OPS ranking of Michigan FRC teams

[Richard Wallace]

Proposed pre-DCMP ranking method, taking account of:

• Winning
• Scoring
• Leadership and Communication

I am calling this metric OPR plus State Points, or OPS. I started with the RoboZone rankings by Jim Zondag and Dan Kimura, aggregated those two expert lists, and resorted based on OPS, which is the sum of district points earned before DCMP and the team's average OPR. Here is my Michigan Top 25 list as of Week 5:

		           SP		OPS	     rank
33	Killer Bees	   146		190.72	     1
67	The HOT Team	   146		189.97	     2
3357	COMETS	           141		188.02	     3
2834	Bionic B'Hawks	   145		187.01	     4
85	B.O.B	           144		185.60	     5
3620	Average Joes	   125		178.75	     6
1023	Bedford Express	   139		175.02	     7
27	Rush	           122	*	172.45	     8
2767	Stryke Force	   126		168.74	     9
3546	Buc'n Gears	   125		164.60	    10
3534	House of Cards	   127		163.16	    11
1918	NC Gears	   121		162.39	    12
2137	TORC	           124		162.11	    13
1718	Fighting Pi	   126		162.08	    14
3604	Goon Squad	   123	*	161.48	    15
5460	Strike Zone	   119		156.69	    16
4384	Benzene Bots	   116		155.29	    17
3602	RoboMos	           118		151.59	    18
3688	Norsemen	   107	*	145.99	    19
217	ThunderChickens	    98		144.60	    20
4377	Boyne City Blaze   109		144.33	    21
107	R.O.B.O.T.I.C.S.   106		143.71	    22
2619	The Charge	   103		143.12	    23
2054	Tech Vikes	   102		142.16	    24
494	Martians	   107		142.02	    25
70	More Martians	   107		141.68	    26

The OPS metric is not perfect. For example, I think it under-rates Thunderchickens and Tech Vikes*. However, I think it will predict DCMP / CMP performance more accurately than either district points or OPR alone. District points include awards, which I think are a realistic reflection of a team's potential for leadership and communication contribution to alliance success.

I have asterisks in the lines for Rush, Goon Squad, and Norsemen. These teams each have one more FiM event to play in Week 6. I added 50 district points to their present totals, anticipating each team will make the finals at their second event.

Please comment and critique this method of ranking.

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*2771 Code Red is also omitted, because they are not on Dan or Jim's ranking lists (yet), having played their first FiM event in Week 5. I expect they will appear, probably pretty high up, when rankings are recalculated before DCMP.

[Josh Fox]

All my questions have been answered by edits

[tr6scott]

TORC, not TORQ please.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by tr6scott

TORC, not TORQ please.

Corrected in here. Now you just have to work on Dan and Jim!

[Mike Schreiber]

This is a unique idea, kinda cool. You mentioned 2771 is not on the list - they're a monster shooter and with the high score of the week will no doubt be up there. You'll likely see 3536 on Jim and/or Dan's lists this coming week as well - Howell was their first event. They're a shooter that can hang with the rest of the teams up there and are rather tough to defend against since they line up pretty fast.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Mike Schreiber

This is a unique idea, kinda cool. You mentioned 2771 is not on the list - they're a monster shooter and with the high score of the week will no doubt be up there. You'll likely see 3536 on Jim and/or Dan's lists this coming week as well - Howell was their first event. They're a shooter that can hang with the rest of the teams up there and are rather tough to defend against since they line up pretty fast.

I agree completely re: 2771. They made of lot of high goals at East Kentwood -- 2nd most in the field by our scouts' count. They also missed a larger percentage compared with other top shooting teams there, probably due to their shooter's ~30 inch gravity feed. I expect that percentage to improve next week and thereafter, as their drive team gets more comfortable with the robot.

Thanks for the heads-up on 3536. Your perspective on them as a finals opponent is very valuable.

[Mike Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Richard Wallace

I agree completely re: 2771. They made of lot of high goals at East Kentwood -- 2nd most in the field by our scouts' count. They also missed a larger percentage compared with other top shooting teams there, probably due to their shooter's ~30 inch gravity feed. I expect that percentage to improve next week and thereafter, as their drive team gets more comfortable with the robot.

Thanks for the heads-up on 3536. Your perspective on them as a finals opponent is very valuable.

As a team that played against 2771, I'm curious how you feel they do against defense? With the gravity feed it seems it would be easy to bump them as it's dropping and throw off the aim or even just sit in front of them with a reasonably tall robot and block since they shoot low.

They ran as quick as 11 second cycle times when being fed a ball perfectly by their human player, but I imagine ball defense can easily prevent this. They managed to put up 8 high goals - has anyone else in MI done this?

