What we learned from week 1

[Rangel]

Originally Posted by Andrew Zeller

Simple, feeder-station only fixed angle shooters with passive hangers like 842 can be very effective.

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

[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.

[robochick862]

Originally Posted by Rangel(kf7fdb)

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

I was just about to edit that
It was such a great way to start off this season, this is the first district win in 862 history. We we're ecstatic. Can't wait for West Michigan!

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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.

[Rangel]

The most effective defenses I saw were mostly the cause of the offending robot. Too many times did I see teams try to push their way through a defender and waste lots of time doing that. I'm also seeing that the unprotected loading station seems to be the safest to reload frisbees.

[Billfred]

Fortune favors the prepared.

[mandrews281]

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:

Agreed.

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.

I wondered about that too. I was right behind the judges and it sure looked like the front right wheel was down and he was checking the front left, but I wasn't the one crawling around on the floor, the ref was. One other interesting thing I noticed with 1772 was in the semis they were red, and their robot was an inch or more off the ground, but on the blue pyramid it was barely off the ground (like a paper width). So the robot could have been off the ground. Teams: allow for field variations -- they do exist.

Originally Posted by Wing

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.

While I agree that G30 wasn't called as much as I thought I saw, there were also a lot of close calls and I'd prefer the refs erred on the side of NOT giving the foul especially for the little ticky-tacky stuff. I also miss the replay on ties. We once lost a quarter final 0-2-3. It really screwed up the schedule; but it was like a final with the immediate match turn-around.

[Andrew Zeller]

Originally Posted by Rangel(kf7fdb)

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

Yes that is what I meant. I just edited the post.

[PayneTrain]

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?

There were a lot of quirks specific to the Palmetto event, and this was one of them.

Originally Posted by Wing

Referees are NOT calling the 10 point hang properly.

Referees are not calling G30, and it's been affecting outcomes of matches!

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

From my ivory tower (suspiciously similar to a college dorm room), it was pretty clear that Palmetto definitely had a lot of the rough edges that come with running a Week 1 event without the experience that FLR and BAE have. Even still, it's no picnic. The game is still in its infantile stage.

Let me be clear, holding a Week 1 event is not an enviable task, which is why even though the number of total FRC events has ballooned as of late, the Week 1 number is very hesitant to break 10.

Palmetto is historically a later event, and I assume that the event will slot back into a Week 4 slot when it goes back to Charleston(?). I think that would be good for this event.