What we learned from week 1

[Saberbot]

Originally Posted by Wing

1.) Scheduling gods exist when there are 65 teams at a regional.
2) Being a consistent shooter is something that's not being seen much, but a lot of teams can do it if they use their resources wisely.
3) Defense is not being played, but when it is, there is a severe impact on an alliance's offense when.
4) A 50 point dumper is not enough to offset an alliance with 2 good scorers that have 10 point hangs.

Some of the more controversial stuff:

4) Referees are NOT calling the 10 point hang properly. I have videos of this, but in our Quarterfinals match 1-2 Team 1772 was not hung up properly, but they got the points, which ended up being the deciding factor and sending our quarterfinals to a 3rd match.

5) G30 exists, referees. Referees are not calling G30, and it's been affecting outcomes of matches! Our Quarterfinals match 1-3, 1772 infracted G30 5 different times, yet it was not called once. We tied that match 70-70, but because the referees instead called us for our human player putting a foot outside of the white line, we ended up losing 70-71, despite numerous infractions of G30 by 1772.

I understand the referees can't see everything, but 5 blatant infractions of G30 shouldn't go unnoticed, and everytime a climb is suspicious, DO THE PAPER TEST!

The toughest thing I had to do this afternoon was to help keep the students calm and explain to them the situation and about us getting unlucky. Toughest thing I have had to say.

I'll post another thread about this issue with some videos to make sure that any referees on CD can be prepared.

Did you ever send anybody to the question box?

[Anupam Goli]

Originally Posted by Saberbot

Did you ever send anybody to the question box?

We did. but before we could debate the climb and the foul points, the fms was finalized in both matches. Perhaps another lesson we learned was to speed walk to the question box as soon as the match is over.

[ttldomination]

Did anyone else notice that the text on the event display is clear? Like, the team number, scores, and the timers are clear so that your see the feed through them?

IMO, it makes the numbers harder to read. Completely unnecessary change.

- Sunny G.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

Did anyone else notice that the text on the event display is clear? Like, the team number, scores, and the timers are clear so that your see the feed through them?

IMO, it makes the numbers harder to read. Completely unnecessary change.

- Sunny G.

Seen this before. Someone screwed up the chroma key setting so the chroma key on the scoring overlay was black instead of green. So then when you're chroma keying the overlay, it keys out everything black on the screen...

Originally Posted by Rangel(kf7fdb)

I think you mean 862 At least I don't remember winning Kettering.

Or having a simple fixed angle shooter and passive hanger for that matter.

[F22Rapture]

We drove down to Palmetto to watch, and it seemed to me as though fouls were not being called nearly as often as they should have been. While I can't remember numbers, I recall one incident where a red robot repeatedly (at least 3 times) rammed into a blue robot touching it's pyramid. One minute later... 0 foul points.

The situation did seem to improve in the finals.

@Text change

I could swear I saw the regular, black numbering on the streams from other regionals. The only one I noticed that *did* have the clear numbering was Palmetto. I could be wrong however.

[MagiChau]

1. A consistent autonomous is a 100% must. With the high scores being put up, every single point matters to give you the lead.

2. Full Court Shooters must not be allowed to score. 610 demonstrated their ferocious ability at Granite State.

3. Long 30 point climbers are not viable. When a robot begins climbing they put themselves out for the rest of a match. Shooting a couple rounds of frisbees and then popping for a 1 second 10 point hang out scores 30 point climbers that take a minute.

4. High maneuverability and defensive tactics is king of eliminations. Defense can wreck highly offensive robots' score output but the highly maneuverable robots like 1986 can breeze past.

These are my 2 cents from watching some webcasts today. We get to put our robot to the test in week 2 to see how we stack up in this year's game.

[Elong451]

Originally Posted by F22Rapture

We drove down to Palmetto to watch, and it seemed to me as though fouls were not being called nearly as often as they should have been. While I can't remember numbers, I recall one incident where a red robot repeatedly (at least 3 times) rammed into a blue robot touching it's pyramid. One minute later... 0 foul points.

The situation did seem to improve in the finals.

@Text change

I could swear I saw the regular, black numbering on the streams from other regionals. The only one I noticed that *did* have the clear numbering was Palmetto. I could be wrong however.

That team did that to us and we played blue and they got like all the foul points. Who sacrifices themselves to do such a stupid thing to the teams on their alliance?

[Jaxom]

Pool noodles, pvc, and duck tape are among the materials that can be easily obtained and used to block full-court shooters.

Rookies with Zoology teachers as mentors can add a 10-point hanger during lunch on Saturday. Way to go, 4552!

Multiple robots can shoot autonomous into the same goal.

The carpet seams around the pyramid get torn up pretty easily.

Headgear from 1986, 3931, and 1801 can be simultaneously worn on the same head.

[KFrisk]

There are very few full court shooters (at least fewer than I was expecting)
Team Titanium is a lot better than I expected.
I didn't think they would do that well. Then they won Hub City.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Jaxom

The carpet seams around the pyramid get torn up pretty easily.

Care to elaborate on this one? Did it have an effect on gameplay/driving around the pyramid?

[nobrakes8]

Originally Posted by stevend1994

Care to elaborate on this one? Did it have an effect on gameplay/driving around the pyramid?

We have a low hanging piston for our shooter (our robot was designed to be low) and it ended up getting caught on part of the carpet that was torn up. It bent our rod 90 degrees without us even realizing until it came time to shoot.

Team 16 had issues catching the carpet with their robot too.. But that might have had something to do when our team collided with them in our last qualification match (our frame got bent and they didn't seem to work the same again during eliminations).

But point being if you're a good robot you're going to take a beating this year and things with a close floor tolerance can poise an issue with the carpet. Also it'll be worthwhile to make a quick walk around your pyramid to make sure the carpet is taped down well prior to starting the match.

[itsjustmrb]

Battle Bot style defense is a viable solution for some teams.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by itsjustmrb

Battle Bot style defense is a viable solution for some teams.

Depends on where you do it.
HINT: Don't repeatedly do it when the team is firing away in their loading zone and you start accumulating over a hundred points in technical fouls.
Though the move 48 pulled on 1559 where they ran under the blue pyramid and shoved them all the way across the field before they could hang had to be the boldest defensive move I have ever seen. It could have backfire bigtime.

[cmrnpizzo14]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Depends on where you do it.
HINT: Don't repeatedly do it when the team is firing away in their loading zone and you start accumulating over a hundred points in technical fouls.
Though the move 48 pulled on 1559 where they ran under the blue pyramid and shoved them all the way across the field before they could hang had to be the boldest defensive move I have ever seen. It could have backfire bigtime.

I disagree!
Please continue to think that that defense is effective, we want the high score back!

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by cmrnpizzo14

I disagree!
Please continue to think that that defense is effective, we want the high score back!

Only if 4023 agrees to keep hitting you in the loading zone again and again.