Week 1 Analysis

[nuggetsyl]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Just watched the last few matches at Alamo. Refs missed assists in each of the past two, on pretty cut and dry plays. Each match had a three assist cycle counted for two.

I have seen several matches like this. But what driving me bonkers is the pure persistence of teams wanting to shoot.

[Navid Shafa]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Just watched the last few matches at Alamo. Refs missed assists in each of the past two, on pretty cut and dry plays. Each match had a three assist cycle counted for two.

Similar happenings at PNW Auburn Mountainview.

I've seen teams wait 20+ seconds for a refresh on a cycle, not to mention the refs take forever to notice calling a dead ball.

Cycles HAVE to get started quicker. It is unacceptable for teams to be waiting 20-30 seconds for a new ball...

[bduddy]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Just watched the last few matches at Alamo. Refs missed assists in each of the past two, on pretty cut and dry plays. Each match had a three assist cycle counted for two.

Didn't ref and scorekeeper used to be separate positions? I don't know if FIRST has been lacking for volunteers or what, but if there was ever a game where they really needed to be separate...

...as a ref this year, I am not looking forward to trying to operate the scoring screen while watching for fouls...

[Ginger Power]

One of the volunteers that I saw, while watching Central Illinois, received a ball that was ejected from the field. The volunteer had no idea what to do with the ball and held onto it for a good 15-20 seconds. It didn't cost the alliance the match because two of the robots broke down but it easily could have changed the game.

[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.

[Rypsnort]

some matches look like a little kids soccer game.(bunch of bots in a group getting in each other's way)

[Rypsnort]

should get better as teams get practice.

[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.

[magnets]

Originally Posted by Madison

FIRST is consistently unable to create game rules that refs can enforce appropriately and is consistently unable to create a process and system that allows teams to remain connected to the field and operational for an entire match, so of course they'd design a game that relies heavily on each of those things.

It's understandably tough to get all the assists exactly as they happen, especially with good teams playing. What's frustrating is there seems to be no way for a referee to update a score after it happened (or they just don't care). Alamo's announcer called out multiple mistakes and once warned a team to wait a second for the ref to add an assist, but no correction was ever made.

Watching 118's shots bounce out of the poorly designed goal and watching 148 spin in circles because their drivers were bored was real disappointing.

Knowing the rules is really great, especially for the referees, who failed to disable a robot without bumpers.

On a more positive note, the new score display is kind of better. It's no longer 4:3, it's higher resolution, and it's got more info.
One comment- the rank numbers and green assist circles aren't obvious to understand. Also, the matches seem to be roughly 2 sec longer that they're supposed to be.

[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