Scouting at the championship

[Rebellion2638]

I am not doubting our team's ability, but a few of us on our team don't think our robot has the capability to be a alliance captain. What's all of your opinions about scouting in this situation?

I think it may be a waste of time and I know if somehow we are in the top 10 we can find some data though another teams published data.

[Shu]

My opinion is that scouting is still important to developing your strategy for qualification matches even if you don't think you will be in position to be an alliance captain.

[Rebellion2638]

One of our mentors suggested that we scout only team that are in our future matches. We will probably just do that and find data elsewhere if we potentially become an alliance captain.

[ErikEdhlund]

If you are capable of it, always scout. Even if you are not in a picking position you might be picked up by someone else and your data might have information that there's does not. In my experience, having more information and different perspectives is very helpful and a valuable experience at competitions.

[EricH]

This is my opinion on scouting in general, but particularly at Championship:

Scout every team in every match until either they are eliminated or you are. During eliminations, scout alliances (at Championship, try to scout the elims for other divisions if you're still playing).

You never know when you'll uncover a weakness or strength that your alliance can use.


If you don't think your robot has the capability to be an alliance captain, let me put it this way: Only 8 teams out of every hundred will be alliance captains. And with the caliber of teams at Championship, it could be any team in the division. Another 16 will join them; 8 will remain available as backups. 32% of the teams in any division will be or could be in eliminations. And any one of those could be YOU. If you aren't ready, you will be eliminated. If you are ready, you greatly increase your chances of winning.

[Chadfrom308]

How bad is scouting? Our form is simple, you scan a QR code, favorite the website, and fill out like boxes, one of them being the team number and match number, then it is Autonomous, Teleop, and Hanging. Then the last question is if they played defense or not. That's it!

We use a Google Form made in Google Drive/Docs. Then it is automatically imported to a Google Spreadsheet where there are graphs and interfaces that make it simple to look up data

And still people have a hard time scouting on my team...

But if anybody wants to know how to make the spreadsheet and form, just email me, I like to help people
wlw.warrior35@gmail.com

[Eagleeyedan]

It's always beneficial to scout. Even if you don't foresee being a picker, going into even qualification matches knowing what your opponents do and what your partners do, it can give that slight edge and if it wins a match, that's better than losing it is it not?

Also, during qualifications, if you are allied with a team who ends up as a picker and you are able to show them during that quals. match that you know what you are doing, if there's a tie in their data between teams, it can bump you up to the position of being picked versus almost being picked.

When you are picked, it is always great to assist your alliance by being able to contribute in the third pick, if you are third pick yourself, you can still go into your matches all the more knowledgeable. Don't rely on your partners to give you all the scouting data they think you need. If you can add to the strategy conversation, you will be a much more valuable addition to the alliance and have a better shot at winning.

In other words, you should probably scout. A word of wisdom though, scouting does you no good unless you relay that information to your drive team. You can have the best data in the world but never use it unless you designate someone to give it to the people who need it.

[2789_DrT]

Originally Posted by Eagleeyedan

In other words, you should probably scout. A word of wisdom though, scouting does you no good unless you relay that information to your drive team. You can have the best data in the world but never use it unless you designate someone to give it to the people who need it.

Scouting to give your drive team an edge is pretty huge. We've valued scouting for several seasons and have worked very hard to improve it year by year and from competition to competition. I've been fortunate enough to see all the revisions and see their impact on our team's performance. One of the biggest improvements we've made was incorporating processes and elements to our scouting system that get data to our drive team that they can easily understand and use to strategize effectively in qual and elim matches. Our drive team knows how the robots in their alliance and their opposing alliance like to score and like to drive prior to all their matches. I really believe that having that knowledge has had a positive effect on their performance. Towards the end of our regular competition season, sometimes I felt like they were playing like they could read the minds of their opponents. It sometimes looks like crazy voodoo from the stands - but it's not magic. It's just good driving, good teamwork, and good data.

[joelg236]

Generally, why the heck not do it? It's a great activity to keep people interested in robots, and gets them involved.

Plus it gives your team scouting experience for the coming years, in which you might end up being a picking team.

And it's not impossible for you to be picking. There's always that chance. You want to have the best possible pick when you end up there, and not scouting could destroy your chances in elims.

[MARS_James]

Originally Posted by Rebellion2638

I am not doubting our team's ability, but a few of us on our team don't think our robot has the capability to be a alliance captain. What's all of your opinions about scouting in this situation?

I think it may be a waste of time and I know if somehow we are in the top 10 we can find some data though another teams published data.

Back in 2008 my team thought the same and I argued against it to the point of scouting my entire division by myself and let me tell you the experience I gained was immeasurable, seeing all these different bots and strategies even in a game like Overdrive was worth it and being able to show data of what top tier teams were capable showed me through scaling what to expect for the next few years.

So to summarize even if you will not be in a position to pick (or even be picked) I can not stress the importance of this. Also if you do get picked wouldn't it be bad to be in an alliance with 3 teams who didn't scout themselves and relied on other teams data when it came time to strategize?

[GarroH]

You really should scout in regardless of whether you think you can be an alliance captain or not. If you happen to get lucky and become an alliance captain without scouting, you're in pretty big trouble.

Also, if you were to get selected, you would have no data to offer your new alliance partners.

I would recommend doing some kind of scouting, maybe partnering with another team to make it easier on your scouting team.