What are the most desirable attributes top seed teams are looking for in a robot?

[ldsedam]

This year isn't like 2016 where at least one bonus ranking points is easy to get every match. One team is not going to be able to get the ranking point for kPa or for gears alone. In eliminations, the top seeds are going to be picking the robots that can help them finish the gears to get the 100 point bonus and finish the boiler to get the 20 point bonus.

[Donut]

Originally Posted by ldsedam

One team is not going to be able to get the ranking point for kPa or for gears alone.

I don't think it's unreasonable for some of the high level teams to get the kPa ranking point alone, and judging from the bonus point difference in elims between gears and kPa the GDC thinks it will happen also. A dedicated low goal bot could accomplish the 40 points needed in 4 cycles utilizing two hopper dumps with floor pickup and two big runs to the human player with some floor pickup on the way.

Gears are a different story, the distance across the field alone makes it impossible for a team to do all 12 gears. Even an elite team is going to have trouble doing more than 6 in teleop once defense is present.

I think for most events the #1 or #2 alliance might be looking for just a hanging bot for defense since they can get close to the 12 gears with two robots. For any lower seeded alliances having all three robots capable of contributing at least one or two gears each will be crucial to get the 100 point bonus in hopes of upsetting the top teams. It will be interesting to see how it plays out, for events without elite gear runners the 3 - 6 seeds might have the easiest path to winning the event if they can assemble a team that can do 5-4-3 gears as a group versus the top alliances that can do 6-5 between the first two picks but a shaky 1 gear with the last pick.

[nardavin]

Originally Posted by ldsedam

This year isn't like 2016 where at least one bonus ranking points is easy to get every match. One team is not going to be able to get the ranking point for kPa or for gears alone. In eliminations, the top seeds are going to be picking the robots that can help them finish the gears to get the 100 point bonus and finish the boiler to get the 20 point bonus.

Agreed. In this game, no bonus RP are guaranteed. I honestly be surprised if more than 10% of quals matches will have bonus RP awarded. Because of this, captains will want picks that will be good in their own specialty so that they can achieve the bonuses.

[Eric Scheuing]

IMO top seeded teams this year will be looking for alliance partners who can effectively complete whatever tasks they can't do reliably themselves. I expect we'll see a shift in what those tasks are as we get further into the season, but the trend will be there.