What did we learn from week 2 of the 2013 season?

Originally Posted by Wayne TenBrink

Full court shooting is like fender shooting in 2012 - its great until a defender comes along. To be effective, you need to set up quick, be accurate, and be prepared to leave and shoot from the pyramid when needed.

^ This

Stay and play full-court shooting can easily be taken down, but if you have a robot that can set up quickly, fire of a few accurate shots, and get the heck out of there and pyramid shoot when under defense, then go back to full-court when there's no defense, you've got yourself a strategically successful machine that can't be stopped.

[NotaJoke]

At the same time, don't count the full court shooter out just because there's a pool noodle in the way. A team at Waterford had their blocking mechanism broken by flying frisbees.

[rjbarra]

All alliance have a chance. Great finals in WPI

[xSAWxBLADEx]

Originally Posted by NotaJoke

At the same time, don't count the full court shooter out just because there's a pool noodle in the way. A team at Waterford had their blocking mechanism broken by flying frisbees.

Do you have a video? For what not to do for a "net".

[DanielCH]

Originally Posted by xSAWxBLADEx

Do you have a video? For what not to do for a "net".

Red alliance had a pretty well made sign.

[Gregor]

Defense can shut teams down, and is only going to get more rough.

[Anupam Goli]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Defense can shut teams down, and is only going to get more rough.

This may be the year of the drivetrain. teams with powerful drivetrains that can both push bots around and zip across the field will be able to avoid most defense or win most pushing matches.

[EagleEngineer]

pool noodles can stop a full court shooter.

[Wayne TenBrink]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence

^ This

Stay and play full-court shooting can easily be taken down, but if you have a robot that can set up quickly, fire of a few accurate shots, and get the heck out of there and pyramid shoot when under defense, then go back to full-court when there's no defense, you've got yourself a strategically successful machine that can't be stopped.

Or even if you are "stopped", you have succeeded in tying up one opponent defense-bot for the entire match, leaving your other scoring bot wide open or forcing your opponent to devote two bots to defense. The problem with most full-court shooters is that it takes so long to get them dialed in and they still miss so many shots. You can afford to just leave them alone for a while.

[Hjelstrom]

Originally Posted by Wayne TenBrink

Or even if you are "stopped", you have succeeded in tying up one opponent defense-bot for the entire match, leaving your other scoring bot wide open or forcing your opponent to devote two bots to defense. The problem with most full-court shooters is that it takes so long to get them dialed in and they still miss so many shots. You can afford to just leave them alone for a while.

2845 "The Warlords" were very accurate in San Diego. It took a little time to get set up but in some matches I saw them on target with their very first shot. Some bounce out too simply due to the power behind the shots. They forced us to devote a defender to blocking them.

[Alpha Beta]

Originally Posted by Becca334

All cameras from teams can be turned off if FTA thinks cameras cause field issues. Even teams with vision tracking had to turn their cameras off at NYC.

Can someone provide more information on this situation (or direct me to it if it's already been posted)?

Was there something specific about the New York venue that contributed to this issue?

Is there a chance teams will show up at another regional this year or Champs and not be allowed to run a camera?

Seems unprecedented that such a well supported sensor for FIRST would suddenly be disallowed carte blanche.

[Yankeefan181]

In Oregon it was apparent that full-court shooters really complemented strong pyramid shooters because they require 2 defensive robots to really hinder their scoring. 955 was one of the best pyramid shooters at the regional, and when they teamed up with 2471 (who was making loads of full-court shots), the opposing alliances would've needed 1 robot just to block the full-court, and another to do anything about the pyramid shooter.

It's similar to how people have talked about dedicated 30-point climbers as making matches 3-on-2. Strategies like 30-point climbing and full-court shooting really change the complexion of the match.

[stuart2054]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence

^ This

Stay and play full-court shooting can easily be taken down, but if you have a robot that can set up quickly, fire of a few accurate shots, and get the heck out of there and pyramid shoot when under defense, then go back to full-court when there's no defense, you've got yourself a strategically successful machine that can't be stopped.

I think after playing our first competion in week 2 but scouting week one that being flexible and relatively good at scoring from alternate positions will be important. Full court shooting when even 50% accurate cannot be left unchallenged unless there are no other effective shooters on the alliance of the full court team and two good shooters on the other alliance but the full court team can be shut down fairly easy with a defender with an 84 inch appendange. this ties up a robot to block but is preferable to unanswerewd points for the other alliance. if the full court shooter is effective at other positins it will keep the other allianc e guessing and be that much harder to defend.

We are not a full court shooter bur our experince was you have to keep the other alliance guessing. In early matches we went to midcourt and sucked up the extra discs in that area with our floor pick up. When that was defended more we went into the opposite side to get the discs there and used our speed to quickly get back to our position under the pyramid to shoot and go look for other discs and so on.

When a partner was shooting from our normal position we would shoot from outside the pyramid or work in beside them if there was room to shoot but do whatever you are doing fast and keep the other alliance guessing.

We have a pretty strong drive train so sometimes we would block a opponent from their feed station on our way to collect discs. It slowed us down but it also aggrevated the other team and put them off their strategy.

Adapt and over come.

[brenthiggy]

That you can have a mecanum drive that is super fast and pushy i.e. 2052 knightkrawler at lake superior.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by nikeairmancurry

That the FIRST community will always step up in times of need (Robodawgs trailer getting stolen, along with 1592 and 801 robots being tore up in a accident).

I was at GTRE and arrived at my hotel around the time the RoboDawgs trailer was stolen. I felt horrible. Then I went to setup at the venue, and the FIRST Robotics Canada people were already thinking of ways to get them things - parts from IFI Canada, shirts from the regional t-shirt sale (since their suitcases were in the stolen trailer), laptops... It was an amazing thing to see everyone coming together.

I read on twitter than when 801 made it to the field the whole venue stood up and cheered for them, and I nearly cried with joy.

The FIRST community can truly be a beautiful thing.