Best Feeder Bot of 2012

[Gray Adams]

I disagree that 4334 was the second best feeding bot. Whereas bomb squad flew around the field dropping balls over the bump, 4334 simply drove like any other bot can. The lack of a long range shooter really didn't help either. Their ball pickup was very effective, but from what I saw at the IRI elims, they spent a lot of time holding balls in the alley, not feeding them across the field. It seemed like they may have been guarding 4th, 5th, and other balls they couldn't pick up, but I wouldn't consider that feeding, its just defensive play.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by Gray Adams

I disagree that 4334 was the second best feeding bot. Whereas bomb squad flew around the field dropping balls over the bump, 4334 simply drove like any other bot can. The lack of a long range shooter really didn't help either. Their ball pickup was very effective, but from what I saw at the IRI elims, they spent a lot of time holding balls in the alley, not feeding them across the field. It seemed like they may have been guarding 4th, 5th, and other balls they couldn't pick up, but I wouldn't consider that feeding, its just defensive play.

Agreed. 4334 is a good defender of both robots and balls, but it seems to me they don't come close to 207 or 125, etc in throughput (certainly not even approaching 16). Our scouting reflects this, though it's not comprehensive.

That match at IRI that dodar's talking about is a great example. Watching balls constantly shot back and forth across the field was incredible and really only topped by showdowns like the 207 vs 16 on Einstein. I can't think of any matches like that involving 4334? For defense yes, but not really for feeding?

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by Siri

Agreed. 4334 is a good defender of both robots and balls, but it seems to me they don't come close to 207 or 125, etc in throughput (certainly not even approaching 16). Our scouting reflects this, though it's not comprehensive.

That match at IRI that dodar's talking about is a great example. Watching balls constantly shot back and forth across the field was incredible and really only topped by showdowns like the 207 vs 16 on Einstein. I can't think of any matches like that involving 4334? For defense yes, but not really for feeding?

I guess this sort of makes me realize that I've been thinking about regular defense along with feeding. While looking at all of the youtube videos I could of 16 and 4334, I realized, at least feeding wise, 16 is better. On another note, we played against 125 in the Battlecry Finals, and they unfortunately stopped working part of the time. This got me curious about what they could really do, so I found some videos of them in battlecry and watched them in IRI, and they are a very good feeder bot. I also did see 207 and were impressed by them. Notice how 3 of the 4 teams I have mentioned made it to Einstein, which goes to prove a great feeder can really help an alliance.

[JackN]

469

From what I see, there are 3 main feeder bots: 16, 125, and 4334.

16 was very maneuverable, and had a great ball pickup.

125 had a great ball pickup, great strategy, and an excellent shooter.

4334 could pick up balls like no one's business, and fed their alliance to IRI victory.

Here's my opinion:

16, while fast and maneuverable, couldn't send balls over to the other side really quickly. They had to go to the bump/bridge to release the balls, since their catapult, while accurate, was too slow for feeding.

4334 was plagued with the same problems as 16.

125, however, was just amazing. They were quick, agile, and with their amazing drivers and shooter, were able to pick up any ball, and quickly send it over to their alliance side. The reason I choose 125 as the best feeder over 16 and 4334 is because of their consistent and well performed execution of the feeding/starvation strategy. In most every single match 125 was in, you could clearly see the constant stream of balls flying across the field from their shooter to the other side. They were so good at their role, that every match they forced their opponents to venture to the other side of the field to get balls. They even would pick up balls that their opponent's feeders would put on their side and shoot them right back. Because of their excellent execution of feeding, I vote 125 as the best feederbot (so far) of 2012. 256 did pretty good, too...

[Meredith Novak]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

16, while fast and maneuverable, couldn't send balls over to the other side really quickly. They had to go to the bump/bridge to release the balls, since their catapult, while accurate, was too slow for feeding.

16 is perfectly capable of lofting balls quickly to the other side. Delivering them to a certain spot was a much more valuable skill, especially if we were feeding a 3 ball wide intake robot. It was a choice.

Originally Posted by Meredith Novak

16 is perfectly capable of lofting balls quickly to the other side. Delivering them to a certain spot was a much more valuable skill, especially if we were feeding a 3 ball wide intake robot. It was a choice.

I'm sorry if I came off as rude. What I meant was that compared to 16 and 4334, 125 could loft balls at a faster rate to the other side. Your tactical strategy of feeding them to the place you did was smart, and very effective for the partners you had. 125's shooting to a not as specific area was effective for the partners they had.

[Meredith Novak]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

I'm sorry if I came off as rude. What I meant was that compared to 16 and 4334, 125 could loft balls at a faster rate to the other side. Your tactical strategy of feeding them to the place you did was smart, and very effective for the partners you had. 125's shooting to a not as specific area was effective for the partners they had.

