Minibot Strategy & Etiquette

[ToddF]

All three robots go for the towers. At least one will get slowed down by a defender. The first two robots to the towers have priority. One of the towers will have a primary and a backup minibot. The primary bot launches their minibot and gets out of the way. If there is a problem with deployment, or if the tower doesn't trigger, the backup robot launches their minibot.

Though I expect the robots at the finals to be a class above those at the regionals, I'll bet there will still be plenty of deployment problems and non-triggering towers.

Hopefully, the backup robot doesn't damage the primary robot's minibot. But, hey, that's why we all have spare minibots, right? I'd say winning the match is worth damaging a minibot. And if your minibot works properly, it won't be at risk.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by ToddF

All three robots go for the towers. At least one will get slowed down by a defender. The first two robots to the towers have priority. One of the towers will have a primary and a backup minibot. The primary bot launches their minibot and gets out of the way. If there is a problem with deployment, or if the tower doesn't trigger, the backup robot launches their minibot.

Though I expect the robots at the finals to be a class above those at the regionals, I'll bet there will still be plenty of deployment problems and non-triggering towers.

Hopefully, the backup robot doesn't damage the primary robot's minibot. But, hey, that's why we all have spare minibots, right? I'd say winning the match is worth damaging a minibot. And if your minibot works properly, it won't be at risk.

This can work for deployment systems that don't need alignment before deploying, but there's going to be a fair number of systems that align first, then fire the minibot at 10 seconds. I'm doubting there's many combinations where both systems can be aligned.

I haven't coached this year (yet), but the alliance needs to be clear on whether it wants to win, or to show off for individual teams. Ultimately, you can't force a team to do anything, so everyone needs to be working towards the same goal. Once everyone's on the same page, then you can decide what combination of minibots reaches that goal.

So I'm basically with Lucas, with the addition that the alliance needs to agree on which of those options it wants to pursue.