Predictions Week 7: Shootouts in Michigan and Philadelphia

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Looking Forward

If there's a "wild card" in Philadelphia this weekend, it will be 1370. The most accomplished "physical" defensive machine in the region, Thermogenesis reached the finals at both of their districts (including a win at Rutgers) and were instrumental in shutting down 25 and 1089 at Lenape. But they don't provide any autonomous scoring, including feeding balls to their partners, and haven't demonstrated the ability to pass balls forwards across the barrier. They can shut down most fender scoring machines, but MAR has a greater tendency to shoot from the key than most other areas. They have the potential to change the outcomes of elimination matches in the right match-up, but they could miss eliminations entirely in favor of other, more flexible, defensive machines like 816 or 3974.

This is something interesting that I've noticed that separates MAR from other areas, along with the lack of a triple balance. Most webcasts, I've seen so many teams shooting from right in front of the fender, as if it was the complete norm. In MAR, you see few teams shooting at the fender; those that do are mainly the dedicated 2nd-basket dumper bots. It'll be interesting to see if anyone's added some 3rd basket fender functionality this weekend and if that has an impact.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by stevend1994

This is something interesting that I've noticed that separates MAR from other areas, along with the lack of a triple balance. Most webcasts, I've seen so many teams shooting from right in front of the fender, as if it was the complete norm. In MAR, you see few teams shooting at the fender; those that do are mainly the dedicated 2nd-basket dumper bots. It'll be interesting to see if anyone's added some 3rd basket fender functionality this weekend and if that has an impact.

There are also barely any wide robots in MAR. Our team felt stupid for not following 341's advice from our talks early on in the build season -__-

[CalTran]

Looks like Michigan State Championship will be, like always, a pretty stacked championship. Though, this, as well, is the first year they will have competition for attention, but MAR looks to give quite the fight for my attention simply because of the time zone and elims starting earlier. I must say that, simply by reputation, I've been paying more attention to Michigan rather than MAR. It will be quite interesting to watch the battles in Ypsilanti between HOT, 469, and 33. I'll also be on the look out for 217, as well as my favorite, 2337.

[nikeairmancurry]

Originally Posted by CalTran

Looks like Michigan State Championship will be, like always, a pretty stacked championship. Though, this, as well, is the first year they will have competition for attention, but MAR looks to give quite the fight for my attention simply because of the time zone and elims starting earlier. I must say that, simply by reputation, I've been paying more attention to Michigan rather than MAR. It will be quite interesting to watch the battles in Ypsilanti between HOT, 469, and 33. I'll also be on the look out for 217, as well as my favorite, 2337.

As the schudules look MSC is starting and finishing before MAR and they are in the same time zone.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

There are also barely any wide robots in MAR. Our team felt stupid for not following 341's advice from our talks early on in the build season -__-

We sent a whole week debating that issue, and narrow won, to my chagrin.

Great analysis, very interesting reading, especially for the FiM stuff which held little interest for me in the past...

[JB987]

Team 25 is a narrow bot and they didn't seem to have any problems working with their two partners on the bridge...and there have been many examples of "narrow" bot successes with triples this season