Sacramento Regional 2012

Originally Posted by KevinGoneNuts

I think what will be interesting this year is Sacramento is mostly a defensive competition, and it's very difficult this year to play defense. I think this year SAC may have outcomes that no one will expect...

SAC usually is a defensive regional, however a lot of powerhouse teams from SVR will be going this year. The team im looking out for is 971. I have a feeling the defensive SAC veterans won't stand a chance against the unmatched power of NorCal.

[KevinGoneNuts]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

SAC usually is a defensive regional, however a lot of powerhouse teams from SVR will be going this year. The team im looking out for is 971. I have a feeling the defensive SAC veterans won't stand a chance against the unmatched power of NorCal.

Well true, but a lot of defensive teams have switched to offense this year. It will just be a whole new ball game this year.

Originally Posted by KevinGoneNuts

Well true, but a lot of defensive teams have switched to offense this year. It will just be a whole new ball game this year.

Lol. It is, as you say, a whole new ball game this year. I've never quite seen a ball game like Rebound Rumble (Aim high is close, but never scoring in horizontal hoops).

And you bring up another interesting point; The teams who normally play defense will be playing offense this year, some of them for their first time. Will the new offensive teams be able to keep up with the veteran offensive teams?

Only time will tell. 4 days until SAC. You ready?

[Michael Corsetto]

Sacramento isn't a "defensive" regional as much as it is a "can't-play-offense-ive" regional. The average scores over the years speak for themselves, it's not like all those teams go into the competition intending to play defense. I expect a few teams to do well, but scores will be below average compared to other regionals.

-Mike

[KevinGoneNuts]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

Sacramento isn't a "defensive" regional as much as it is a "can't-play-offense-ive" regional. The average scores over the years speak for themselves, it's not like all those teams go into the competition intending to play defense. I expect a few teams to do well, but scores will be below average compared to other regionals.

-Mike

I would actually have to agree. For many teams this is their first regional so they use it to practice and make sure everything is working. That is why scores are normally so low. But from what I have noticed, there are a lot of teams this year that are stepping up their game, and I think scores may be a bit higher than in previous years.

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

Sacramento isn't a "defensive" regional as much as it is a "can't-play-offense-ive" regional. The average scores over the years speak for themselves, it's not like all those teams go into the competition intending to play defense. I expect a few teams to do well, but scores will be below average compared to other regionals.

-Mike

^This.

Not to sound rude, but SAC has never been a strong regional. Not to say there aren't strong teams there, but that there are a few decent teams, maybe one or two strong teams, and a bunch of average-class teams. In order to succeed as an average-class team in this regional, all you need to do is prevent one of the stronger teams from scoring, and you'll be chosen to be on the winning alliance. Because of this factor, many of the teams there focus more on becoming better year after year at defense, rather than becoming strong offensive bots. Therefore, when the teams from offensive SVR come this year, there will be a huge upset. Most of the standard defense used in this regional from previous years won't work against the offense-heavy SVR teams, and the average teams will be blown out of the water.

I hate to say it, but it's true. A team gets better by competing with teams better than them, and in an environment where A) there aren't too many strong teams, and B) it doesn't take much to defend against the few strong teams, the average-class teams don't get any better.

Maybe a little NorCal power is what the SAC regional needs to become the offensive regional it's destined to be.

[DampRobot]

I agree that Davis is defensive not because of choice, but because of necessity. Our team (somehow) got chosen for eliminations despite the fact that our manipulator was broken, and ended up playing defense.

Given that I'm fairly new to FRC, is this defensive trend true for all early regional? Or is it just the unique dynamics of Davis? As stated above, there are few "powerhouse" teams, but it seems to me that this would be advantageous to mediocre offensive teams scoring, not resorting to defense.

Originally Posted by DampRobot

I agree that Davis is defensive not because of choice, but because of necessity. Our team (somehow) got chosen for eliminations despite the fact that our manipulator was broken, and ended up playing defense.

Given that I'm fairly new to FRC, is this defensive trend true for all early regional? Or is it just the unique dynamics of Davis? As stated above, there are few "powerhouse" teams, but it seems to me that this would be advantageous to mediocre offensive teams scoring, not resorting to defense.

