Buyers' remorse / Pig in a poke

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

I'm sorry, but in the 6 years I've been mentoring in FIRST I could count the number of times a teammate has "refused" to help on one hand. Maybe that is just the area I'm in but I can't imagine that happening so often that it effects your rankings that badly. I can't also imagine that you are stuck with 2 immobile robots so often that you have to do everything on your own.

It's more ineptitude than refusal.

We went into Waterford with the idea that we would play for 3 assists in every match. Things went well our first match. Then over the next 3 matches we accumulated a grand total of 10 assist points (not 10 points per match - 10 points TOTAL over those 3 matches).

All three of those matches involved 2 boxes on wheels or a box on wheels plus an unusable intake. We tried our best to help them assist, but after 20 seconds of fumbling around in teleop and the referee still hasn't given an assist credit, the most recent bump into a ball by the partner sent the ball way across the field (with no assist credit), and all the while the opposing alliance is building up a lead, what can you do? At this rate we'll be lucky to get a single cycle completed and lose the match, or we can decide to scrap it and get 20 points a cycle using the one-man-show truss then shoot strategy. Since wins are still more important than assists, we had to abandon the assist strategy and just try as hard as we could to catch up and win the match.

Every one of those matches we had a good plan to get the assists, and every match it became clear that an assist just wasn't going to happen.

With all of that being said, that doesn't mean I hate the game. As was already mentioned, we would have difficulty with those matches in any game.

[notmattlythgoe]

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

It's more ineptitude than refusal.

We went into Waterford with the idea that we would play for 3 assists in every match. Things went well our first match. Then over the next 3 matches we accumulated a grand total of 10 assist points (not 10 points per match - 10 points TOTAL over those 3 matches).

All three of those matches involved 2 boxes on wheels or a box on wheels plus an unusable intake. We tried our best to help them assist, but after 20 seconds of fumbling around in teleop and the referee still hasn't given an assist credit, the most recent bump into a ball by the partner sent the ball way across the field (with no assist credit), and all the while the opposing alliance is building up a lead, what can you do? At this rate we'll be lucky to get a single cycle completed and lose the match, or we can decide to scrap it and get 20 points a cycle using the one-man-show truss then shoot strategy. Since wins are still more important than assists, we had to abandon the assist strategy and just try as hard as we could to catch up and win the match.

Every one of those matches we had a good plan to get the assists, and every match it became clear that an assist just wasn't going to happen.

With all of that being said, that doesn't mean I hate the game. As was already mentioned, we would have difficulty with those matches in any game.

What about having your partner pin the ball against the wall? Or one strategy we've talked about is drop the ball in front of the low goal and have your partner push it in for the assist and the point. I understand it's easier said than done, we're making sure to ask the refs during the drivers meeting what they are going to consider an assist so we can attempt to think about some easy ways box bots can help generate assists.

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

What about having your partner pin the ball against the wall? Or one strategy we've talked about is drop the ball in front of the low goal and have your partner push it in for the assist and the point. I understand it's easier said than done, we're making sure to ask the refs during the drivers meeting what they are going to consider an assist so we can attempt to think about some easy ways box bots can help generate assists.

Interesting you mention that: that was our strategy (to have them pin the ball against the rail). We even briefed the refs that we were going to do it. Then the ball got put in play and it got bumped, started rolling around, and it seems it becomes nearly impossible to track down after that starts to happen.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

It's more ineptitude than refusal.

We went into Waterford with the idea that we would play for 3 assists in every match. Things went well our first match. Then over the next 3 matches we accumulated a grand total of 10 assist points (not 10 points per match - 10 points TOTAL over those 3 matches).

All three of those matches involved 2 boxes on wheels or a box on wheels plus an unusable intake. We tried our best to help them assist, but after 20 seconds of fumbling around in teleop and the referee still hasn't given an assist credit, the most recent bump into a ball by the partner sent the ball way across the field (with no assist credit), and all the while the opposing alliance is building up a lead, what can you do? At this rate we'll be lucky to get a single cycle completed and lose the match, or we can decide to scrap it and get 20 points a cycle using the one-man-show truss then shoot strategy. Since wins are still more important than assists, we had to abandon the assist strategy and just try as hard as we could to catch up and win the match.

Every one of those matches we had a good plan to get the assists, and every match it became clear that an assist just wasn't going to happen.

With all of that being said, that doesn't mean I hate the game. As was already mentioned, we would have difficulty with those matches in any game.

Perhaps on offense, rules can be changed to credit an assist for mere CONTACT with a ball in a unique zone. Are you a statue of sadness? Partners can just plink balls off your motionless frame and get credit for the assist. Problem solved! Woot woot.

Defensive possession rules would remain the same as before.

Let's rolllllll for it.