Week 1 Analysis

[bduddy]

A huge theme this year is going to be: Be realistic about the capabilities of your bot. So far, I've seen almost every team over-estimate their ability to:

-Pick up the ball
-Throw the ball over the truss
-Shoot into the high goal
-Catch the ball
-All of the above!

...and it really hurts your alliance when you do that. Teams that lack the theoretical maximum of the very 'top' robots, but that are realistic about what they can do, will do very well - including in eliminations.

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by bduddy

A huge theme this year is going to be: Be realistic about the capabilities of your bot. So far, I've seen almost every team over-estimate their ability to:

-Pick up the ball
-Throw the ball over the truss
-Shoot into the high goal
-Catch the ball
-All of the above!

and.. score in autonomous? That's the biggest one for me.

[bduddy]

Originally Posted by inkling16

and.. score in autonomous? That's the biggest one for me.

Oops, forgot about that one... probably the biggest killer of all, especially when combined with the rest...

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Watched some Alamo matches...

...man this game is slow...

Sometime 148 just spins in place for entertainment while they wait for a ball to get passed to them. When was the last game powerhouse teams did things like that?

Maybe things will speed up in the following weeks, but this passing on the ground for assists is pretty dull. Hopefully when more teams start catching things will move faster

Not really analysis, just the opinion of a spectator.

[JohnSchneider]

Originally Posted by =Martin=Taylor=

Watched some Alamo matches...

...man this game is slow...

Sometime 148 just spins in place for entertainment while they wait for a ball to get passed to them. When was the last game powerhouse teams did things like that?

Maybe things will speed up in the following weeks, but this passing on the ground for assists is pretty dull. Hopefully when more teams start catching things will move faster

Not really analysis, just the opinion of a spectator.

In an elimination match or at champs you'd probably be playing defense. Alamo's lower half cant even posses the ball...there's nothing to defend. Better offenses will bring better defenses out.

[BBray_T1296]

A huge one for me:

Know when to give up!

Trying to get a truss shot 3 times in a row without success is wasting time

Trying to get a high goal 3 times in a row is wasting time

If you fail once (and have to chase the ball back down), just forget it

[Jay O'Donnell]

At Nashua there were multiple instances of the ball going through the goal, hitting the back bar, and bouncing back onto the field. I can't see why FIRST couldn't cover that back bar setup with a piece of flat cardboard to make it bounce in a direction where the shot counts.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Jay O'Donnell

At Nashua there were multiple instances of the ball going through the goal, hitting the back bar, and bouncing back onto the field. I can't see why FIRST couldn't cover that back bar setup with a piece of flat cardboard to make it bounce in a direction where the shot counts.

Seems to me that this is this years 'gotcha'.

Every year there seems to be a part of the field that doesn't play nice ... seems the high goal is this years part.


Week 2 teams, take note

[Michael Hill]

It seems like gameplay here at Central illinois has been much more violent than in years past. Teams realized when they don't have the ball, you double team on defense until you're open. I hope everyone built a physically strong robot.

[Donut]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

It seems like gameplay here at Central illinois has been much more violent than in years past. Teams realized when they don't have the ball, you double team on defense until you're open. I hope everyone built a physically strong robot.

This. I expected a physical game, but wow, this reminds me of the years before bumpers.

I am surprised by the scores this early in the season. Teams are figuring out how to Truss + 2 Assist or to 3 Assist pretty quickly considering it's not even Saturday yet. I haven't seen a ton of matches today at CIR but it seemed like a good bot running single cycles was only effective very early in the day.

[Steven Smith]

I think there is a misconception among the "kit bot built to defend" populace that defense equals shot blocking (interfering with the ball trajectory).

Many of these robots would have been better suited to avoid building a 60" tall wall that makes their robot top heavy (and the drivers move it around gingerly), but to instead build a basic kitbot with well mounted battery/electronics/etc, a few pounds of ballast, and just get in the way or hit teams as they try to shoot.

I haven't seen many (any?) "swats" of balls. The most effective defense has been pushing a robot as it attempts to shoot and altering the shot trajectory, or knocking it loose.

Any team can do this effectively IMO.

[magnets]

OK, I'm confused. What just happened in the alamo regional?

118 sat there for about 10 seconds before the light on the pedestal lit up, and because of that, they couldn't get another shot in before the match ended. Why didn't the pedestal light up? No balls were on the field.

This is looking bad. Bad calls everywhere.

[magnets]

Another question, what was the field fault (alamo)? I'm watching an ad now.

[JohnSchneider]

Originally Posted by magnets

Another question, what was the field fault (alamo)? I'm watching an ad now.

refs declared 2 balls dead and then started another cycle

[Thad House]

I'm see alot of week 1 similarities between this year and 2010. Both were penalties are too large and ruining the game. For the past few years, it was fairly easy to make up a foul. a tech foul was hard, but still very doable. This year, unless you are an AMAZING alliance, making up a foul is difficult, and a tech is almost impossible. I wouldn't be surprised to see an update next tues with some major changes to the ways fouls work, because right now, it seems broken.

Also similar, is making up a deficit is very difficult, and i have seen very very few close matches so far, which is fairly different from what we have seen the past few years. Since most of the 2010 students have graduated, most students dont remember how bad that really was, and I see alot of similarities right now. I hope they can get fixed.

Something I would like to see, is that if fouls worked like they used to, and took away from your alliance, how many matches would be 0-0. Also, maybe grab that information from the last 2 years, and check those percentages as well. I think those would be interesting to see.