Oh, no. I didn't take it as rude at all. Just pointing out that we had a strategy, and didn't "have to" feed over the bump.

Originally Posted by Meredith Novak

Oh, no. I didn't take it as rude at all. Just pointing out that we had a strategy, and didn't "have to" feed over the bump.

(Sorry to keep posting, but I read this and your other post and had a thought in my head I knew I should post)

Every time I see something about 16 (and a few other teams), I have my initial doubts, find some flaws, and in the end learn something I never thought possible, whilst being proven wrong in everything I thought. Thank you, Team 16, for proving me wrong, and helping me learn.

[BrendanB]

When you step back, there is no real comparison between the three robots because they are completely different have a different strength that a certain alliance captain can see as more valuable.

16: Probably the most agile of the three and have a top notch pickup.

4334: Smaller than your average joe making them the easiest to triple with (especially with two other long robots).

125: Human fed and can shot balls from anywhere on the other side of the field eliminating going to the barrier.

Any robot can be a great feeder like 33, 1114, 987, 233, 2056, 118, 148, 254, 341.....

[Hjelstrom]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Any robot can be a great feeder like 33, 1114, 987, 233, 2056, 118, 148, 254, 341.....

I thought so too but in one match in Vegas, we (987) tried to feed and our shooter has so much backspin that the balls would bounce back across the barrier towards us! We couldn't get balls to the other side of the field very well.

One nice thing about 207 was that it could unload balls so fast that 3 balls show up on the same video frame in some cases. They really didn't have to spend any time at all sending the balls across.

[Akash Rastogi]

16.

Their intake and driving allows for the best feeding to a specific targeted area.

[jblay]

I'm a big fan of team 125 especially their robot last year and really their robot almost every year (including the fender bot they had this year), and I really hope this doesn't come off the wrong way because I have a lot of respect for the Nutrons, but I think their feeding strategy at IRI simply exploited flawed scouting. Most good human players could inbound a ball into the offensive zone at a rate above 90%. At IRI almost every alliance had a human player capable of inbounding the balls into their offensive zones at a rate around 95%. A strategy that takes a robot and removes it from other tasks in order to raise that rate to 100% make little sense in terms of winning a match or controlling the balls on the field. My view is that it makes more sense for a robot to pick up balls and put them into their offensive zone and let the inbounders do their job. Now if a team simply scouts how many balls a team puts into their offensive zone, this idea of how many more balls enter their zone as a result of what they are doing may not, and rarely will, be accounted for.

[Ekcrbe]

Originally Posted by jblay

I'm a big fan of team 125 especially their robot last year and really their robot almost every year (including the fender bot they had this year), and I really hope this doesn't come off the wrong way because I have a lot of respect for the Nutrons, but I think their feeding strategy at IRI simply exploited flawed scouting. Most good human players could inbound a ball into the offensive zone at a rate above 90%. At IRI almost every alliance had a human player capable of inbounding the balls into their offensive zones at a rate around 95%. A strategy that takes a robot and removes it from other tasks in order to raise that rate to 100% make little sense in terms of winning a match or controlling the balls on the field. My view is that it makes more sense for a robot to pick up balls and put them into their offensive zone and let the inbounders do their job. Now if a team simply scouts how many balls a team puts into their offensive zone, this idea of how many more balls enter their zone as a result of what they are doing may not, and rarely will, be accounted for.

But, as I said earlier, where the balls go in the offensive zone is quite unappreciated--at least in my opinion. The tendency of inbounders is to put the balls in the opposite corner of the field, 1) in the corner, and 2) in your opponents' lane. Spending time to chase balls down, dig them out, and avoid the defense is time that could be spent shooting. By keeping the balls near the key (their accuracy in doing so was surprising), they are easier to retrieve and less enticing for opponent feeders to return. I'm not just saying this because we picked them, it actually is easier.

As for picking up off the floor, yes, it could have been more effective there.

[akoscielski3]

What I think a lot of you are missing about 16 and 4334 is that when they fed balls, though they had to go to the bump to do this but, all the balls the fed were grouped together. Then their alliance partners could quickly get those 3 balls from them. While 125, though was amazing at feeding to the other side, would launch the balls causing them to bounce everywhere around and they would be all scattered around the field.

Also 125 usually (from the matches i saw) would just grab 3 balls from the human player and shoot them to the other side, rather than picking up balls and shooting them over.

In my honest opinion the best feeder was 16, then 4334. But I would take 4334 over 16 because of the bridge balancing and the great "man on man" defense they can play. Great driving from both teams.