4th Member Play Predictions!

[Mr. Lim]

Originally Posted by SharonO

On Newton, the #8 alliance played their 4th pick (3284) right away. Does anyone know what their strategy was for doing this?

3284 actually played only the 2nd match of the #1 vs #8 Newton series.

#8 lost the first match while playing a more offensive-oriented, trussing strategy with either 2486 or 610 finishing. The #1 alliance was too effective in denying the post-truss inbound, and won the match.

After the loss there was a switch to a more defensive oriented ground-game strategy.

I really wanted to stress the graciousness of team 2486, The CocoNuts who we put in a very awkward position. They were an EXTREMELY open and accommodating Alliance Captain, and allowed us (610) to have great input on match strategy.

As such we proposed two basic strategies against the #1 alliance:

Offensive: 1285 as primary inbounder + trusser to HP, 610 and 2486 as finishers with 610 set up in the white zone and 2486 in the offensive zone. Either 610 or 2486 could receive the post-truss inbound and kiss pass to the other to finish, depending on how the defense was set up. 1285 and 610 could also switch roles mid-match if the defense denied 1285's inbound pass.

Defensive: 1285 as primary inbounder + shoot immediately back to HP then play defense, 3284 receives inbound and delivers kiss pass to 610 in white zone, then plays defense, 610 finishes low or high as quickly as possible, then plays defense. No truss.

We proposed that we try the offensive strategy first, then consider the defensive strategy if we lost, and try and catch the opponents off-guard to hopefully steal the next match.

We did lose the first match, and 2486 decided to give the defensive strategy a shot.

They worked really hard to be alliance captains, and there's no doubt in my mind every team would rather their team on the field instead of off the field.

All I can say is that they made a really big sacrifice to give our alliance a different look at upsetting the #1 seed...

...and we are supremely thankful to 2486 for that.

I don't it should be a surprise to anyone that the CocoNuts were Regional Chairman's Award, FIRST Dean's List Finalists (Kinney Anderson), and Regional Winners at Arizona this year. Teams like them deserve to win, not just for the quality of their robots, but for the quality of their people.