Last call for bold predictions before competition begins!

[The other Gabe]

there will be at least one time during Einstein play where a robot will become stuck underneath the low bar, or flip itself attempting to traverse one of the other outer works

[Keefe2471]

I think you will see a few things develop over the next few weeks.

1. I think as scoring of boulders increases and inbounding becomes something that you are forced to do as boulders come in, instead of as your alliance needs them, you will need to have a presence in the secret passage to keep the enemy from short circuiting their cycles and easily running up the score. Therefor, defense will be critical and will be something you see on 6/8 elimination alliances at every regional up until district championships and Saint. Louis.

2. Tall robots will be the landfill robots of this year (a bit biased... but looking at #1, congestion issues at the batter and in the courtyard in general, and ease of manipulation of category A and C if you built tall, etc.)

3. Least bold prediction: Climbing will be much more like in 2010 than 2013.

[Anthony Galea]

ITT: people predicting that their robot design will win Einstein.

Here's a bold prediction: the portcullis will be knocked over or broken at least once this year.

[RadonH0926]

The alliance that wins Einstein will have a rookie team that was the first pick by the alliance captain. That same alliance will not have been a #1 seed in its respective division.

[Chris is me]

At least one low goal will be scored on Einstein.

Not every robot on the winning alliance will hang.

[carpedav000]

The winning alliance will be able to breach the outer works within 30 seconds (after autonomous)

[Joe G.]

The top 25 teams in FRC (measured however you would like -- FRCTop25, Looking Forward top 25, whatever) will have a greater percentage of low bar challenged robots than FRC as a whole.

In the elimination rounds, over 50% of low bar capable robots will never use the low bar.

Captures will occur in fewer than 30% of qualification matches across all weeks of regionals/districts. Of these captures, more than half will be achieved entirely through low goal scoring.

Matches in which all three robots make a high goal auto shot will occur, on average, less than three times per regional. Multi-ball autos don't count, but these will also be rarer than many are expecting, much rarer than they were in 2014

An 8th seed will make Einstien, and make a deep run there.

So will a rookie, and not as a 4th team.

No robots with Rhino tread modules will make Einstien.

A record number of backup robots will be used, both at championships and at regionals/districts

A highly favored alliance will loose in the finals due to a roboRIO brownout related error.

Scaling will start the season rare, but become practically a necessity for einstein teams.

Related, a cheesecakeable scaling device will emerge later in the season.

Across all week 0.5 and week 1 events, the number of triple tortugas will approach double digits.

A robot will successfully, if roughly, perform a barrel roll crossing the ramparts. People will be talking about it for years.

A majority of robot redesigns this year are going to be focused on swapping from a variable position to a fixed position shooter. The number of batter shooters will increase dramatically as the season goes on.

The category C defenses will never be used past the divisional quarterfinals.

Somebody is going to do something stupid with plastic pneumatic tanks, resulting in a hard impact to them during a defense crossing, catastrophic failure of the tank, and will subsequently re-open debate about these things.

For the first time since an equivalent statement was added in 2012, FIRST will act on the blue box under section 3.1.4 of the game manual, re-scaling the tower strength for championships. People will be disgruntled by this.

People will like this game less in April than they do right now. Reasons cited will be similar to Aerial Assist: robot fatigue, scoring/penalty inconsistencies, in addition to a less severe repeat of 2010's tendency to cause robots designed for the tunnel to blur together when viewed from a distance.

[Ginger Power]

Every team will wish they had a climber, and climbing will be shown to be way more valuable than expected.

The difference in performance between short and tall robots will be a lot less extreme than everybody is predicting. In the end it won't make a huge difference if you're tall or short if you can play the game effectively.

The qualities that describe most elite teams will be: Low bar capable, with an unblockable shot, and a climber.

Defense will play a factor in every single playoff match, but very few qualification matches.

The overall high score at most events will come during quals.

[Taylor]

On Einstein, at least one alliance in every round will have both breached the opponents' defenses and weakened the opponents' tower with 1:15 left in the match.

No scissorlifts will be in the CMP division finals.

There will be two Dean's List Finalists from the same school.

The CMP Chairman's Award will go to a team that is not American.

One Einstein alliance will be made of teams from the same district.

[maxnz]

Categories B & D and the low bar will be, on average, the first to be damaged.

[Poseidon5817]

Originally Posted by Bluman56

The #1 seed at every event will be a low bar bot.

This.

[churley]

Originally Posted by Poseidon5817

This.

Why, with almost everyone (on CD) at least claiming that they can go under the low bar the value of it had dramatically dropped, at least in my opinion. My bold prediction is that only half to 3/4 of the robots on Einstein will be low bar bots.

[the_godfaubel]

There will be a robot on Einstein that has a cheesecaked climbing device.

A #1 seed will pick the best robot available and be respectfully declined. The #1 seeded alliance will face that robot's alliance in the finals and win. (At a regional)

Someone will make a paper airplane that makes it into one of the towers on Einstein.

The winning alliance on Einstein will consist of all first time Champs.

[Procolsaurus]

There will be teams on Einstein that score their only boulder during autonomous.

[Zebra_Fact_Man]

Originally Posted by Joe G.

The top 25 teams in FRC (measured however you would like -- FRCTop25, Looking Forward top 25, whatever) will have a greater percentage of low bar challenged robots than FRC as a whole.

I almost guarantee it.

Originally Posted by Joe G.

Captures will occur in fewer than 30% of qualification matches across all weeks of regionals/districts. Of these captures, more than half will be achieved entirely through low goal scoring.

I'd wager > 75% of all captures will be done primarily with low goal scoring (5+ balls).

Originally Posted by Joe G.

No robots with Rhino tread modules will make Einstien.

That will be the biggest surprise of them all. Due to just the sheer mass quantity of them, I think like last year with mecanums, it's just bound to happen.

Originally Posted by Joe G.

Related, a cheesecakeable scaling device will emerge later in the season.

I sure would like to know how that will happen. I keep hearing whispers about cheesecake lifting, but that sounds crazier than cheesecake can burglary last year, which I don't think ever happened.

Originally Posted by Joe G.

A robot will successfully, if roughly, perform a barrel roll crossing the ramparts. People will be talking about it for years.

That's a bold strategy Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for 'em.

Originally Posted by Joe G.

The number of batter shooters will increase dramatically as the season goes on.

This also in; the amount of defense played on said batter shooters will also increase as the season goes on.

Originally Posted by Joe G.

The category C defenses will never be used past the divisional quarterfinals.

I hope that's not the case. C plans to be the first one we damage.