What we learned from week 1

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by TheMadCADer

Just look at GSR this week. Everyone knew that 610 was by far the top shooter there, but they were hardly ever slowed down on their across the field. Pretty much the same with 1986 at Hub City. It changes in eliminations, but defense hardly ever happens during qualifications.

And the one match that 610 lost at GSR was the one where the best defense was played on them (By far). There was a lack of defense in them in parts of qualifications and even in eliminations, and their scores reflected that.

[Mr. Lim]

Originally Posted by Jay Money 1058

And the one match that 610 lost at GSR was the one where the best defense was played on them (By far). There was a lack of defense in them in parts of qualifications and even in eliminations, and their scores reflected that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xPbuEmmgxE

The above is a link to the match you mentioned. I think the loss is far more attributable to 1519 bombing full-court shots off-screen than to defense played on us. We had the unfortunate event of our partner 319 dying near the middle of our pyramid preventing 610 from getting to our preferred shooting spot. It also prevented our 30 pt hanging partner, 3467, from getting to their preferred hanging spot. At 1:15 you can even see 3467 trying to push 319 out of the way, only to be blocked by both the leg of the pyramid and 610 shooting! The credit for this match really has to be given to 1519, who simply shot the lights out... simply an amazing team and robot.

There are a many examples of defense played on at GSR, in quals and elims. One of my favorites is this match, where both 509 and 166 play some very significant defense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3FMKiaUXIM

Truthfully, we faced some form of defense in nearly every match we played. Our drive team did practice a fair amount playing against real defenses. They were fortunate enough to do drills against robots piloted by Nick Lawrence and Kaj Anantharajah. Nick and Kaj were given tall robots, and ours is of course short. Our driver (Austin) was told to make them look as silly as possible.

Let's just say there were some silly looking drivers...

...and a lot of broken robots

[coalhot]

I must say, week one was interesting. Not as high of scored at HH than I expected.

I did notice, however, some really mean and borderline illegal defense being played by a few teams when their robots malfunctioned during qualifications (lookin at you, 341 and 25). Between slamming mechanisms into opposing robots, driving on top of opposing robots, and slamming into the opposing driver station repeatedly, to the point that the field broke; it was...interesting.

All in all, a good weekend. Not what I expected, but hey, I only got hit by a frisbee once...in the face...

[bduddy]

As related to defense, I think that "anti-defense", or running interference on defending robots, is a potentially valuable role, especially to help full-court shooters get into position and also if teams start trying to block robots from getting to their pyramid. I wasn't able to watch many matches, but I saw this kind of play paying dividends pretty often...

[Racer26]

Originally Posted by Mr. Lim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xPbuEmmgxE

The above is a link to the match you mentioned. I think the loss is far more attributable to 1519 bombing full-court shots off-screen than to defense played on us. We had the unfortunate event of our partner 319 dying near the middle of our pyramid preventing 610 from getting to our preferred shooting spot. It also prevented our 30 pt hanging partner, 3467, from getting to their preferred hanging spot. At 1:15 you can even see 3467 trying to push 319 out of the way, only to be blocked by both the leg of the pyramid and 610 shooting! The credit for this match really has to be given to 1519, who simply shot the lights out... simply an amazing team and robot.

There are a many examples of defense played on at GSR, in quals and elims. One of my favorites is this match, where both 509 and 166 play some very significant defense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3FMKiaUXIM

Truthfully, we faced some form of defense in nearly every match we played. Our drive team did practice a fair amount playing against real defenses. They were fortunate enough to do drills against robots piloted by Nick Lawrence and Kaj Anantharajah. Nick and Kaj were given tall robots, and ours is of course short. Our driver (Austin) was told to make them look as silly as possible.

Let's just say there were some silly looking drivers...

...and a lot of broken robots

I remember thinking to myself watching the webcast that the 610 robot driving looked an awful lot like Nick driving 1503's 2011 bot. Now I don't have to wonder why, Nick helped train Austin!