Like I said above, SAC is a regional where you don't need to be a good scorer to succeed. Unfortunately, it's one of the only regionals like that. Because of the lack of strong scorers, team's have gotten into a trend of trying to be the best defensive robots at the regional, often making their goals be more oriented towards "making alliance xxxx score 1/2 of their normal score", instead of having goals of "scoring xxxx points". If you compare a team who can score well vs. a team who defends well, generally the scoring robot will be put into higher regard. If you put the same two robots in Sacramento, the defensive robot will be put into higher regard, since it seems a stronger defense has become more important than offense.

Is it the best option to make the new and surrounding teams stronger? No. Is it a bad idea? Maybe, maybe not. Look at it this way: How many teams have you seen who regularly go to Sacramento, a defense-heavy regional, make it to the finals of a championship division, or even Einstein, compared to the amount of teams that make it from offensive-strong regionals like SVR?

Good defense is always nice to have, but isn't worth it if what you're defending against isn't that strong in the first place. That's Sacramento in a sentence.

Let's see that change this year (971 is going to win it all, I'm calling it).

[KevinGoneNuts]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

Let's see that change this year (971 is going to win it all, I'm calling it).

Here is who I predict will be top 8.

1. 971
2. 1323
3. 100
4. 1868
5. 1671
6. 1678
7. 604
8. 115

971 will most likely choose 1868 because they have worked with each other in the past and they have the ability to practice with each other frequently because they are so close. 1323 has a history of declining to join the 1st seed and go for their own alliance so I could see 1323 going with 100

Originally Posted by KevinGoneNuts

Here is who I predict will be top 8.

1. 971
2. 1323
3. 100
4. 1868
5. 1671
6. 1678
7. 604
8. 115

971 will most likely choose 1868 because they have worked with each other in the past and they have the ability to practice with each other frequently because they are so close. 1323 has a history of declining to join the 1st seed and go for their own alliance so I could see 1323 going with 100

What? No 4159? Though 604 hasn't released their robot yet (come on Quixilver!), we can assume they'll get pretty high in the rankings. I've seen 115's robot, and it's pretty good as well. I don't know too much about 1671 and 1678. From the little I've seen/heard, 1868 will have a good robot, as always, though not as good as 971. Wildhats have a good robot this year, though they don't seem too good at scoring in their video, but that could (and most likely will) change at the event. 1323 is always good, but it looks like we'll be relying on RC to give out the info we're all looking for. Having collaborated with a championship winning team last year must mean they have something up their sleeves this year (maybe ANOTHER championship winning team *cough*254*cough*). 971 is going to beast up the competition, and I know this as a fact even though they haven't shown anything yet!

The only thing I see about this regional (and most other regionals) is that the majority of the robot designs are going to be the same. That's going to leave it up to a strong strategy to win the regional, and while those top 8 teams are very strong teams, it'll be the alliance with the most beneficial variation on design and strategy that will beat the rest.


On another topic, will we see any triple balances in SAC? I know a lot of powerhouse teams are going long this year, and though that doesn't mean it can't happen, it's going to be very unlikely.

[Steven Sigley]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

On another topic, will we see any triple balances in SAC? I know a lot of powerhouse teams are going long this year, and though that doesn't mean it can't happen, it's going to be very unlikely.

If we can get this working properly my vote is for yes.

[KevinGoneNuts]

I hope we get to see that in action! Very original idea!

ONE MORE DAY EVERYONE! Who is excited?!

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

On another topic, will we see any triple balances in SAC? I know a lot of powerhouse teams are going long this year, and though that doesn't mean it can't happen, it's going to be very unlikely.

The more relevant picture is from Waterford finals, where three long (or close to long) robots did it in an actual match.

971 is very excited to be returning to Davis for our second time (the only other time was in 2003).

Does anyone know if there will be a webcast? I'd really love to see my team play...

[AdamHeard]

San Diego 2011 had four Einstein teams and two champions. Only on two alliances for both as well, 987 and 254 just swapped partners.

[115inventorsam]

Originally Posted by Nuttyman54

Does anyone know if there will be a webcast? I'd really love to see my team play...

Looks like NASA will pick up the webcast again this year. Looking forward to it!