What we learned from week 1

[jblay]

Originally Posted by EricDrost

Having more than two robots shooting in the same autonomous goal is a bad idea.

I didn't really see this being a problem for any alliance in the webcasts, do you have an example of it being an issue?

Originally Posted by Wing

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.

What exactly happened? Seems like a bot is either off the ground or it's not.

[darkember]

1. Scoring in auton is big.
2. Not as many consistent shooters as i thought there would be.
3. Strong shooter>climber
4. There are a lot of Frisbee on the ground.
5. Penalties have been a serious factor in qualification. Specifically about contact with a robot in protected zone or while touching pyramid.
6. Hardly any effective long range shooters(at start of season a lot of people speculated on full court shooting).
7. Smart defense is the way to slow down best scorers. It was done effectively by a few teams from the webcasts that i watched.

[Sean Raia]

Originally Posted by darkember

2. Not as many consistent shooters as i thought there would be.

You and I must have been watching different Ultimate Ascents.

A lead gained in autonomous can stay permanently through the match.

[Sean Raia]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence

A lead gained in autonomous can stay permanently through the match.

So true. Mid-Game scoring can not be relied upon as much as it could in Rebound Rumble (meaning, I feel that defense is somehow more effective in this game). If you are going to pull ahead in a match it had better be early on in Auton, or at the end with high climbs.

[TheMadCADer]

Originally Posted by Sean Raia

So true. Mid-Game scoring can not be relied upon as much as it could in Rebound Rumble (meaning, I feel that defense is somehow more effective in this game). If you are going to pull ahead in a match it had better be early on in Auton, or at the end with high climbs.

A 7-disc autonomous is a killer this year, because it can be made much more reliable than a bridge autonomous could last year. 24 extra points right off the bat gets you a huge lead. The other alliance has to score 8 more discs than you just to catch up, and chances are your robot is also good at shooting tele-op discs if it can do a 7-disc auto.

I'd also note how huge of an impact 610's drive team had for them. They were spinning past defenders every trip, and had an awesome technique that used the defender's own pyramid to get free (they'd get them stuck up against the diagonal all the time, it was very fun to watch). First Nick Lawrence, now this driver, plus the always great driving from 1114 and 2056... I guess great drivers come from Ontario.

Originally Posted by TheMadCADer

A 7-disc autonomous is a killer this year, because it can be made much more reliable than a bridge autonomous could last year. 24 extra points right off the bat gets you a huge lead. The other alliance has to score 8 more discs than you just to catch up, and chances are your robot is also good at shooting tele-op discs if it can do a 7-disc auto.

A 7 disc auto would give you 42 points, no? Even more emphasizing your point on the importance of gaining a lead in autonomous. Your opponent would need to score 14 frisbees in the top goal to catch up.

[TheMadCADer]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence

A 7 disc auto would give you 42 points, no? Even more emphasizing your point on the importance of gaining a lead in autonomous. Your opponent would need to score 14 frisbees in the top goal to catch up.

I should have pointed out that I was assuming the other robot that yours "matches-up" against has a pre-loaded 3-disc autonomous, so it would be 42-18 before other robots factor in (giving you that 24 point lead). Your point is absolutely valid if the other robot scores zero.

[Hebrew]

Any videos out of eliminations yet? I checked BA and could find nothing.

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by Hebrew

Any videos out of eliminations yet? I checked BA and could find nothing.

1519 has uploaded videos of 8 of the 9 quarter-finals at the Granite State Regional. Here's the playlist... http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLJ8AkRj4AlXS0TSTsI5BrWEbRxhDpuK3&f eature=view_all... I believe we have more yet to upload.

I'm sure more videos from this and other regionals will also appear soon...

[sircedric4]

I learned a lot this weekend and all of it just makes me sick to my stomach. Looks like this year will be a very good year for lessons learned for our team bible.

