3-team offense

[TEE]

Just curious: have there been any alliances with 3 robots scoring tubes yet? If not, is there a reason, aside from not being able to get an alliance with 3 capable robots, why there haven't?

[Dr Theta]

Once you get into the scoring zone there isn't a whole lot of room to move around with three robots, it is ultimately more efficient to have two scoring and the third doing something else productive such as playing defense or herding tubes closer to the scorers. That being said I see room for a change in strategy when we get to Championships where almost all alliances will be able to score efficiently from the floor. When it gets to elimination rounds it has already been demonstrated that top teams may resort to lane feeding. If this situation arises a third scorer may fit into the cycle between feeding and scoring allowing it to be a more efficient strategy than it currently is. I still think that most alliances will be composed of two scorers and one defensive bot.

[BX MARK]

I was thinking about this the other day. Maybe, if you had some kind of rotation where two robots score while the other one is on the opposite end of the field taking the opponents tubes. That robot then goes and scores while another one rotates to the other end of the field. Three robots scoring at once just gets really crowded.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by BX MARK

I was thinking about this the other day. Maybe, if you had some kind of rotation where two robots score while the other one is on the opposite end of the field taking the opponents tubes. That robot then goes and scores while another one rotates to the other end of the field. Three robots scoring at once just gets really crowded.

This is not unheard of. We did it more than once at FLR, though the off-rotation robot rarely strayed past midfield. (Not so hot on active defense then, but average scoring tempo was slower.)

I consider it a trade-off in scoring speed. If 1-2 or even 3 robots are slow enough at pickup (even with a feeder bot), your coaches are really in tune, and/or you're playing tube-scarce, it may well work. If you've got faster scorers and/or need to play defense, 2's usually the way to go. There's also the "feed us, but score if you get a shot" method, which was what we usually did if coaches were in tune enough to stay out of each other's way.

I don't expect to see many 3-offense alliances, at least not that play that way the whole match. There certainly are some, though, and we might see a few victorious underdogs yet with it. All I'll recommend is: communicate with your coaches.

[GCentola]

FLR: 217, 340, 1126. Although it was only a qualifying match, the three of us were good scoring robots.

[BrendanB]

GSR regional winners 175, 176, and 1519 all scored during their eliminations all the way to a win.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

GSR regional winners 175, 176, and 1519 all scored during their eliminations all the way to a win.

As did their opponents in the finals (131,40, and 20)

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

As did their opponents in the finals (131,40, and 20)

They did in a few rounds. Mostly 20 was used to move tubes up the field/play some interference in the middle.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by GCentola

FLR: 217, 340, 1126. Although it was only a qualifying match, the three of us were good scoring robots.

One of the cooler "when your coaches can do it" demonstrations. Awesome strategy and epically executed. Can't find a video of it, but FLR Match 47. 122-19 (no surprise there).

[Jeffy]

Absolutely!
Contrary to what has been said above, I think this is the way to go if you can get three quick scorers.
If you have an extra robot hanging tubes, each robot can traverse longer each trip to offset the time and as a result, you throw less tubes and steal more opponent tubes. IF you steal enough tubes, it can severely limit the opposing alliance. In this case: The best defense may be an offense that is precise and stealthy in its tube usage.

Also, if the robots can score quickly, they will only be in each others way for a small amount of time.

PLUS:
Contrary to popular belief, three robots do fit in the scoring zone, as long as they are not trying to score on the same peg.

[GCentola]

Originally Posted by Siri

One of the cooler "when your coaches can do it" demonstrations. Awesome strategy and epically executed. Can't find a video of it, but FLR Match 47. 122-19 (no surprise there).

Thank you. So yes, it is possible, and can work out well, providing the effort is well coordinated. At FLR, there were times when robots not meant to score (and on our own allaince) got in the way of the scoring robots.

It would appear that the key to any successful match is knowing where your partners are and working together. But this probably holds true for any game....except maybe Lunacy

[Cheerleader1073]

There's definitely been matches with three very well-scoring teams, but we found in our very first time experiencing this at our first regional that it just doesn't work. People get in the way if there's no coach-to-coach communication and help from the analyst. We found that if it's close to evenly matched teams, the one with the best drive system for this and a reliable minibot (but mostly the right drive train) should stay within the box formed by the four towers to defend actively without getting yellow-carded or even red-carded. Worked really well for teams from what we saw! Anyone going to the Championship with their robot, that box is a really good tip to know. Also, at the end, whichever one robot is not deploying while the other two are should go score more tubes! People seemed to forget that they could when they were primarily defensive in these scenarios and just stayed in the middle of the field.

Good luck everyone! I'll be at Championships as a volunteer .

[B-Bot]

Three robot offense work. I have seen it in both the Washington and Chesapeake regional's. Although do not attempt a three robot offense unless you talk to your other alliances and create a strategy.

[Jon Stratis]

As we found out this past weekend at North Star... a good defensive robot can really change the outcome of a match. We would not have won our last match at North Star without some great defensive play.

[nikeairmancurry]

Originally Posted by TEE

Just curious: have there been any alliances with 3 robots scoring tubes yet? If not, is there a reason, aside from not being able to get an alliance with 3 capable robots, why there haven't?

We had a match in elims at Liviona where 326/1250/818 all scored a tube within a 10 second mark