Who are your top team picks this year?

[wsansewjs]

Originally Posted by JJG13

I don't know how you could watch the UCF regional and not add team 86 that list. They have an amazing bot.

Thank you! ^_^ Team 180, 233, 710, and 79 are excellent robots out there. We all will be representing the state of Florida against other areas! w00t

-WJS

[Jack Jones]

Originally Posted by Holtzman

Well, if you call getting consistently double teamed a "love tap", then I guess your right.

As for the rest of the "how to beat the triplets" comments, I'd like to thank all of you for pointing out some of our areas which need improvement. We will be working on them over the next few fix-it windows, and hope to have all these areas eliminated. See you at Waterloo, GTR, and Championship.

Hummm, it appears the gauntlet has been thrown.

A few years back, when it was one-on-one-one, the teams formed alliances all on their own to turn it into two-on-one against a powerhouse. That's the year that spawned alliances - FIRST figured it out - the teams wanted alliances.

Now that the triplets have brought a whole new dimension to the practice, we can be sure the rest will continually look to defeat them.

I know of a way that'd be hard to stop. Here's a clue: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...8&page=1&pp=15

EDIT // Hey look at that - This the 47th. post. => How Ironic!

[dan 322]

#Shooters
"the triplets of terror" (not the most robust designs, but very effective shooters no doubt)
#469 (we were pushing them across the field and the camera just kept re-adjusting and making shots, awesome.)

Herders
#322 (dumping 30 + in the corner goals on many occasions)
#1 (Paddle design worked great)

[Dan Richardson]

Originally Posted by Corey Balint

I'm not gonna get into a whole big thing on strategy this early in the game, and yes defence does not have to be 1 on 1...but do you really think one strong defensive bot will be able to take on 2 defensive bots? As Pete said, look at the balance of the bots...if you watched UTC, you know what i mean.
And the herding bots, how many have you seen a bot with in one match before..if they have a big load they are going to drop off in the closing seconds, you sacrifice your 15 points and get off the ramp to block them, or you let them go if they have less. The herding bots to me can have some advantages yes, but personally, I would take 177(your decent shooter and defender) and any of my shooters over a dumper bot any day.

I'd have to disagree, a consistant dumper bot/good defender is an extremely solid force to have in any alliance. This is the case in with our alliance, except we had 2 good dumper bots with a good shooter. We were able to defeat a very strong 233 190 744 alliance, all very solid shooters. We were able to utilize a solid zone defense, there is only so much room in the middle of the field, with people occupying that space and pushing people on there corners it makes an extremely difficult time for the shooters. All this time a dumper bot collects and effectively can score in the different areas. There is only 1 center goal there are 2 side goals. Getting to those side goals is not that difficult, especially when you can only have 2 defenders. When a team has 2 solid shooters and a dumper that score many points rapidly ( our bot can dump 18 balls in a little over 3 seconds ) it makes it extremely difficult to defend. There aren't many teams that can score 6 center goal balls in under 3 seconds, to match that 18 points. A few times we'd score 3 dumps and end up on the ramp in the end.

Infact through out the competition we consistantly scored higher than many mediocre shooters, and we weren't the only ones, other examples just at Florida alone would be 59, 357, 1029, 1649. A team with solid defensive drivetrain and is good at dumping the balls quickly is still hard to deal with. There are a ton of examples at the Florida regional to watch, watch the semi-finals 2-1 and 2-2 on the soap archives that show this.

Either way My top lists would include

254
71
111
1213
233
86
25
343

If 180 gets there turret working a bit better ( even tho they won ucf ) they will quickly be vaulted towards the top of my list as well

I'm sure there are many more to follow on this list I havn't added I still havn't seen teams like 45, 67,60,68,47, 16, and soo many others can't wait till nationals to finish my list.

[Joel J]

From what I've seen thus far, the better teams are (IMO):

469
25
217
86
126
1503
1114
254
1126
1276
111
33
233
343
1731
(1241?)

[xzvrw2]

from what i have seen at the two regionals that i have been to and from what people have told me here is my updated list of top teams:

1114
1503
269
217
703
451
25
229
1126
397
111
71
254
1
141
65

and there was some other teams that i think that if you get aligned with them they will do good:
818
1188
33
79
123
1213
66

some teams that you would have thought will be good this year because of rep aren't
I'm not going to name any off
but if you have seen them
you know what teams i am talking about.

[Rick TYler]

I would add 1280, 114 and 488. They haven't won regionals, but they are good enough to be on winning alliances. Another robot to watch very carefully in their next regional is 492 (2-time winner at PNW and '06 PNW Chairman's winner). Titan Robotics had uncharacteristic problems getting started at PNW on Friday, but by Saturday was regularly scoring 9-10 in autonomous and playing their usual smart game. I can see either 488 or 492 playing the corner-scoring role in an alliance with two good shooters (like 1280 and 114 -- the other two additions I'm proposing).

About 114 -- it looked to me like they had a ball jam their shooter in their last match in the SVR final rounds. Can anyone from 114 confirm this, or explain why they stopped shooting? Also, does 114 have to move their shooter to the side to load the next ball? Just wondering... we're done for the year.

