Has ramps been a key thing for sucess?

[astephen68]

i am wondering Has ramps been a key thing for success?

[Koko Ed]

I can't see how you can win without a ramp.

[astephen68]

1114 has won a lot of there ramps by just scoring at the waterloo regional. Getting 6 or 7 around usally makes sure of that too!!!!!!

[Rich Ross]

Yes, but how did 1114 play the end of the elimination matches? Oh yeah, they used the ramp. GLR was won with ramps, and almost every great alliance we've seen has at least one robot that can lift at least one partner. Ramps are the key, especially in the eliminations.

[astephen68]

Sometimes but 1114 many scores they only use their ramp if they know they will need the points which is rare because the teams playing defence on them couldn't catch up to them!!!!!!

[Hairygutball]

The key is finding a ramp bot that isnt usless for the rest of the match. 548 lifted alot of bots and they still had a very effictive arm.

[themagic8ball]

Ramps work very effectively in low-scoring affairs. 537 won Wisconsin with a ramp bot (A very good one at that (King Tec)) but we attempted all out offense at Buckeye. It paid off in the first two matches (we won by 100 pts both times) but we ended up being defeated by a ramping alliance in semi's. It all depends how fast you can score on the rack.

[EmilioM]

Ya, we were able to place 2-3 ringers consistently over the course of the qualifying rounds and elimination matches, we would participate out in the field fo the first minute then return to the home zone to deploy our panels then activate the gas spings to lift the panels with about 5 seconds left.

In the elimination rounds, we realized that our aforementioned strategy was way too conservative and decided to return to the home zone with only about 30 seconds left; doing so we could place 3-4 ringers every time.

Still, as i said before, that startegy was still defeated by a very solid alliance of 330 696 and 835 (1216 too) - great job guys.

[Ericgehrken]

In qualifying at UTC about 8/10 matches in qualifying were won on the ramps.

[travis48elite]

Ramps have been very key in this year’s game. No matter how good the tube scoring robot may be their will always be a robot out there playing defense. This changes the accuracy of that robot which is why every alliance needs a ramp robot no matter how good the tube scoring robot may be. Just getting one robot above 4in. can have a dramatic change in the score. Therefore, in my opinion ramps are very key to the success of the game no matter what the odds are.

[Nuttyman54]

It depends on the alliances playing. If they're unmatched to the point where one alliance can get that many more tubes up, ramps mean nothing.

If the alliances are balanced, then it will come down to ramps or a spoiler.

The spoilers are extremely powerful if placed right. I expect to see some alliances in Atlanta choosing to use their last seconds to place a spoiler, rather than get up the ramps.

That said, I think that on Einstein it will come down to ramps, because teams that make it that far will generally have either extremely good scoring ability, or amazing defensive capabilities.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I can't see how you can win without a ramp.

The Chesapeake winning alliance scored a total of 0 bonus points. The UTC winning alliance would have won all their matches that they won without any ramp points. The Peachtree winning alliance was rack dominant. The New Jersey winning alliance typically shone when their opponents went back to ramp up, giving them free reign to rack up the rack points (pun intended). It's definitely possible, but I wouldn't advise it.

[Daniel Brim]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I can't see how you can win without a ramp.

Extremely strong offense and very little offensive opposition. As long as the opposing alliance gets 2 on with the other getting 6 (assuming scoring on just one spider for simplicity's sake), ramps still makes it anyone's game. Once 7 and 8 starts getting in the mix, spoilers and ramps are still a potent combination to win, if applicable.

[EmilioM]

Yes. Ramps played a large part in our success at SD. We were able to lift 18 robots in 10 qualifying matches and the times we didnt resulted (because FIRST disabled our alliance partners mid-game) in a loss...

However, with strategic and effective scoring in tandem with tenacious defense a solid 60-point lift can be rendered insignificant.

[Tim Baird]

Originally Posted by Daniel Brim

Extremely strong offense and very little offensive opposition. As long as the opposing alliance gets 2 on with the other getting 6 (assuming scoring on just one spider for simplicity's sake), ramps still makes it anyone's game. Once 7 and 8 starts getting in the mix, spoilers and ramps are still a potent combination to win, if applicable.

I agree. I keep thinking that eventually this game will be like 2005 in Atlanta when nobody touched eachother in the finals. The game came down to who could score the fastest. If this happens this year, it'll come down to who can put up the most ringers first, and then it'll come down to spoiler control. The spoilers will turn into the black balls from 2000, extremely coveted and often held onto until the very last second (watch what we (126) did in fm3 at Nats, ugh). If this is the case, ramp climbing may be unimportant as last minute spoiler manipulation might prove to be key to success.

However, the opposite form of game play may come down to battling it out for 1:40 or so with all three robots trying to score and block eachother simultaneously, resulting in extremely low scores (rows of 2-3, for example). Send your rampbot back at 30 seconds, deploy, and park very quickly in the last few seconds. In this case, an alliance might win strictly on the basis of ramp-climbing.

I'm very anxious to get to Atlanta right now...