What has surprised you this year?

[Anupam Goli]

Originally Posted by Gdeaver

Ether posted a chart of all the match scores for 7 weeks. What surprised me was the sheer number of low scores. I believe this shows that there is a widening divide between the average First team and the elite.

I'm not so sure about this one. Last year had lower scores across the board I believe, and the EWCP blog says that last year's scores median score was dismally low. This year, with allt he resources out there, it seems like every team is able to score points, and as a result, we see less zero point scores and higher scores in general.

[DjScribbles]

I think this years game piece is awesome; I loved the ease with which it can be scored accurately, but the difficulty in manipulating it consistently. I think this led to a lot stronger average robots, and helped to subdue 'everything-bots' (along with the difficulty of climbing of course).

[JesseK]

Strategy-wise I think I nailed it on Day 1.

• For an alliance, there are 180 (almost) guaranteed points, yet the difficulty required for designs to get all 180 is well beyond 99.9% of teams
• A solid dead-reckoned autonomous with 4 cycles and a 10-pt hang puts many teams in the upper echelon this year
• Doing a 5 or 7-disc autonomous is HUGE, but requires ground pickup and under-pyramid heights
• Going under the pyramid opens up 2 entire zones of play, regardless of alliance

My only real surprise was that we couldn't get a good disc delivery mechanism from the floor to the hopper, given the talent on my team. Meh.

One thing that surprised me was how much more advantageous mid-field autonomous routines are for Quals, since I didn't realize that leftover discs were on the center line

Was surprised about being allowed > 60" for the start of the match

Nothing major though. We scrapped floor pickup last night since it was causing an over-complexity in our hopper. Now the discs don't jam one bit. Was a bit surprised that we could shove 7 discs through in under 7 seconds with no jams, for once .

[Carolyn_Grace]

Being an alumni of and former 9-year mentor for team 33, I'm disappointed that I completely missed how important autonomous mode was (i.e. picking up frisbees from the ground.) Those 15 seconds are basically an extra bonus time, and I feel like it's important to use it resourcefully. Luckily, when paired with another team with floor intake, this becomes mostly a moot point.

Not game specific:
it caught me off-guard how difficult it is to switch teams. There are so many tiny adjustments, based on small nuances that each team has, and habits that formed from the previous team, that it is actually pretty stressful. It was an amazing experience though, and one I recommend to other mentors. It's made me a better mentor. I love my team and everything they've taught me!

[Mr. Lim]

That we under-estimated the 95th percentile winning score in our early strategy sessions.

Usually we overestimate how high scores will be.

Also, I was floored by the number of teams that successfully 30pt climbed at a week 1 regional at BAE...

[karomata]

I was astonished that some of the 3 and 4 thousands were showing up some of the traditional powerhouses. With a game as unusual as this one, their unique, simple, and not as experienced perspective gave them a real edge in competition.

[Chris is me]

I expected far more teams to "overreach" - to try the hardest game tasks and fail to do so adequately. I think a game that was "obviously hard" (as opposed to subtly difficult like 2012) led teams to decide early to specialize, leading to a more balanced and competitive field than I have seen in years.

Specifically, I expected most teams to try and ground load like they did in 2011, as well as hang for extra points, rather than purely cycle and 10 hang.

I guess our commitment to simplicity isn't an advantage anymore, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

[jacob9706]

Originally Posted by Zuelu562

I was honestly surprised how little the smaller robot footprint seemed to affect us. Granted, we had to get a little creative with our electrical engineering, that said, it didn't really do much other than make us rethink a couple minor "standard" things.

Smaller footprint? Ours wont even fit through a door without turning it sideways. This year we have had more surface area to mount and build on than ever before. Just got to thing outside the box (pun intended).

[Gregor]

The shear strength of the middle tier, everywhere.

[NotaJoke]

I thought ground pickups would be dime-a-dozen. Turns out there were many regionals with only one or two floor-loading machines. (Also HOT arms! They're super useful, minus the lack of continuity.)

I over-estimated the value of a climber. I never thought an alliance could win anything without a 50 point climb/dump. Many of the three blue banner teams didn't have a climber on their any of their alliances (in eliminations.)

Ultimate ascent has certainly been an interesting experience, can't wait to see how it plays out at CMP!

[Lil' Lavery]

I was surprised at how "easy" () it was to build a consistent scoring mechanism. I expected far less precision in shooting, and a lot more missed shots. This also led me to believe the mid-level teams would not be able to build a useful full court shooter.

[joelg236]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I was surprised at how "easy" () it was to build a consistent scoring mechanism. I expected far less precision in shooting, and a lot more missed shots. This also led me to believe the mid-level teams would not be able to build a useful full court shooter.

I was in the same boat. I was talking to a few team members today about this exactly. When I first heard that we were shooting frisbees I was sure that they would be nerf-foam type stuff. I could not even begin to imagine a shooter that had any accuracy. The whole wheel idea was not obvious to me at first. Somehow wheels actually work really well, which amazes me. It's one of the only FIRST games where the way to achieve any points wasn't completely obvious. But somehow it's actually relatively easy. Even some lower-tier teams can shoot pretty accurately (>75%), which is pretty new. Last year that was definitely not the case.

[Ivan Malik]

I missed how open the field actually was. I originally thought that there would be a lot more traffic jams around the sides and in front of the pyramid than there were, making cycling less effective. I thought that just sitting in the feeder station and getting discs down field would be huge for an alliance because of this.

[MattInAHat]

I think I noticed how much the "everything bots" weren't that decent. I mean, take the Fighting Pi (1718) for example. They couldn't hang, but they had an amazing shooter and autonomous. Their pairing with The Killer Bees (33) at all of their competitions allowed for a fantastic game (and fun to watch as well.)

[MrForbes]

I'm most surprised that I'm not surprised by how the game works in competition. I guess I'm getting old.

We made a simple robot this year, and it was enough to win a relatively easy regional. Fortunately we picked the right things to do, and we made the robot do them well enough. Some teams that made more elaborate robots did better, but it looks like they had to really work for it. And quite a few teams with more elaborate robots didn't do as well, perhaps they took on a bit too much.

Good job, GDC