What is a winning alliance going to look like?

[pandamonium]

Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard

Hangs won't be necessary to win any event until at least after weeks 5.

While I often agree with you Kevin, any event just seems off. Hanging mechanisms will be the cheesecake flavor of the year IMO. If one robot on the alliance can climb in theory all 3 could with cake. 10 additional points is not a big advantage but 30 is. I would even go as far to say that climb points will be the winning margin at at least 5 regionals before week 5.

[kht5586]

1 shooter bot being fed from enemy Secret Passage
1 mobile shooter that can cross defenses that takes boulders from your own SP or a Defense Breacher, whichever proves to be worth more points.
1 Defense bot or another shooter (Low goal possibly)

EDIT: They all have to be able to climb, no doubt.

[IronicDeadBird]

2 breach robots, 1 feeder/defense.

[evanperryg]

Originally Posted by pandamonium

Hanging mechanisms will be the cheesecake flavor of the year IMO. If one robot on the alliance can climb in theory all 3 could with cake.

I can see climber cheesecakes being a thing, but I'll bet that at lower levels of play, collector cheesecakes will be the flavor of choice among tower-focused alliances.

[NShep98]

Originally Posted by Boltman

Specialty Bot sits at end of Secret passage (with ramp over lip) and Repeats the forward action of the Human player who bowls ball to the bot who intercepts and shoots the ball at High velocity to the "Spy bot" who is deadly accurate from that corner in the high goal.

That means 1 boulder in auto
Then another quick 5 using the HP to Special To High To Castle train after those six are scored against the castle any additional boulders get delivered or the special bot retrieves 2 boulders from field and shoot them to High Goal bot. Castle now weakened.

You are looking at a G39 there:

G39 ROBOTS are prohibited from launching BOULDERS unless they are in contact with the opponent’s
TOWER or carpet in the opponent’s COURTYARD, and not in contact with any other carpet.
Violation: TECH FOUL per BOULDER

And note G40 as well:

G40
Actions such as “carrying”, “herding”, and “trapping” are not violations
of this rule.
A ROBOT may not cause a BOULDER to move from the NEUTRAL ZONE into the opponent’s
COURTYARD unless:
A. the ROBOT contacts the BOULDER within OUTER WORKS, and
B. the ROBOT completes its CROSSING (i.e. doesn’t completely back out of the OUTER
WORKS into the NEUTRAL ZONE)
Violation: TECH FOUL per BOULDER

[tprize]

Alliance Captain - Shooting Bot
1st Pick - Breacher
2nd Pick - Assist Bot

I believe that there will only be one shooter with an assist bot because to have only one shooter that would not need to move and would be constantly fed ammo by the assist bot, this should allow the shooter to get off 33-66% more shots and should be more effective than having two shooters.

[Grayspecter]

I think a winning alliance would probably consist of a cycling high goal shooter, a specialist breacher, and a secondary support/high goal shooter.

In autonomous, the cycling shooter and the support/shooter will attempt to cross the outer works and score in the high goal. The breacher will attempt to cross a defense and then cross back out to give it a head start in the breaching process.

During teleop:
The cycling high goal shooter (probably the alliance captain) would run cycles between the neutral zone and the opponent's courtyard through the entire match, passing primarily through Group B and D defenses.

A specialist breacher would spend part of their match running between the neutral zone and the opponent's courtyard a total of at least 6 times in order to damage the defenses for the minimum requirement for a breach (6 because the high goal shooter will be crossing defenses as part of its cycles). Optionally, if it is capable of going under the low bar, it can cycle two more times to net extra points.

The secondary high goal shooter would start their match as the defense robot in their own courtyard, harassing enemy shooters and blocking access to undamaged defenses (note: G25 states: "A single ROBOT blocking access to a particular DEFENSE is not considered impeding the flow of the MATCH."), as well as collected missed shots of opponents and placing them in the secret passage for access by the cycling high goal shooter. Personally, I think this role is crucial to an alliance, since with a limited amount of boulders on the field, it's important to maintain control of a slight majority of boulders at all times, so that high goal shooters can continue to shoot points throughout the match.

When the specialist breacher has finished satisfying the requirements for a breach, it will switch positions with the secondary high goal shooter, which will head towards the opponent's courtyard to shoot additional high goals. The breacher will continue to play the support/defense role of the secondary shooter until end game. At higher levels of play, this transition would be made more smoothly than in the beginning of the season, as breacher bots get more experienced and efficient at damaging defenses as fast as possible.

In the end game, they will at least capture the tower and most likely 2 out of the 3 will scale the tower.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Boltman

Specialty Bot sits at end of Secret passage (with ramp over lip) and Repeats the forward action of the Human player who bowls ball to the bot who intercepts and shoots the ball at High velocity to the "Spy bot" who is deadly accurate from that corner in the high goal.

Either I'm misreading this or we're reading the rules very differently. Several rules conspire to specify that boulders have to be carried individually by robots through the outer defenses. Robots may not project boulders except from within the opponent's courtyard.

Edit: Above content Ninja'd by Nathan

I think there will be one sapper/breacher who also carries boulders in and can score many of them, and two boulder runners/scorers. At least two scale the tower. One of the robots switches to defense once the both the defenses and tower are weakened.

[EricLeifermann]

Look to 2012 and 2010(not the passing in the zones, but the number of hangers) and I think the winning alliances will look like those.

[Noudvanbrunscho]

I expect the number 1 robot would be a Breacher/High goal shooter.
The First pick would be a low bar Robot which does cycles from your secret passage (easy ball recieving) to the high or low goal (and mabye categorie B or D).
And for the Second pick i would choose a high defender.
preferably all climbers aswell

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

I think the winning alliance will be a team of robots that can breach and capture. I don't know if doing both will be necessary with every regional but doing both is a good way to lock down the win or at least be in the running for the win. If two alliances can do that then it will come down to things like autonomous, high goal shots, and scaling.

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by pandamonium

While I often agree with you Kevin, any event just seems off. Hanging mechanisms will be the cheesecake flavor of the year IMO. If one robot on the alliance can climb in theory all 3 could with cake. 10 additional points is not a big advantage but 30 is. I would even go as far to say that climb points will be the winning margin at at least 5 regionals before week 5.

Interesting thought actually. I never even thought about cheesecaking a hanger on another robot. I'm gonna go talk to my teams about this idea (although there are some obvious hurdles to overcome to do that).

However I still believe it won't be necessary to hang to win any event in weeks 0.5-4

The winning alliances will win because of their abilities breaching defenses and capturing towers more often than their ability to scale the tower.