[FRCGameSense] IRI Special with Nick Lawrence

[Nuttyman54]

If you thought the Championship was the end of the season, you’re dead wrong. The IRI is next week, and they eyes of FIRSTers from across the globe will be trained on Indianapolis. Many of the greatest teams from this season will be in attendance, ready to make spectacular plays and record-breaking performances.

Join the GameSense crew on Wednesday July 16th at 8 PM EDT for a 1 hour IRI special. Joining us this week will be Nick Lawrence, the acclaimed former driver of 1503 and a 2013 World Champion with 610. Now working at AndyMark and based out of Kokomo, IN, he'll help us break down what to expect from this prestigious offseason tournament.

As always, send in your questions to @FRCGameSense on twitter, or email us at our new email address: questions@frcgamesense.com.

See you Wednesday at 5PT/8ET on www.twitch.tv/FRCGameSense and www.youtube.com/FRCGameSense!

Twitter:@FRCGameSense
Email:questions@frcgamesense.com
Facebook:www.facebook.com/FRCGameSense
YouTube:FRCGameSense

*Note: We realize that the FRCTop25 show is directly after us, so we will make every effort to end our show on time or a bit early so that everyone can enjoy both.

[pwnageNick]

Nick Lawrence? I'm in.

[Nick Lawrence]

Happy and honored to be apart of this special episode! Thanks for the invitation!

-Nick

[Nuttyman54]

We're going live in just a few minutes, tune in at www.twitch.tv/FRCGameSense and www.youtube.com/FRCGameSense!

[brennonbrimhall]

Great show, guys!

[Ty Tremblay]

Thanks everyone for watching!

Here's the intro video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQLEmMZ28iM

And the link to the VOD when it's up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWHTN63_u0s

And the chat log: http://pastebin.com/Pek9CsYC

And the straw poll results:http://strawpoll.me/2131381/r

Finally, there were a few questions we didn't have time to get to before the end of the show, so we'll answer them below.

Will we see more teams use the strategy that the 8th seed on Archimedes used to take down 2056?

• Ty - 1918 was a very unique robot and I don’t think we’ll see that strategy. However, the zone rule changes would help this immensely. If only 1918 was going to IRI!
• Steph - Nope.
• Evan - I think without the zone possession requirement, the strategy actually loses some of its power. I think the game will become more mobile because robots aren’t fixed to zones, and that would put the strategy at a disadvantage.
• Francis - I think the strategy is going to show up at some point at IRI, probably in a qualification match or one of the early quarter-final matches. I think a modified version of the strategy involving a “ball tunnel” robot is much more likely.
• Nick - I don’t think so unless a robot identical to 1918 is on the field. That strategy only worked because of their unique catch and re-score ability.

How important will goalie auto modes be, especially with the fourth ball in auto?

• Ty - As we said in the show, the number of bots with good 2-ball autos will help give goalie bots the chance to get back there. I think it’ll be more prevalent, but still a random chance that it has an effect on the match.
• Steph - 42.
• Evan - I think after they showed up on Einstein, we’ll see them a lot more at IRI. Against an effective goalie pole, a 4 ball auto is even higher risk because there’s a chance to have to chase down more balls.
• Francis - More of them will show up for sure, but their effect is partly negated by the introduction of a 4th ball. Blockers came to power when it teams expected to be matched with teams with two ball autos, freeing up a robot to play goalie. Now that up to two two-ball autos are available, fewer teams will end up as goalies. All that being said, there will be more blockers, and the blockers will be better than we have seen at Championship.
• Nick - Goalie pole autos will become somewhat more valuable IF you have a solid two-ball auto to go with it. Or perhaps 254 + a one ball auto + a solid goalie.

Do you think a truss catch strategy will be viable?

• Ty - Don’t think so. The shooters are better and the catchers are better, but so is the defense. With no zones, passing will be that much easier.
• Steph - I don’t think we’ll see truss catch at IRI any more than we did during the regular season.
• Evan - If someone can dial in a full court truss & catch, low goal to low goal, we could see it. It’s possible to Otherwise, no. I think it will happen at IRI, but not as a consistent strategy.
• Francis - No. Truss and catch was not a thing during the season, and there, so far, has not been a “magic bullet” to solve this problem. Stop trying to make fetch catch happen; it’s not going to happen.
• Nick - Maybe, with the added focus of defending the lead scorer, but with so much field traffic I’m not sure it’s more viable than it was before.

If you had to rename Aerial Assist, what name would you pick?

• Ty - “JUST PUT IT IN THE LOW GOAL!”
• Steph - Arial Assault or Hot Potato
• Evan - Revenge of the Pedestal
• Francis - Hit the Guy with the Ball
• Nick - Aerial Assault or FTA Bowling!

[brennonbrimhall]

Originally Posted by Ty Tremblay

Will we see more teams use the strategy that the 8th seed on Archimedes used to take down 2056?
Ty - 1918 was a very unique robot and I don’t think we’ll see that strategy. However, the zone rule changes would help this immensely. If only 1918 was going to IRI!
Steph - Nope.
Evan - I think without the zone possession requirement, the strategy actually loses some of its power. I think the game will become more mobile because robots aren’t fixed to zones, and that would put the strategy at a disadvantage.
Francis - I think the strategy is going to show up at some point at IRI, probably in a qualification match or one of the early quarter-final matches. I think a modified version of the strategy involving a “ball tunnel” robot is much more likely.
Nick - I don’t think so unless a robot identical to 1918 is on the field. That strategy only worked because of their unique catch and re-score ability.

My 2 cents: 254, 4039, or another robot that has an intake out the back or another way to attain the ball and score it in the high goal without moving from in front of the 1 point goal is functionally identical to 1918.

[BriteBacon]

Originally Posted by brennonbrimhall

My 2 cents: 254, 4039, or another robot that has an intake out the back or another way to attain the ball and score it in the high goal without moving from in front of the 1 point goal is functionally identical to 1918.

What made 1918 unique is that they didn't need an arm down to be able to shoot. If a robot like 469 were to do that strategy it would be less effective since their arm needs to be down in order to shoot and almost any robot can prevent this for a while.

[Ty Tremblay]

Originally Posted by BriteBacon

What made 1918 unique is that they didn't need an arm down to be able to shoot. If a robot like 469 were to do that strategy it would be less effective since their arm needs to be down in order to shoot and almost any robot can prevent this for a while.

What really made 1918 so unique was their ability to catch a call from the human player and directly score. All other robots would probably require another robot to get near them in order to pull off the same strategy.

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by Ty Tremblay

Do you think a truss catch strategy will be viable?
Evan - If someone can dial in a full court truss & catch, low goal to low goal, we could see it. It’s possible to Otherwise, no. I think it will happen at IRI, but not as a consistent strategy.

hmmm... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-oWAS9_Rl4

[Francis-134]

Thanks for tuning in today! I know a lot of people have been asking for an MP3 of the show, so we're giving it a try this week with our IRI show. Check out the mp3 of the full show here.

Originally Posted by brennonbrimhall

My 2 cents: 254, 4039, or another robot that has an intake out the back or another way to attain the ball and score it in the high goal without moving from in front of the 1 point goal is functionally identical to 1918.

This is quite true, but I would see 254 specifically playing a more active strategy during the match, just because of their high skill playing in the white zone.

[brennonbrimhall]

Originally Posted by brennonbrimhall

My 2 cents: 254, 4039, or another robot that has an intake out the back or another way to attain the ball and score it in the high goal without moving from in front of the 1 point goal is functionally identical to 1918.

For the record, view 469 in Finals Match 1, specifically at 34 seconds. And again at 1:19.