Karthik & 1114: Effective FIRST Strategies 2016 - Championship Conference

[Joe Johnson]

Originally Posted by Karthik

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Oh yeah, I guess we'll talk about what terrified me back during build season and how that played out throughout this season...

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Karthik,
As you know we've had a number of (non-CD) discussions on this topic. I hope you will react to my contention that FIRST (inadvertently or by design, I don't know) literally saved the season by having the low bar consistently be the #1 defense.

Yes, there were terrifying aspects to the fact that 90% of teams were designing their robots to go under the low bar but you also have to admit that one side effect of so many teams trying get their robots under the low bar (even if they failed to ACTUALLY be able to limbo*) is that these robots end up with a much lower CG than they would have absent that design goal.

Even so, I think I have seen more "wheels to the ceiling" flipped robots this year than any year in FIRST since I started in the 1996 season. It is terrifying to me to think how many robots would be flipped on the defenses had FIRST NOT put their thumb on the scale by having the one constant defense be the low bar.

I think this merits a word or two in your presentation -- if for no other reason than to get the idea into FIRST's head that they need to be smart about the incentives they build into future games*.

Free advice. A bargain at twice the price...

Dr. Joe J.

*by the way, I predicted "at best we'll have 50% limbo bots once you exclude robots that have no other skills beyond just being able to limbo." Does anyone have the data to make a chart that shows % of limbo teams for each week of the season? Love to see where things actually landed.