Week Zero Discussion/Impressions/Discoveries/Fun Facts

[raptaconehs]

Here is what I picked up at the scrimmage held by team 2996. Defense can be very viable, and it is just a matter of initiating legal contact with other robots. Some bots are really pushing the 20" appendage limit, and it is pretty important to control that limit to prevent infringement of another robots perimeter. It is also very clear that we can expect some very physical matches. Assists might be able to swing a match, but are pretty difficult to coordinate with an alliance. A catch can have value if pulled of consistently, but if not it is harder to maintain possession of the ball. Losing communication in the middle of a match can be a bigger problem than years past due to the physicality of the game. Thanks for throwing a great scrimmage 2996.

[Caleb Sykes]

Does anyone have video of a 3v3 match? At our week 0, there were never more than 2 functional robots on the field at any given time.

[mrnoble]

Originally Posted by raptaconehs

Some bots are really pushing the 20" appendage limit, and it is pretty important to control that limit to prevent infringement of another robots perimeter. It is also very clear that we can expect some very physical matches.

Yeah, that was us. We are seriously sorry for sticking our appendage inside your bot. We're all going to need to be super careful.

[IKE]

Some robots I saw at a Week 0 had a difficult time starting with a ball in the robot, and all parts of their robot staying in the frame perimeter.

Auton will be pretty neat as many robots will be doing things. shortly after auton is boring and many teams will be waiting on a partner to "clear the ball" before cycles can start.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by IKE

Some robots I saw at a Week 0 had a difficult time starting with a ball in the robot, and all parts of their robot staying in the frame perimeter.

Auton will be pretty neat as many robots will be doing things. shortly after auton is boring and many teams will be waiting on a partner to "clear the ball" before cycles can start.

From a crowd perspective I noticed as well. Because of only 1 ball, while the scoring robot is trying to score, the other 2 seemed idle at times waiting for the next cycle.
We are going to see a lot of boring matches at regionals early on.

[raptaconehs]

Originally Posted by mrnoble

Yeah, that was us. We are seriously sorry for sticking our appendage inside your bot. We're all going to need to be super careful.

It's fine it showed us the importance of the rule as well as the necessary importance of protecting all aspects of our robot. It was good because we were able to escape without too much damage.

[Samwaldo]

As a driver and coach i learned alot!

FIRST off thank you to all suffield shakedown volunteers for a great professional competition. It was a smart call ending early. We walked away with a finalist trophy because we ranked 5th. Unfortunatly us and 263 (1st seed) were planning to join an aliiance due to our fast assists.

Now for notes: ASSIST! ASSIST! ASSIST! We learned from our first match there was no point in doing your own thing. During our second we did 3 cycles of 2 assists. By the end of the day we had done 5 cycles of 2 assists. Its all about that transfer. Speed and power also helped us ALOT!

We hadnt tested our 10pt catapult so we never used it, but with a reliable pick up, passer, and 1pt scorer, we did very well!

Most fustratrating thing: when someone misses in autonomous and takes a long time to pick up. We can pick up fast, and watching a slower robot is fustrating because you cant get a new ball!

Best part of scrimmage: breaking our robot! We learned what to improve and alter

Note: only burned 2 holes in the carpet. We love our new drivetrain.

[Boe]

Did anyone else manage to get a 60 point cycle today? There was only one that I know of at the week zero my team attended.

[mrnoble]

Originally Posted by Samwaldo

Best part of scrimmage: breaking our robot! We learned what to improve

We had precisely that experience and reaction. Breaking after several rounds was the best part of the day.

[Coach Norm]

Week Zero in Austin,

Thanks to AusTIN Cans for hosting today.

No scrimmaging due to lack of teams that could run but it was apparent that ball control and robot interaction will definitely have a huge impact on the game.

We had four teams fully functional on the field today.

Two robots who could catch from over the truss and made it look rather easy.

Three teams who scored in the high goal during auto I believe.

All teams could pick it up off the ground and score in the high goal.

Leaving balls on the field after auto will be a huge factor to clear to get cycles started.

The trues is low as others have mentioned so be careful when walking around before and after matches.

Corner goal should be an easy score even for basic bots.

[Canon reeves]

Originally Posted by lineskier

Be careful about extending outside of the field perimeter. When scoring in the low goal, the refs realized our net was hanging over the field rail. We were told this was a penalty, and that if we continued to do it after being warned that it would be technical.

So no one with a 20' extension can go along the side without pulling in their extension? I really hope teams realize this early on!

[mrnoble]

Originally Posted by Canon reeves

So no one with a 20' extension can go along the side without pulling in their extension? I really hope teams realize this early on!

G21.

[mwtidd]

Another note I remembered, the roof over the driver station actually stuffed us twice in autonomous and several times in teleop. The ball would be essentially through the goal, hit the pipe and bounce back into the field. Apparently FIRST is aware of this, but it it would cost them $60k+ to fix it. They though the bounce backs would be rare . I for one hope they resolve this.

Originally Posted by Boe

Did anyone else manage to get a 60 point cycle today? There was only one that I know of at the week zero my team attended.

#FRCWEEK0 TY Q MC 7 RF 115 BF 12 RA 58 3467 319 BA 1735 1058 501 RFP 0 BFP 0 RHS 15 BHS 10 RTS 100 BTS 2

In this match we had two 50pt cycles. Tried and missed the catch on both.

Cycle went inbound > truss > catch (and miss)> pass to zone 3 > shoot.

We also had two missed autonomous shots that we needed to clean up in that match.

Originally Posted by Canon reeves

So no one with a 20' extension can go along the side without pulling in their extension? I really hope teams realize this early on!

Yeah, luckily our drive team realized they could score from the side of the lower goal without getting any penalties.

[itgotbetter]

Thanks to teams 1730, 1986, and 1987 for hosting their Week 0 scrimmage again. We were able to learn a lot about our robot and how it works with the field and with other teams. I hope you guys continue to do this every year!

Originally Posted by Boe

Did anyone else manage to get a 60 point cycle today? There was only one that I know of at the week zero my team attended.

We participated in 4 matches of 3v3. In one match we completed a successful 60 point cycle. The human player gave the ball to either 2410 or 1785 (can't remember which one) who passed the ball to 1986. They provided a beautiful truss pass for us (1939) to catch and we were able to turn around and score in the high goal.

There was minimal defense in this match, so I'll be more excited when I see it done in an actual regional.

Completing the catch is the most difficult part of the 60 point cycle. We had several 50 point cycles.

[Canon reeves]

Originally Posted by lineskier

Yeah, luckily our drive team realized they could score from the side of the lower goal without getting any penalties.

I'm not sure how my team will work out autonomous now because we have net and we were going to drive up and open the net and let the ball roll out. Now it looks like we will just drive forward.