1549's stratagy...

[Validius]

Greetings from GLR!!!!!

The regional was amazing this year, team 1549 had a VERY interesting experience and I thought it was worth sharing.

On practice day we very quickly realized that there was no way we cold score in the center goal, period. We had to totally rethink our stratagy. With an air of defeat we decided to go 100% defense. Our halftrack drivetrain made the robot very apt to this (that is, snowblower tracks in the back with casters in the front). On Friday we won all but one of our matches. 'It was coincidence' i thought, we wernt that good. Must have been the alliance. Come Saturday we start winning again, even with poor alliances and I begin to study the matches and the scorebord. While most matches ended up having scores of 40+ to 60+ our matches had scores of 10+ to 30-50+. We were winning everything and never scoring apart from a few one pointers in autonomus using our impotent shooter.

Next thing i know all the matches are over and its time for alliance picks in finals. We were #4!!! Needness to say the entire team was stunned and joyous. We picked team 66 and 68 for finals-both good shooters. The first round we won both matches with a scores of 19-58 and 15-54. The vast majority of the points scored against us were scored in autonomous mode! We simply parked in front of the center goal and didnt let anyone line up a shot! Well, in the semifinals equipment finals and worthy advisaries knocked us out of eliminations.

We took on a stratagy that noone else was using, all defense. Noone was prepared to deal with us. Remember, a defense wins the game. Think about how many shots you can stop vs how many you can make. It worked for us!

Oh yea, props to 66 and 68, we were a great team.

[akshar]

hate to say this but this strategy was used by a team at BAE, and it worked but we didnt get picked in the alliance pickings because we were a very low ranked team even though we had the best defense, it doesnt matter, boston is only 2 weeks away, and we have a new strategy, that can not be shared at this time....

[Kevin Ray]

Val,
We haven't competed yet, but I've watched well over 140 matches on web cast and I have to agree--strategy is more important this year than ever before. Usually I think it's 1/3 robot & driver skill, 1/3 strategy and 1/3 luck. This year I think it's 1/2 strategy and split the rest.
How else can you account for teams in the elimination rounds in Fla. winning the first round by 40+ points, "tweaking" their strategy and then losing by 50+ points to the same three teams next time out?
There are so many ways you can control scoring. I have learned from coaching sports that you can win a game even if you don't "have the horses" as long as you know the nuances of the game and how to use them. I fear the year when SBPLI Regional is in the first round--how will I get my scouting strategies?
Sorry, I'm rambling...I think your strategy is very sound--exceptionally so, considering you didn't have the ability to adequately contribute to your team's scoring. I have one question. Did you protect you shooters in the other end when it came to the 4th period? Or did you continue to block their shooters?

Speaking of which, we designed our bot to do something that I have yet to see done. Yes it picks up balls easily and shoots them out quickly but the whole configuration of the bot serves a specific purpose. I hope it works.
Look below

__________________________________
http://media.putfile.com/Team-329-ball-pickup

[Bemis]

Thw same thing happened to us at Pittsburgh, to an extent. We realized that our shooter wasnt the best way to go, so we took the whole think off and threw together a backfeeding robot. Ended up in 10th, moved up to 6th during the draft. We ended up relying heavily on our drive train, which could push just about anyone else who was a Pitt, and on our driver, Cody C. who saved us multiple times from the horror of a dropped drive chain. I think we did well, seeing as how we built half a new robot in less than an hour. Dont have a picture of the old one, but here is the new one.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23553?

Had extra weight so we added Steelface, aur beaver logo/mascot thing.

[TimCraig]

This shows the value of doing something well and consistently, maybe. However, unless you have someone on your alliance who can score, the best you can hope for by doing pure defense is a 0-0 tie.

[Jeff K.]

Originally Posted by guju4life2005

hate to say this but this strategy was used by a team at BAE, and it worked but we didnt get picked in the alliance pickings because we were a very low ranked team even though we had the best defense, it doesnt matter, boston is only 2 weeks away, and we have a new strategy, that can not be shared at this time....

