Relevant Questions While Scouting

[FlyingDutchman]

Our team is looking for specific questions to ask at competition to help us find our perfect alliances. We were wondering what kind of questions other scouting teams are asking besides the obvious ones. We would appreciate your input.....

[Cyber Punk 234]

Our team (234) makes a scouting sheet and says the basics how to score, speed, drive,etc. When you make a scouting sheet keep it basic but at the end you can add something like describe the teams teamwork and performance.

[Freddy Schurr]

If you wait later, some teams will post they scouting sheets in the White Papers section. So keep checking that.

Always useful!

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by FlyingDutchman

Our team is looking for specific questions to ask at competition to help us find our perfect alliances. We were wondering what kind of questions other scouting teams are asking besides the obvious ones. We would appreciate your input.....

Ask the obvious ones. Anything more than needed does nought but muddle the debate when picking alliance partners. And be sure to take pictures of team's robot. Pictures are worth 10,000 notes when scouting.

[pyroslev]

After the 2004 Norwalk Outbreak, a good question is backups. Make sure that any potential partners, especially Seeds, have at least one backup. It may seem trifling but I'd rather have the backups around then have a newbie on driving in the final match at the championships or regional!

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by FlyingDutchman

Our team is looking for specific questions to ask at competition to help us find our perfect alliances. We were wondering what kind of questions other scouting teams are asking besides the obvious ones. We would appreciate your input.....

There are two parts to scouting teams.

The first is assessing their "potential" capabilities. This includes looking at their robot, taking the picture, interviewing the team about their capabilities, etc. Many teams will tell you they are good shooters, but "good" is a relative term. Good may be 60% to one team, but 80% to another. You gather this information as much as possible on Thursday, the practice day. Watching the practice matches may provide some additional information, but not everyone is in the practice match to win it or display their capabilities.

If you see a good veteran team "missing the mark" on Thursday, don't get a comfortable feeling. Many times they may be doing some "final tweaks" to their bot, and aren't even concerned about performance on the field. [i.e., They may be watching how one of their motors is acting as it is shifting gears, or they may be looking at how to reduce the recoil of a fast shooting robot.] Veterans understand that practice day is like Happy Hour in Nascar, it's a time to get the final tweaks all worked out for the big race. Nobody wins a Regional on Thursday. That leads to the second part of scouting: Performance.

Performance data is collected on Friday and Saturday morning during the Qualification Rounds. This tells you if the designed capabilities of the robot (collected on Thursday) truly work, or need some improvement. Pay attention to those teams who may start off with a fizzle, but work through their difficulties and have a consistent bot by the end of Quals on Saturday. They may be a hidden gem.

Friday evening, you should go through your Quals data, and select those teams which you would pick and rank them. This is a preliminary draft, but it will help speed things on Saturday if you are a top 8 seed. Continue to collect match data on Saturday, and pay attention to how the consistency of teams changes. Shuffle your ranking as needed to account for teams that improve or those who decline. Your final list will be your top 24 teams (because there are 24 teams that will be in the playoffs).

It's always disheartening to see a team send their alliance captain out onto the field with a list of 5 to 10 teams. They worked so hard on their robot to get in the position to pick, then they slack off on their scouting, and end up with a less than optimal alliance. Those 5 to 10 teams are on everyone else's list as well, and by the time the second pick comes around they are all gone. So you have someone yell from the stands "3 - 6 - 9", but they hear "3 - 6 - 5", and make the wrong selection. Give your team every advantage, and use your scouting fully by producing your top 24 list. Even is you are not picking, quite often the alliance captain's team won't have 24 names on their list. They may turn to you for help selecting a third alliance partner -- be prepared!

NOTE: [Personally, I consider 365 to be an excellent selection! I just needed an example in the discussion.]

[pyroslev]

Originally Posted by Bill Moore

There are two parts to scouting teams.

The first is assessing their "potential" capabilities. This includes looking at their robot, taking the picture, interviewing the team about their capabilities, etc. Many teams will tell you they are good shooters, but "good" is a relative term. Good may be 60% to one team, but 80% to another. You gather this information as much as possible on Thursday, the practice day. Watching the practice matches may provide some additional information, but not everyone is in the practice match to win it or display their capabilities.

If you see a good veteran team "missing the mark" on Thursday, don't get a comfortable feeling. Many times they may be doing some "final tweaks" to their bot, and aren't even concerned about performance on the field. [i.e., They may be watching how one of their motors is acting as it is shifting gears, or they may be looking at how to reduce the recoil of a fast shooting robot.] Veterans understand that practice day is like Happy Hour in Nascar, it's a time to get the final tweaks all worked out for the big race. Nobody wins a Regional on Thursday. That leads to the second part of scouting: Performance.

Performance data is collected on Friday and Saturday morning during the Qualification Rounds. This tells you if the designed capabilities of the robot (collected on Thursday) truly work, or need some improvement. Pay attention to those teams who may start off with a fizzle, but work through their difficulties and have a consistent bot by the end of Quals on Saturday. They may be a hidden gem.

Friday evening, you should go through your Quals data, and select those teams which you would pick and rank them. This is a preliminary draft, but it will help speed things on Saturday if you are a top 8 seed. Continue to collect match data on Saturday, and pay attention to how the consistency of teams changes. Shuffle your ranking as needed to account for teams that improve or those who decline. Your final list will be your top 24 teams (because there are 24 teams that will be in the playoffs).

It's always disheartening to see a team send their alliance captain out onto the field with a list of 5 to 10 teams. They worked so hard on their robot to get in the position to pick, then they slack off on their scouting, and end up with a less than optimal alliance. Those 5 to 10 teams are on everyone else's list as well, and by the time the second pick comes around they are all gone. So you have someone yell from the stands "3 - 6 - 9", but they hear "3 - 6 - 5", and make the wrong selection. Give your team every advantage, and use your scouting fully by producing your top 24 list. Even is you are not picking, quite often the alliance captain's team won't have 24 names on their list. They may turn to you for help selecting a third alliance partner -- be prepared!

NOTE: [Personally, I consider 365 to be an excellent selection! I just needed an example in the discussion.]

Sounds a lot like 616's scouting technique from last few years. Not everyone is honest in the pits or on the field that Thursday.

Something else is to watch the practice field for those teams that perform. May seem trivial to some but watching and listening on the Practice Field can reveal some information you otherwise might not pick up on until it is too late.