What could go wrong?

[Koko Ed]

It won't be a robot issue.
It'll be a communication and strategy issue with their partners.
It's hard to get people on the same page in a ten minute period.

[Calvin Hartley]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

It won't be a robot issue.
It'll be a communication and strategy issue with their partners.
It's hard to get people on the same page in a ten minute period.

This. I also hope egos don't get in the way, but.... it could happen.

[Nick Lawrence]

"We need you to play defence."
"But we need assists!"
"We can make up the difference."
"But we need assists!"
"You guys are far more valuable as a defender"
"But we need assists!"
"You cause more penalties than you score points."




"But we need assists!"


Can't wait for these conversations...


-Nick

[zsm150]

The secret endgame!

[rees2001]

Being one move ahead of your opponent rather than one move behind them. If you are reacting to what the other team is doing you have already fallen behind. Scouting will be paramount. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the teams you are playing and the strengths and weaknesses of you alliance will make the difference between a W or an L.

The communication behind the glass will be a killer. Staying undefeated will be really hard this year. teams can easily be taken down by their own alliance.

(not so hypothetical strategy)

Team A
"teams A & B will shoot in auto. We will do a 2 ball auto, team C just drive forward"

Team C
"but we need to show our auto mode for elims!"

Team B
"Our scouts say you haven't hit it once."

Team C
"that's why we need to show we can do it!"

Team A
"did you get it on the practice field?"

Team C
"no we couldn't get a time, but our programmers say they fixed the problem"


The best possible solution is A&B let C shoot and then ....

[IndySam]

Assists are going to be much harder to do than people think.

Too many teams will concentrate their designs on shooting the ball through the goal (not that difficult of a task) and not on making nice easy to pick up passes.

[pfreivald]

Contact inside the frame perimeter can be a serious problem when you're trying to acquire a ball and your opponent is playing defense on you.

[E Dawg]

Moving in autonomous.

I know that may sound silly since all the robot has to do is move forward, but based on past years I've seen lots of situations were teams failed to move their robot in autonomous.

[BrendanB]

Acquiring a ball, assists, and drive practice. These would be my top unprepared items most teams will fail at or are underestimating.

Acquiring and keeping control of the ball/game piece is a huge aspect most teams underestimate year after year. Most teams spend most of their match trying to gain control of the game piece or lose it easily.

Assists are this year's big ticket item for points but most teams will underestimate what is needed to do assists well. Simply saying in a strategy meeting, "we'll simply just spit the ball out and they will give it back to us" will not get you very far. There are so many factors that will go into working well will your partners on the field. I predict that most alliances will attempt to do a triple assist (or even double) and spend their entire match trying to do it but running out of time to score.

All of this boils down to drive practice. You NEED to give your drivers time to practice its not even funny. There is no end game where you can make up the difference you have one part of the game and you need to some part of it well. This all comes down to your drivers. You can design a robot that does everything but if your driver can't perform to the level your robot needs to be driven at you are going to have a bad time. Assisting will but a huge time dump if drivers aren't ready to do it quickly. I see a lot of matches being won by a robot out cycling a few poor robots attempting to assist.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

Contact inside the frame perimeter can be a serious problem when you're trying to acquire a ball and your opponent is playing defense on you.

QFT. There will be a LOT of incidental, unintentinal incursions, especially Week 1. I wouldn't be surprised to see an Update come out between Week 1&2 of competition season reminding teams to be aware of their design.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I am surprised no one wrote anything about inspections. You can't play if you don't have the sticker! Number one on my list is legal bumpers, followed by legal pneumatics and electrics. This year add successful dry fire tests so scary shooters don't launch objects (robot parts) into the spectator seating areas. Be safe out there....

[omalleyj]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

This year add successful dry fire tests so scary shooters don't launch objects (robot parts) into the spectator seating areas.

On behalf of audience members everywhere: Thank You!

[magnets]

I predict a 2003 like situation. The high stacks (assists/catches) will be replaced by robots just crashing into each other (a good defense team can stop/slow down all passes/catches, just like a good defense in 03 could destroy stacks)

Oh, and if anything ever goes wrong with the field (or a robot just drops comms), people will be raging mad this year. During week one, I predict multiple "the field ruined my chance of winning, we were the best, but lost, and the FTA didn't listen to us" threads on CD.

[BBray_T1296]

Originally Posted by magnets

I predict multiple "the field ruined my chance of winning, we were the best, but lost, and the FTA didn't listen to us" threads on CD.

Quoted for truth.

[mathking]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

Contact inside the frame perimeter can be a serious problem when you're trying to acquire a ball and your opponent is playing defense on you.

Good observation. This is going to be a real problem for some teams. I also think that many teams are going to struggle with their own shooter damaging the robot. I see a lot of catapults causing repeated stress damage to the robots on which they are deployed.