Scouting in a nutshell?

[wilhitern1]

Originally Posted by Tyson

in my opinion, the goal of scouting in context of FRC cant be adequately discussed without first explaining the whole Regional Competition 2 day schedule: qualifying rounds, elimination tournament and most crucially important is the alliance selection process which seems pretty unique to FIRST

For newer folks however, you need to know that this is only 1/3 (maybe 1/4...) of the picture. And the last third at that. If you aren't in the say top 15, the above is irrelevant. You won't get to pick anyone... So, You've got to get to the top 15 and you do that with the rest of scouting.

Working backwards: The second third is understanding the balance of forces in any given match. Think football here. Given the players on the other side of the field, what plays are they likely to try to run? What are the best your alliance's best plays? What are your best counters to their plays and what are they likely to counter your plays with. You need to walk into each match fully cognoscente of what to watch for and what to do about it.

Just to add to what someone else said. You can't depend on the other team to correctly evaluate themselves. In a perfect world, I'd have 6 scouts at each match. (1 per team) Looking for what they did well. What they failed to see. Suggesting possible alternatives to their attacks and counters.

So in the second 1/3, I talked about plays. The first 1/3 of scouting actually happens before the regional. Your scouts need to be those who understand most thoroughly what is possible out there on the field. Therefore, they are in the best position to have input on designing plays and counters. They also need to work with the drivers, the strategists, and the coaches to establish near perfect communication. And that all has to happen long before the first match. (In a Perfect World... Oh yeah, never seen one.)

HTH,