1) The GDC did an awesome job this year building a trap. Let's call the game Ultimate Ascent and introduce this awesome pyramid and impossible top target and then it turns out to be a waste of a season to defeat the obstacle. We and only a few others conquered the very difficult only to watch EVERYONE (hyperbole!) outscore our top end.

We have this awesome climber and dumper and I am seriously thinking about scrapping the whole thing and bolting a quick 3 day robot shooter, human fed device and quick ram the bar 10 pointer to the robot at our one and only regional.

2) Autonomous and frisbee throwing is perhaps the easiest I have ever seen it when it comes to scoring pieces. This is a year that experience actually worked against us. There has never been a scoring game with such consistent pieces, so one lesson learned is always build a game piece scorer immediately before even trying to determine your strategy.


Congratulations all teams of FRC for bringing some good scoring to the game and I guess it will only get better from here for you frisbee throwers.

I could go on but I am just gonna try and reconcile what I saw this weekend with how we saw the games going and determine what we are gonna do. Honestly we are so tired after such an exhausting build season, that I suspect we will just "run what we brung" and we will be the cool looking climber that does contribute consistently. I know that will earn us a spot on an alliance, but it really is disappointing to take the road less traveled and find everyone else at the destination when you get there.

The journey this year will hopefully be worth it since we will definitely have a lot of lessons learned. This year the students and I get to deal with conquering the impossible and that awesome feeling, and then we get to learn how to deal with disappointment when everyone and their mother outscores with "easier" robots.


(PS. I am not trivializing the "easier" robots before you get all in a hissy, I know all those were built in the same 6 week vacuum we were. But shooters have been done for years and there was a 3 day robot, so frisbee throwers were easier to get a base scorer.) :-)

[swwrobotics]

Watching the Palmetto webcast, many teams got stuck at the feeder stations by not taking the time to line up right and unfortunately ended up with a bunch of frisbees blocking their way to the wall.

[dtengineering]

Originally Posted by sircedric4

I learned a lot this weekend and all of it just makes me sick to my stomach. Looks like this year will be a very good year for lessons learned for our team bible.

1) The GDC did an awesome job this year building a trap. Let's call the game Ultimate Ascent and introduce this awesome pyramid and impossible top target and then it turns out to be a waste of a season to defeat the obstacle. We and only a few others conquered the very difficult only to watch EVERYONE (hyperbole!) outscore our top end.

We have this awesome climber and dumper and I am seriously thinking ...

(PS. I am not trivializing the "easier" robots before you get all in a hissy, I know all those were built in the same 6 week vacuum we were. But shooters have been done for years and there was a 3 day robot, so frisbee throwers were easier to get a base scorer.) :-)

The GDC is not responsible for your team's analysis of the game.

Jason

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by sircedric4

I learned a lot this weekend and all of it just makes me sick to my stomach. Looks like this year will be a very good year for lessons learned for our team bible.

1) The GDC did an awesome job this year building a trap. Let's call the game Ultimate Ascent and introduce this awesome pyramid and impossible top target and then it turns out to be a waste of a season to defeat the obstacle. We and only a few others conquered the very difficult only to watch EVERYONE (hyperbole!) outscore our top end.

We have this awesome climber and dumper and I am seriously thinking about scrapping the whole thing and bolting a quick 3 day robot shooter, human fed device and quick ram the bar 10 pointer to the robot at our one and only regional.

I think you're underestimating what a 50 point climber (climb + dump) can accomplish with a team who is a top notch shooter.

Yes these climbers and dumpers can be beaten with two solid shooters, but it all depends on the full alliance.

[EricDrost]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

I think you're underestimating what a 50 point climber (climb + dump) can accomplish with a team who is a top notch shooter.

Yes these climbers and dumpers can be beaten with two solid shooters, but it all depends on the full alliance.

I'd rather have two good shooters than a climber and a shooter. Climbers often lack autonomous and top out at around 50 points. That's easily outscored by a robot that does autonomous and hangs for 10. It only requires two loads of discs, a number that's easily achievable.

Also, climbers (from what I've seen) tend to be less reliable.