Throwing Noodles, is it Worth it?

[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by Riverdance

This is going to be an extremely unpopular opinion, but my captain has implemented a no-noodle policy that we as strategists are supposed to ask our alliance partners to respect if possible during match planning. He would like to avoid the possibility of the noodles getting stuck underneath the other alliance's robots' wheels and preventing them from functioning properly (as mentioned earlier) or getting stuck whilst driving (a side effect that we noticed at Suffield Shakedown), even to the effect that we gain four points per piece that they do not manage to corral into the landfill zone.

There's also the point that a lot of times the human player put in charge of noodle throwing can't throw it as far as they think they can, and it ends up hurting our alliance by cluttering up our side of the field and giving us more obstacles to maneuver around. Less of an issue for us with our sick H-Drive, but an issue nonetheless.

I absolutely agree that throwing noodles needs to be an ALLIANCE decision. If you can show that your HP can hit the other field a very HIGH % of the time then it can be worth it, but it also is risky both in scoring on the wrong side and impeding higher value stacking.

If you're alliance isn't productive elsewhere then throwing is a more viable strategy, but with a good alliance it probably isn't worth the risk.

In watching a half dozen regionals last week I saw only two HPs who could get 80% over to the other side. The rest looked to be mostly haphazard.

I think we're playing in an arena this week where the air conditioning will affect the noodle flight. It was a problem in 2013 with the frisbees. Supposed to be in the mid-70s so expect the AC will be on.

[Oromus]

I think most people have been too harsh on noodles. At the Georgia Southern Classic, very many human players were able to get noodles onto their opponent's side of the field. Teams were able to get an extra 20+ points just from throwing noodles. Some teams with Noodle Jesus watching over them got even more. There weren't too many times robots struggled with noodles on the floor, but sometimes those were noodles thrown by their opposing alliance. I think noodles being useful to comes down to how you answer two questions:

• Are the noodles at your venue "good" (stiff enough to be thrown accurately)?
• Is your human player good at throwing "good" noodles?

If the answer to both are "Yes", I believe you should be throwing noodles. If the answer to the first question is "No", I don't think the noodles are worth being used for that competition. If the answer to the second question is "No", I suggest you train your human player more noodles that can be thrown accurately but aren't absurdly stiff.

[Riverdance]

Originally Posted by Citrus Dad

In watching a half dozen regionals last week I saw only two HPs who could get 80% over to the other side. The rest looked to be mostly haphazard.

I concur. At our district event (Waterbury) last weekend, there was one human player that was consistently extremely impressive. Other than that, the noodles just kind of seemed to make a mess on the alliance's side of the field that was throwing them.

[Siri]

As a ref who got very used to pressing the "unprocessed litter" button at Hatboro, we had a few Noodle Apostles and at least one Noodle Jesus.