Battle of the Middle Bridge

Originally Posted by Wayne TenBrink

The challenge is getting there asap without driving full speed into a raised bridge...

So that brings up a good question: Which is more important? Scoring the balls you have in hybrid, or getting the balls off the bridges onto your side.

To quote my favorite announcer: Let's do the math:

In hybrid mode, each robot starts off with two balls, and there are two balls on each bridge, assuming all 6 robots use both of their allotted balls.

The score in hybrid mode is (normal_score + 3), so each ball is potentially worth 6 points. That's 36 points if all 3 robots score both of their balls in the top hoop during hybrid, which will require some coordination, meaning there will be a first robot, a middle one, and a last one, most likely shooting in the end of hybrid.

If you use hybrid mode to get all balls off the bridges and onto your side (one bridge per each robot on the alliance), than you will have 12 balls on your side, a little more than each robot can handle. If all 12 of those make it to the top basket, it's worth 36 points.

So in the scenario of going for the bridge vs. going for the points, both will give you 36 points.

Now let's mix it up a little. Say you have all 3 robots taking turns shooting in hybrid, but the first robot goes for a bridge once it's done. That's the 36 points of hybrid from all 6 balls, and +6 points for the two balls that were on the bridge, assuming they were scored in teleop, giving an almost instant score of 42 points.

New scenario: The same thing is done, but with the 2nd robot also going to a bridge. By this time, the first robot probably got the balls off of its bridge down, and the 3rd robot is getting ready to shoot. There are only two bridges left, and chances are your opponents will be going for a bridge as well. IF your second robot gets the balls onto your side, that's another +6 points for your alliance, getting you to a score of 48 points, 12 points above your opponents.

In conclusion, the balls on the bridge will only improve your score if you can gather them AND have all 6 robots on your alliance score in hybrid mode.

Just something to think about when doing autonomous strategies.