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Mike Schreiber

As a team that played against 2771, I'm curious how you feel they do against defense? With the gravity feed it seems it would be easy to bump them as it's dropping and throw off the aim or even just sit in front of them with a reasonably tall robot and block since they shoot low.

They ran as quick as 11 second cycle times when being fed a ball perfectly by their human player, but I imagine ball defense can easily prevent this. They managed to put up 8 high goals - has anyone else in MI done this?

My team never got the opportunity to play against 2771 at East Kentwood, although we did get to play with them as part of one extremely stacked qualification alliance (Q64). Our side combined for 18 high goals in that one, against no defense to speak of -- result 160-69. Those three teams (3620, 3357, 2771) finished 1-2-3 in qualifying OPR.

I did observe that 2771's gravity fed shot can be disrupted by well-timed love taps. However, only a few defenders played that smart against them. As you saw, they shoot a lot of high goals when fed by fast cycling partners against light defense. Eight is the most I saw them put in during a single match. My own team did that also (Q56 if I recall correctly). I think a few others have made eight, but not in Michigan that I can recall seeing. Did your team or 33 get that high this past weekend?

I think we will see an alliance combine for 20 high goals before Einstein. I hope to see that at MSC.

[Peyton Yeung]

Originally Posted by Mike Schreiber

As a team that played against 2771, I'm curious how you feel they do against defense? With the gravity feed it seems it would be easy to bump them as it's dropping and throw off the aim or even just sit in front of them with a reasonably tall robot and block since they shoot low.

They ran as quick as 11 second cycle times when being fed a ball perfectly by their human player, but I imagine ball defense can easily prevent this. They managed to put up 8 high goals - has anyone else in MI done this?

When we played against 2771 at Walker Warren in IN, 3180 caused them to miss all of their high goal shots while defending in match 1. You can see that 3180 waited for the ball to visually drop before hitting them. The ball also takes some time to fire when it is in the shooter. When left undefended they rarely missed.

[Calvin Hartley]

Originally Posted by Richard Wallace

My team never got the opportunity to play against 2771 at East Kentwood, although we did get to play with them as part of one extremely stacked qualification alliance (Q64). Our side combined for 18 high goals in that one, against no defense to speak of -- result 160-69.

What a crazy match-up that was. Even with defense, we weren't sure we could outscore you all. Looked like fun, but I kinda wish we were on your side.


I think defense did prove to be effective in the Semifinals at Kentwood. Just not quite effective enough, I guess. Shout-out to 3357, 2771, and 4409 on the win. Well earned.

[oliviat3357]

*4409, not 4819, on the win. And I believe COMETS put up 8 high goals in Quarters 3 match 1 (the world record match). The total for our alliance was 20 balls, with 1 of them being scored in auton.

[Matthew1998]

Originally Posted by Richard Wallace

I did observe that 2771's gravity fed shot can be disrupted by well-timed love taps. However, only a few defenders played that smart against them. As you saw, they shoot a lot of high goals when fed by fast cycling partners against light defense. Eight is the most I saw them put in during a single match. My own team did that also (Q56 if I recall correctly). I think a few others have made eight, but not in Michigan that I can recall seeing. Did your team or 33 get that high this past weekend?

4967 made 8 high goals at Kentwood in our 3rd semi-final match against 2771 and 3357. http://youtu.be/J4_GpIE3iTM
In reality, we actually had time for one more, but we were running out of time and didn't realize the score was so close (4 points), and ended up loosing on foul points.

[oliviat3357]

And Calvin, your team's alliance gave us more trouble in the semis than we had in the finals (in my opinion). 4967 has a fantastic robot this year. I can't wait to see it again at States.

[Calvin Hartley]

Thanks for the note, Olivia. We had a blast regardless of the turnout. Close matches, indeed! You've got a fantastic robot, very unique! I'm looking forward to States as well, assuming we make it in. (Honestly don't know - but I believe we will!)

[Mike Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Richard Wallace

I think a few others have made eight, but not in Michigan that I can recall seeing. Did your team or 33 get that high this past weekend?

I think we will see an alliance combine for 20 high goals before Einstein. I hope to see that at MSC.

We didn't go undefended until the finals, so we really didn't get the practice of cycling like you west side folks, based on the scores in Troy I'd say 33 didn't even go defense free there, but I haven't watched any video of it. We prefer the batter shot which may be a little slower to get to. I was watching the opposing alliance the entirety of playoffs - I honestly have no idea what each robot on our alliance scored. I was specifically watching how they were feeding balls and their patterns for crossing defenses. Our last match the alliance put up 12 high goals total, so I assume it was 6 for us and 6 for 2834, but it could have been 5 and 7 to either one of us.