2015 Week Zero Lessons Learned

[MooreteP]

Just got home in a snowstorm from the Suffield Shakedown.

Lessons learned:

- Coopertition points will get you the seeding that you want. Stacks are easy to make on the step. Sets won't happen.

- Landfill congestion will conspire against you in gaining Coopertition points.

- Placing a recycle container on a tote stack triples its value. Worth it.

- In a 2:15 match, it is difficult to make more than one stack per Robot with a recycling container. The higher the stack, the more time it takes.

- Robots build higher stacks by placing multiple totes on each other.

- Alliances with a well coordinated game plan will succeed in increasing their Qualification Averages.

- There are openings in the plexiglass between alliance teams to facilitate communication.

- Human Player loading can be more efficient than gathering off of the field.

- The noodles that we had seemed more dense than our KOP noodles and could easily make it all the way to the other driver station.

- Noodles can be placed in recycle containers by the Human Players, but it is quicker if the containers are tipped towards the slot. Human Players were bending the noodles to more easily place them in the containers.

- Noodles accounted for almost half of the match points.

- Noodles get chewed up by mecanums with their lateral; shear forces.

- Noodles really mess with Robot mobility.

- Autonomous scoring is harder than you think. We saw none. Tote and Robot sets are the best most can hope for. The autonomous zone is a tight space and the scoring platforms mess with your positioning in the zone.

- Center of Gravity plays a big role and makes the scoring activities quite exciting.

- It's a great game, but difficult for spectators to understand the scoring.

- Ranking is where there will be drama. Did an alliance score above or below their Qualification Average? That will move them up or down as the competition progresses.


What I would change?
Too many totes on the field, but I guess that is part of the challenge.
I would remove a row of totes from the Landfill zone and the step and make them all upright.