you had. 125's shooting to a not as specific area was effective for the partners they had.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

In every single match 125 was in, you could clearly see the constant stream of balls flying across the field from their shooter to the other side. They were so good at their role, that every match they forced their opponents to venture to the other side of the field to get balls.

Every match? I think we had plenty of ammo.

The GoPro version provides an alternate viewpoint, as well as some extended footage.

Even though they were neutralized this match, the video still clearly shows the elegant way in which 125 returned balls across the field.

[Daniel Brim]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

Every match? I think we had plenty of ammo.

The GoPro version is more fun, posted shortly.

Even though they were neutralized this match, the video still clearly shows the elegant way in which 125 returned balls across the field.

Even though we had some trouble getting across, we still 1. distracted an excellent scorer, and 2. provided a defense-free environment for our partners. So it wasn't really that terrible of a situation.

[Brandon Holley]

I would never think taking balls from one side of the field and launching them to the other would spark such a healthy conversation about our robot, but apparently I was wrong!

Joe- While I can see your point, and also heard you and others emphasize it in Indiana, I think you are oversimplifying our strategy just a bit. I don't want to go in and start breaking down tape second by second, but just being on that side of the field does a lot. Any balls that would normally find their way into the protected lane, are now in a no fly zone for the other alliance. Ditto for any balls below the key, near the fender. We would often just cruise through that area to be a nuisance. I also disagree that most teams could inbound at 95%, but unless someone took scouting data for that, we'll have to agree to disagree.

Travis- In our qualification match against you guys, I was genuinely surprised to see you playing D on us. We were not expecting a solid scoring robot like yourselves, to not focus completely on scoring. Kudos on a match well played.


Dan explained a bit why we chose the strategy we did in Indiana, but I'll just elaborate a bit more. We went into IRI with a brand new set of drivers, and a well tuned robot. We made several tweaks, and knew we'd have a lot of options for strategy when we got to IRI. We feed a lot because knew it was our best chance at contributing to the WINNING IRI alliance. While we are capable of scoring 10+ balls/match in optimal conditions, we simply are not as fast as many of the other bots that were in Indiana. We knew that the winning alliance in Indiana would feature 2 primo scoring machines and 1 support style robot. Knowing we would most likely not be able to put up the numbers to be one of the 2 scoring machines on the winning alliance, we focused on the support style of play. Extreme backspin on the shooter, smart play, effective balancing and consistent hybrid all helped make a solid feeding machine.



As for who is the best feeder? It is not us. 16 owns that honor by a wide margin. Extremely well driven, extremely agile. Better pickup, ability to become "wide" on the ramp. The Bomb Squad was the best feeder bot this year, hands down.

-Brando

[Siri]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

Every match? I think we had plenty of ammo.

Please excuse the detour for a stupid question: why didn't they just cross the blue bridge?