2010 week 1 low scores

[Trevor_Decker]

Is it just me or are the scores lower then you expected?

[Vikesrock]

The scores are very low, but are exactly what I expected.

[RaidJTC]

Yeah, after going to the mini-regional in MN, I figured they'd be around here.

[Thermal]

Out of the first 43 matches at Bayou, an incredible 29 matches ended up with a scoreless team (X-0, 0-X, or 0-0). With a whopping 7 matches going scoreless. (which is just about 1 in 6 matches being a big fat goose egg for both teams)

It's much much lower than I expected. The highest scoring alliances were 9 points (once) and 8 points (once). It seems most matches ended with a sum score between both alliances to be less than 6, which quite honestly is a little bit of a disappointment.

[Joe Johnson]

Where are the Hangers?

The points from Hanging are very very low. I just did an analysis of the Kettering Districts.

There is only 1 hanging robot on average per MATCH. That is right, only 1 robot in 6 is hanging!?!?

Crazy.

Especially when you consider that the average WINNING SCORE is 4.3 and the average losing score is 1.3.

That means that in a typical match 6 robots are scoring 3 goals in 2 minutes and one robot is hanging.

Is it a snooze fest?

Joe J.

[Tarzan19]

Even though the scoring is very low, i was expecting ths low of scores just because teams dont understand the true value of the Coopertition bonuses. Though, this being said, there is no snooze fest going on out there, it is probably the most strategic game in at least 3 years.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

Is it a snooze fest?

Let's hope it just week 1 cobwebs.

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by TomBot

Let's hope it just week 1 cobwebs.

It's the worst I've ever seen it.

Imagine both alliances playing for 2 minutes 15 seconds and not a single robot being able to herd a SINGLE BALL across the scoring line. Not once. It's happening with frightening frequency. Issues I'm seeing:

1. People drastically underestimated the importance of an effective ball magnet.
2. People drastically underestimated the importance of hanging.
3. People clearly do NOT UNDERSTAND the scoring rules and are playing big-time defense, and the teams who DO understand the rules are absolutely running-away score wise.
4. The penalties this year are epic. In one match we saw a bot waved for 12 penalties because their kicker was staying out of package to long - and they continued to kick over and over.

I thought last years game was slow. I stand very, very corrected.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

It's the worst I've ever seen it.

Imagine both alliances playing for 2 minutes 15 seconds and not a single robot being able to herd a SINGLE BALL across the scoring line. Not once. It's happening with frightening frequency. Issues I'm seeing:

1. People drastically underestimated the importance of an effective ball magnet.
2. People drastically underestimated the importance of hanging.
3. People clearly do NOT UNDERSTAND the scoring rules and are playing big-time defense, and the teams who DO understand the rules are absolutely running-away score wise.
4. The penalties this year are epic. In one match we saw a bot waved for 12 penalties because their kicker was staying out of package to long - and they continued to kick over and over.

I thought last years game was slow. I stand very, very corrected.

I don't think teams underestimated hanging. If hanging was a bigger bonus, say 5 points. There would definitely be more hangers. Making a good, reliable kicker that can pump out balls quickly is not worth the sacrifice to hang especially if you can score more than 2 balls in the finale. I don't think it is teams underestimating it, it is just that it isn't worth it.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

I don't think teams underestimated hanging. If hanging was a bigger bonus, say 5 points. There would definitely be more hangers. Making a good, reliable kicker that can pump out balls quickly is not worth the sacrifice to hang especially if you can score more than 2 balls in the finale. I don't think it is teams underestimating it, it is just that it isn't worth it.

I think people overestimated their own kickers when making this tradeoff. Teams never fail to overestimate their own scoring ability.

[BrendanB]

Very, very true Chris!

[Enigma's puzzle]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I think people overestimated their own kickers when making this tradeoff. Teams never fail to overestimate their own scoring ability.

I believe that they did not overestimated there own kickers, but more overestimated their ability to line up kicks and to have the ball in the right position. I'm sure there kickers worked fine in the shop when the ball want rolling away.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Enigma's puzzle

I believe that they did not overestimated there own kickers, but more overestimated their ability to line up kicks and to have the ball in the right position. I'm sure there kickers worked fine in the shop when the ball want rolling away.

To clarify, I think they misjudged how well their ball manipulation assembly would work, in terms of making and maintaining possession, aiming, and firing.

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

I don't think teams underestimated hanging. If hanging was a bigger bonus, say 5 points. There would definitely be more hangers. Making a good, reliable kicker that can pump out balls quickly is not worth the sacrifice to hang especially if you can score more than 2 balls in the finale. I don't think it is teams underestimating it, it is just that it isn't worth it.

So far on webcasts I have seen about 5 robots with the kicker+possession combination good enough that I would make that tradeoff.

2 of those 5 do not have hangers, I know at least 2 of the other 3 do, although I only saw 1 of the 5 successfully use their hanger.

[1986titans]

In KC, we had a few matches today with two robots from the same alliance hanging. A few more individual teams hung, and some came very close.

Teams playing defense may not always be able to cross the bump, so it may not be strategy for them.

Penalties are very costly in this year's game. There was a team today that got down to -4. Yes, it only counts as 0 at the end of the game, but it is a large deficit to get out. There were a lot of matches lost to penalties.

Most robots probably were not sitting by choice. Most were disabled, and a couple of stations seemed to have problems more than others. It's probably just the "week 1 cobwebs," but things seem to be moving a lot smoother than last year.