INsight: Tippecanoe

[INsight]

Top Contenders:

• 868

  The Techhounds are a perennial contender in the state of Indiana and have a low bar capable, 8-wheeled drive train with an actuated intake and wheeled high goal shooter. This year, they have decided to return to a familiar event, going out of district for the Queen City Regional event in week 5.

• 1024

  For the first time in years, Kil-A-Bytes have actually built a short robot. They’ve been slowly revealing the robot on their Twitter account (@FRC1024) and appear ready to compete this weekend. They are one of 4 Triple-players in the state of Indiana (Attending all 3 district events), which will give them plenty of chances to prove themselves as a top team in the state.

• 1501

  THRUST is one of 3 Indiana teams that participated at the first NC district event at Guilford. They’re in the low-bar challenged group of robots, a rare-breed of robot this year, but they are more than capable of being a scoring threat. They prefer to stay in courtyard can score auto high during autonomous, but can switch to low goal if needed and at a moment’s notice. They quickly adapted to changing conditions and their future looks bright moving into Indiana district play.

• 1747

  Harrison Boiler Robotics revealed their robot as a high goal shooter with a solid, tread drivetrain. They demonstrated a very repeatable autonomous, high-goal scoring in their reveal and at a local week 0 scrimmage. We’ll see if their eats, shoots, and leaves technique will last through three district events in the state.

Up-and-Coming Teams:

• 135

  The Black Knights are coming off of strong showings over the past 2 seasons, can they make it three?

• 4272

  The team out of McCutcheon High School are bullish on doing some damage and continuing to gain notoriety with their fellow Tippecanoe County teams. They demonstrated a good firm grip on the boulders and that they are a quality high and low goal scorer. Defense crossings are no problem for these mavericks.

• 5188

  This alien team participated at NC-Guilford, where they attempted hanging and worked to improve their robot throughout the competition. They will hope to have their bugs worked out in time for this weekends competition.

• 5403

  Aluminosity is a low-goal specialist robot that will look to establish themselves after an impressive rookie season. How will they follow up their All-Star rookie season; will they hit the sophomore slump?

Hiding-in-the-Corn (Sleepers/Darkhorse picks):

• 45

  The Legendary TechnoKats utilized the expertise gained from watching the Robot in 3 Days - Team Indiana and built a robot that expanded upon it. Can they find success with the design?

• 447

  Team Roboto always seems to be a darkhorse and sleeper team. Will they be sneaky good and fly in under the radar again?

• 829

  The Digital Goats: always good for a joke about moats and boats and whatnot. Their kit wheels make crossings particularly rough, but will most likely prove to be very capable defense busters with only 14 wheels.

• 1741

  Red Alert fields a robot with a strong drivetrain and will look to a potentially dangerous team with practice.

• 3940

  The Cybertooth team will be fielding another clean and attractive robot. Can they back it up with a clean performance?

Ol’ Reliables:

• 292

• 461

• 3147

Strategy discussion / INsight:

• No rookies at the event, no excuses for these veterans.

• Will Indiana teams spend time attempting multiple high goal shots or will teams value low goal scoring to save time?

• Will Indiana teams focus on scoring boulders first or will teams focus on defenses and clean up boulders as an end game?

• Will we see Indiana teams ditch breaching to park on batter / challenge tower, valuing attempts to win over the guaranteed ranking points (RPs)?

• How much alliance coordination will we see during attacks on the Drawbridge/Sally Port? Coordination makes destroying the defense easy, but requires exceptional teamwork. Will Indiana teams be able to work together well enough or will the defenses defeat the teams?

• Indiana teams get the benefit of playing two weeks in. What role will the new low bar, Cheval de Frise changes play on their designs or will they adapt?

• Indiana teams are a savvy bunch. Will they cherish their RPs and focus on offense? Or will we see more teams play defense during Qualification rounds? Or will we see a hybrid of strategies?

We can’t wait to see how these teams do this weekend storming the castle. Good luck to all teams competing this weekend!

[Peyton Yeung]

It's interesting how many Looking Forward like accounts and threads are going around this season. Hopefully this weekend proves to a high action event. Many of the teams going have showcased high goal scoring machines and it will be interesting to see if they are utilized in matches.

1501 with a finalist performance in NC looks like a fairly certain contender for going deep into the playoffs. They looked like they had some aiming issues in Guillford but I assume they have already taken care of that.

1747 seems like a relative favorite going into the weekend with their ability to breach the defenses with ease and take down the tower almost single handed.

With the Michigan teams(68, 1701, and 3357) coming and so few spots to Worlds (9) it'll be a fight to see who ends up on top. This may lead to an interesting strategy where a Michigan team is selected over a comparable Indiana team to remove some of the district points from the system. With three spots up for grabs based on points (9 total - 3 state winners - 1 state chairman's - 1 state EI - 1 rookie = 3 spots) we may see some interesting decisions made.

[carpedav000]

That's funny, I could've almost sworn that 1024 would've capitalized on their familiarity with tall robots. Especially this year. I'm curious, anyone on 1024 care to explain this decision?

[TylerS]

We can't wait to compete this weekend. We have some exciting changes we've been working on since the robot was last seen.

[carpedav000]

Originally Posted by TylerS

We can't wait to compete this weekend. We have some exciting changes we've been working on since the robot was last seen.

Oh god have mercy on our souls... Mind sharing?

Good luck this weekend, HBR!

[Metonym]

Originally Posted by carpedav000

Oh god have mercy on our souls... Mind sharing?

Good luck this weekend, HBR!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ-uV72pQKI

[BoilerMentor]

Originally Posted by Metonym

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ-uV72pQKI

Nailed it. We added. Pure. Imagination.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by BoilerMentor

Nailed it. We added. Pure. Imagination.

Some things never change, do they?

See you all tomorrow!

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by BoilerMentor

Nailed it. We added. Pure. Imagination.

...but what does it taste like?