We also used that strategy. We made an important decision 2 days before ship to scrap the shooter because we were overweight and just make it go for corner goals. We realized it would be better to dump balls early on and go defense for the rest of the match. Our drivetrain had been pretty powerful, as we could push any robot there, even team 40 with their traction plate . It got us ranked 9th at BAE and into the Quarterfinals. We also got "The Punisher Award" by Team 40 for Best Defensive Robot.

[Dan Richardson]

At the Florida regional 710 was a defensive bot, they could score in the low goals in auto or whenever they needed to, but they rarely did. They were a hardcore defensive robot, a strong drive train and a shot blocker arm that came up to block gravity feed bots from far away was an innovative idea and they were extraordinarily good at it.

[danield710]

yea we did pretty good, altho i think most of the teams didnt like us if we were blocking them, we had to keep the bot simple cuz we built it out of my garage without a sponsor, except for the school, i guess our strategy worked out, team 86 denied pink the chance to form an alliance so they could pick us, our robot was one of the simplest but one of the most effective, the simplest ideas always work the best

[shamuwong]

I must say, I was stunned when I first saw 1549's base. Most of the time, I was in the pits and got to see few matches. When I was on the pit crew for the elimination matches, I saw 1549 get stuck on the lexan shields on the ramp, exposing their treads. I was blown away by the sheer powerful-looking-ness of it. Especially since I first saw casters up front, I didn't know how they could play defense so well.

Very few robots were able to use the camera effectively at GLR, and those who could couldn't respond fast enough to defense. In this game, with the precarious objective of putting balls through the air into a goal, defense will definitely play a major role in team strategy. As a matter of fact, finals just seemed to be 1 scoring robot and 2 defensive robots against a similar alliance. I don't see any robots that can be moved somewhat easily making it very far, unless they have ridiculously fast camera tracking or bodyguards.

[the_short1]

I can definately see the value of defence, with the tripplets (1114,1503,1680) on the loose, and other robots taht are capable of emptying 10+ balls in just a few seconds, being able to deflect the robot, making every ball miss is very key as it can cause a 30point swing! Congrats to 1549 for not giving up!

I know we were able to do that once or twice (with our primarily offensive robot) and it definately let us win the match, but with a 50/50 split between offence and defence, im sure it would have been easier!

But on the other hand, being pure defence (not designed to score), is not a great way to "Aim high", as packing a lot of weight, and a solid tank drivetrain isnt much in the end of engineering and innovation (IMHO), and it also leads to very brutal "battle bots" in some, but not necessarily all.

-kevin

[themagic8ball]

A good defense will beat a good offense.

Proof? St. Louis Regional.

547 was designed for low goals but come elimination rounds we designated them to defend our shooters (71 and 537) in offense and defend against the other teams shooters by nocking them off course. It was a very effective strategy and won us the regional.

[Dan Petrovic]

Team 151 had the same situation as you guys. They couldn't shoot very well so they decided to play defence. In autonomous they put their 10 in the side goals and then play defense up until the end where they got on the ramp.

They were seeded #1 when alliance picking came around.

[StephLee]

Friday evening, I was standing in our pit with a few of the mentors, discussing the standings. At that point, we were ranked 4th; all 3 robots ranked higher than us were defenders. None of them had a shooter. I commented on this, and one mentor said "Who would have thought defense would be so important?" I smiled my evil little "I told ya so" smile and said "I did."

I wanted a solid defensive drivetrain from the start, but we went for scoring at the expense of defense. The reason we were finalists was because we had two good defensive bots with us, both of which had excellent drivers. They'd defend us while we shot, both in autonomous and during the main match. 393 also made sure we'd win autonomous; their dump was really consistant in auto.

[Dusty]

We to had a robot that could play very good defence, unfourtionatly the only problem was that we were a little short and could not block the shots of the taller robots. However do to the style of our robot we could quite easily push most of them around. I think that we were one of the solidist robots at FLR, (that's just my opinion, it could be a little bit bias). Even though we were solid though we still had a decent shooter and in some of our matches were our alliances leading scorer. I agree however that if you can control your opponents points well you leave your self a good chance of winning.

There are a few pictures of our bot here although it was not completley finished.
www.team1901.com

[zukkoor]

This is not the first year that defense has been a good strategy if you look at past years they all require strong defense. Last year is an exception.