The History of Cheesecake with Brando. 1/23 8:30pm EST on Candidly Speaking

[Tyler Olds]

Candidly Speaking is back with Karthik and Tyler with our guest Brando from FRC125. Live: 1/23 8:30pm at twitch.tv/firstupdatesnow

This episodes discussion: The History of Cheesecake. We'll take you through the origin, iterations, and potential future of cheesecake on robots.

We will also give you the candid rundown on what we think of this years game Steamworks!

If you have not seen Candidly Speaking yet, this is a PG-13 show. Our hosts and guests do not hold back from being PC or speaking their minds. Check out our first two episodes on your youtube page which covered the 2012 Einstein Hacking Incident.

What specific topics and teams are you most excited to hear about?

[Owen Busler]

Hey look its me! Cant wait for this show!

[bkahl]

You found the right expert.

[frcguy]

Stoked to watch! Gonna put it on the projector in our shop while we work tonight.

[Ben Martin]

I'm very curious if this was happening pre-2011 minibots. I can't think of any examples offhand besides adding ballast.

I'm also curious on how much cheesecaking the panel thinks there will be this year compared to prior years. My guess is we'll see a lot of 1-2 second rope climbers cheesecaked.

[marshall]

I'm curious if you'll be talking about extreme cheesecaking or just regular cheesecaking and if someone can explain the difference to a reasonably astute observer such as myself.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Ben Martin

I'm very curious if this was happening pre-2011 minibots. I can't think of any examples offhand besides adding ballast.

I'm also curious on how much cheesecaking the panel thinks there will be this year compared to prior years. My guess is we'll see a lot of 1-2 second rope climbers cheesecaked.

Ball deflectors in 2010 would be my earliest recollection of cheesecaking.

[MARS_James]

Originally Posted by dodar

Ball deflectors in 2010 would be my earliest recollection of cheesecaking.

Mine is 148's unsuccessful cheesecaking of 118 in 2009

[Lil' Lavery]

I'm curious to see what the panel says, but 2014 and 2015 were really the years where "cheesecaking" became "a thing." There were various isolated incidents before that, mostly regarding ballast or defensive blockers being tacked onto 3rd partners (sometimes at the expense of pre-existing mechanisms). I remember a few stories dating back to 2006 of things like bench vises being tip tied onto lightweight robots to make them better defenders, or defensive robots removing top-heavy shooter mechanisms and replacing them with down-low ballast. And quite a few teams added shot blockers in 2013, but it's hard to know which were "cheesecaked" and which were teams working on their own. Prior to 2015, when teams showed up with pre-made mechanisms for whoever was lucky enough to be their partner, the line between "cheesecaking" and simply working with other teams at events to improve robots was much blurrier.

[Tyler Olds]

We're starting in a few minutes. Hope you can join us!

twitch.tv/firstupdatesnow

[Tyler Olds]

Thank you to everyone that tuned in last night and to Brando for being a fantastic guest! If you want to watch the archive you can check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSbRt9buyyA

We have annotations in the description if you want to skip ahead to certain subjects.

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I'm curious to see what the panel says, but 2014 and 2015 were really the years where "cheesecaking" became "a thing." There were various isolated incidents before that, mostly regarding ballast or defensive blockers being tacked onto 3rd partners (sometimes at the expense of pre-existing mechanisms). I remember a few stories dating back to 2006 of things like bench vises being tip tied onto lightweight robots to make them better defenders, or defensive robots removing top-heavy shooter mechanisms and replacing them with down-low ballast. And quite a few teams added shot blockers in 2013, but it's hard to know which were "cheesecaked" and which were teams working on their own. Prior to 2015, when teams showed up with pre-made mechanisms for whoever was lucky enough to be their partner, the line between "cheesecaking" and simply working with other teams at events to improve robots was much blurrier.

I would say 2013 with full court shooter blockers is the 1st time I can recall widespread "cheesecaking"

[Rangel]

This was a pretty good listen. Thanks for the show!

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

I would say 2013 with full court shooter blockers is the 1st time I can recall widespread "cheesecaking"

How many of those were "cheesecake" vs. teams just building their own blockers? I thought the distinction of "cheesecake" was that other teams brought it to an event with the specific intent of installing it on an alliance parnter(s).

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

How many of those were "cheesecake" vs. teams just building their own blockers? I thought the distinction of "cheesecake" was that other teams brought it to an event with the specific intent of installing it on an alliance parnter(s).

We brought blocker material to both regionals and put them on our 2nd pick both times. I can't speak for other teams though.