Team Hammond

[Ian Mathew]

Originally posted by Jack Jones
You can wish/hope/pray all you want; but the question posed was – What happened to Hammond? In my opinion (to which I believe I’m entitled) the best way to counter Hammond’s awesome flailer was to hit them hard before they could deploy. That fact wasn’t lost on Hammond’s opponents, as evidenced by the number of times they were run at in the Regionals as well as the Nats, where they were toppled out-of-bounds and had their pivot tubes bent in the process. The referees endorsed the tactic by disabling #71 and not penalizing the Bot that put them there.

Don’t get me wrong. The pushing, shoving, and the battles for the top made for an exciting game. On the other hand, some of us have serious doubts as to whether we can stay below the $3.5k ceiling while building our machines to military specs in order to survive the game.

So, let’s be careful what we wish. Or, we’ll end up wearing asbestos suits and sporting heavy armor plate as we try to dodge the Pulverizer.

Easy solution: build a bot that doesn't get pushed easily, and can withstand being hit. For example(I don't mean to be egotistical, but I know more about our robot than I do about others): During a match in our division elimination rounds, we were flipped completely upside down. We were like that for probably a good 1:15 before being flipped back over by our alliance partners, 302. We were still able to drive, clear out boxes, and eventually win the match. We ran it in the next match, and it worked perfect. Another exaple is the Martians, team 494. They were a fast robot that was kind of difficult to control. Their speed gave them great advantages in getting to the wall in auto, and knocking down stacks. They caused, and took many hits and still managed to make it to every qualification match in the two regionals I saw them in, and not break once. Also, I specifically asked a Referee while waiting in line at Six Flags, if a robot who is pushed outside the arena would be disabled. She said yes. When battling for a stack, you must be responsible for keeping yourself inside the field, not your opponents.