How does your team scout?

[IKE]

How we used to scout:
1 very experienced scouting mentor watched all the matches. He had a match schedule and listed teams we played with and againts, and the matches they were in before ours. Before each match, he would assemble his notes on a card that went to our coach to prep them for their next match. Friday night we would discuss what we saw and put together a pick list. This works pretty well if you only have enough help to have 1 dedicated scout. The coach will have good match info, and you will have enough info to make a reasonable pick list (every team needs a pick list 1-24). Every team needs to make a pick list Friday night even if you are not in the top 8, because you may get picked by a team that does not have a pick list.

In 2009, the Human player was extremely important. Since we are a team of 30, we had enough students to take stats on the human players. 6 students watched the 6 HPs and 1 student collected and assembled the data. This worked very well, and engaged the students that normally just cheered.

In 2010, we took it a step further. Inspired by teams that did a much better job scouting and thus better finds in their pick-list, we had a scout watch each robot. We had simple to fill out forms that we improved throughout the season. There is a copy of it in the white papers. Students took turns scouting robots, and 2 master scouts prepped the sheets before and after each match. Every team had a sheet with data on 6 of their matches. We also still had the scouting mentor taking notes and preparing match cards. This system was extremely accurate, and was a huge help towards preparing match strategy as last year's ranking system was finding just the right balance to win the match while making sure your opponents continued to score.

For 2011, we are continuing this system. After 1 event, I would say it is working really well. The minibot thing has added a new section to our scouting. Because hanging tubes and deploying minibots are so difficult, we found that our data was less conclusive after around the top 16 teams (of a 40 team district) than it was in 2010. Mostly because there is really only room for 2 robots at the rack, and with teams throwing tubes, finding value for the third partner is a bit tougher than in 2010 where the third had its role in the match.

General notes:
We like paper. We tried electronic databases in the past, but between batteries, people forgetting to save, and expensive laptops going missing... Paper and clipboards work well. Plus you can stand and take notes much easier than typing into a laptop. The 1 team 1 sheet thing is really nice for sorting Friday night to make a pick list. This system requires a minimum of 6-7 students. Ideally you want about 2x that many so that people can substitute in and out. For big teams (20+ students) this is a great way to engage students and have them critically watching the robots. This will pay major dividends during next seasons strategy sessions after game anouncement. The more matches you watch, the more you understand what is possible, what is likely doable, what the talent spread will look like. You will also cringed a little harder every time you read the word PENALTY when going through the game manual.