Simple can win it (almost)

[JamesJones]

I used to think that the finals at FIRST were reserved for the powerhouse teams like Beatty, Wildstang and others that everybody knows are always in the thick of the competition with some awesome robots designed and built from a clean sheet of paper to play that year's competition and do almost everything the game demands (woa what a runon!). I now realize almost everybody has a shot at it.

I don't know if you noticed but basically our robot had 1 function (not counting the ramp we only used once). We grabbed one goal. That's it. We had a drivetrain and a grabber. No 2nd grabber, not ball handler, no extension device, no crabbing drives. We also had a lot of good parners, some superb drivers and a lot of luck. With those essential ingredients we played a regional and National competition and only lost one elimination round (I think you know the one).

I just wanted to encourage all the teams that look at a powerhouse team and think "boy, we could never put together a robot like THAT!" You don't have to. Focus on building the best robot you can with the resources you have. Don't stop improving it until right before the last match of the season. Don't be afraid to give up on something that's not working and rethink your goals.

Good luck next year.

James
Engineer/Coach
Team 180 SPAM

[Quain]

I know that our robot never stopped evolving. It started out with a ball shooter ma bob that nevver realy took off. It didn't work too well so we eliminated it. Then we added in other peices and took off more peices. It evolved into a beast that really wasn't that bad. We only added out little JJ right before Nationals. It was finished being built after our last match @ the Philly regional. And because of it... we did MUCH better in florida. Keep going and don't stop.. just cause one comp is over.. dosn't mean the next won't be great...

[JVN]

Our Robot just grabbed one goal, and with our (1 moving part) spinner we blasted the balls up into it. The simplest harvester bot Ive seen. Those who have seen it in action know how effective it was though, it "almost" won 2 regionals.

I wish we could have gone to Nats. Next year!

~JVN
Clarkson U - Team 229

[sidewinder]

We only had one gripper and a mini robot to get back. AND WE WON IT ALL. Our driver is amazing and so is our simple powerful drive train. Beaty, even with all technical might can be beat, and we beat um in western for the semi finals (2 straight).

At the end of the day, stradgy and driving can win any match.


Every robot has a flaw, and great scouts can find um, SO if ya build simple, then you make alot more work for yourself later. A point can seperate a national champion and a last seeded team. (so train your human players well)

[R Bohannan]

At the end of the day, stradgy and driving can win any match.

I totally agree with this statement. Our robot evolved throughout our one regional and the first two matches of nationals. But there was one match in UTC where we stripped all but four teeth off of the Chiaphua adapter gear (you know, the indestructible one). Our driver was able to crab walk our bot all the way across the field and block our opponent for about 45 seconds. We still lost - but it was pretty amazing.