[FVC]: Scouting...isn't a bad thing

[Chuck Glick]

One thing I noticed at both regional championships and the Atlanta Championship was a HUGE lack of scouting. I know this can be hard to do with a team of ten, but it can make all the difference when it comes to match play and alliance selection. Knowing what your opponent teams can do and what your parter team can do will help with strategies that can win matches.

So my challenge to ALL vex teams, is to get out there and scout. It can be as simple as what do they do all the way to how well they do it, who they were paired with, and how and why matches went the way they did. Trust me, scouting is a great weapon when it comes to Championship winning teams.

-Chuck
Team 1712 FVC Drive coach

[EricRobodox]

I totally agree. But its still early in Vex's life. So it will improve. I just thought that 4 matches were too little, but there is not much time in Atlanta to improve. I hope that since DaVinci is not used for FRC, Vex can become a 3 day event so teams can get like 6-8 qualificiation matches. A lot of room for flukes to get to the top spots, not saying they did, as well as easily for great teams to get ranked low from poor strategy and many other factors. Once again, Vex is still in developement for a lot of teams. I hope to see more scouting next year. Great job to everyone, winners and winners who didnt get hardware.

[gblake]

Originally Posted by SirCharles982

... I know this can be hard to do with a team of ten ...

I completely agree with the statements about the importance of scouting.

I disagree about the dificulty of doing it with a 10-person (or even with a 3-5 person) team.

It is easy. Park one person near the field and just take notes. I did it viewing the web cast while simultaneously doing more than one other job. That wasn't easy; but it also wasn't hugely difficult. I think I collected quite a bit of good info.

So, my assertion is that useful FVC scouting isn't hard. No team should be afraid to do it. My reccommendation, like SirCharles' is that all FVC teams should have it high on their list of priorities.

Blake