[JJG13]

Originally Posted by Stud Man Dan

I'd have to disagree, a consistant dumper bot/good defender is an extremely solid force to have in any alliance....

Exactly. Our alliance 180-79-1649 would have had no chance of winning the Florida regional without strong defence or our dumper bot (1649). In fact I think dumper bots (1649 and 1902 especially) are extremely underrated. 1649 did not have the scoring potential of either us or 79 but they were very dependable and their scoring seemed to slip under the radar of the opposing alliances. Of course a good shooter will beat a good dumper but a good dumper that can climb up the ramp and play good defense is better than most shooters.

Originally Posted by Stud Man Dan

254
71
111
1213
233
86
25
343

I can't fault those picks.

Originally Posted by Stud Man Dan

If 180 gets there turret working a bit better ( even tho they won ucf ) they will quickly be vaulted towards the top of my list as well

Be afraid, be very afraid.

[114Klutz]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

I would add 1280, 114 and 488. They haven't won regionals, but they are good enough to be on winning alliances. Another robot to watch very carefully in their next regional is 492 (2-time winner at PNW and '06 PNW Chairman's winner). Titan Robotics had uncharacteristic problems getting started at PNW on Friday, but by Saturday was regularly scoring 9-10 in autonomous and playing their usual smart game. I can see either 488 or 492 playing the corner-scoring role in an alliance with two good shooters (like 1280 and 114 -- the other two additions I'm proposing).

About 114 -- it looked to me like they had a ball jam their shooter in their last match in the SVR final rounds. Can anyone from 114 confirm this, or explain why they stopped shooting? Also, does 114 have to move their shooter to the side to load the next ball? Just wondering... we're done for the year.

Camera went kaput right at the start of the elinmination rounds. Wouldn't track the target - we were aiming manually.

Worked fine during qualifying though - we came out undefeated.

As for the shooter - no - but if balls don't fall in, we need to agitate it. The shooter is linked to a rotating ring inside the hopper - by turning the turret - the balls are agitated.

[C.Roberts 1089]

I only went to the Jersey regional, but judging from what I saw there while match scouting, my picks would be

25 25 25!.
375
486

I'm a bit biased when it comes to team 25, so please ignore the excessive excitement. But as I'm sure you can tell by the 245432534 people that listed them above me, it's probably not too excessive . Team 56 is also a good shooter as long as they're not being pushed. I'm sure there are a few others I'm missing also, and a few numbers I can't remember either. But 25, 375, and 486 were my three favorites.

[Nawaid Ladak]

I have seen little of alot of regionals and alot of a couple
for example:

UCF, VCU, BoilerMaker, Midwest (thanks to 111), and Sillocon Valley, here is my top 10

1: Team 254, Already WON two regionals, and can shoot on the ramp
2: Team 343, Strong and creative robot
3: Team 25, From what i hear form NJ, this team deserves to be on my list
4: Team 180, If that torrent gets working
5: Team 111, Strong Robot, as usual
6: Team 71, Same as #5
7: Team 86, If they solve their topheavy problem
8: Team 222, Can get on the ramp, just like the Poofs
9: Team 357, With the sweat wheels, and the skills, why not.
10: Team 1610, had a impressive atonomus mode.

Teams that almost made it,
1, 233, 79, 1523, 1024, 384, 1511 (heard good things about them too.)

[Swan217]

Originally Posted by Jack Jones

A fourth will have to wait for next year. And that's to ban the practice. It can only lead to escalation where GM, FORD, and others form multi-teams. The little guys will be shut out. The US auto companies should not mind the ban; TOYOTA has joined the fray.

Jack, I'm surprised at your stance here, considering where you're from. I know you've heard of Ford FIRST. They have partially collaborated every year for a long time, and they don't have half the success that Niagara FIRST does after two years. Multiteams don't necessarily a winner make.

On topic: 217, 469, 229, 233, 111, 1114, any other bot that can Smart-Shoot, in no particular order.

[thatphotochick]

from the 2 regionals that we've been to, the boilermaker and pittsburgh, i can say:

shooters
135
1018
1319
365
85

dumpers
395
1018
868
291

pushers
395
1529
365
1741
1743

some close ones were 102, 393 (if they can fix their bot and keep it working then they would be great dumpers), 1501, 292, 1555 (keep working on your shooter), 1760, 1249, and 461

[Tim Delles]

Okay so my top picks.

1.) 71 - come on who would count Beatty out? They are still number one in my book, because they know how to play the game.
2.) 111 - Pretty impressed once again this year.
3.) 1114 - Mean looking robot and pretty lethal when with one of the other triplets.
4.) 1126 - You have to give some credit here. This robot is pretty solid a few tweaks and they could be a contender again.
5.) 1756 - Need I say why?
6.) 254 - Great robot again and their drivers are looking great.
7.) 469 - Nice robot, and drivers are good again
8.) 233 - Well designed and thought out robot. Watch out for Pink.
9.) 1503 - Identical to 1114. Come on, let this team team up with a couple other good shooters and it could be a great match to see.
10.) 217 - Can you say thunderchickens. These guys have a great robot.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Tim Delles

10.) 217 - Can you say thunderchickens. These guys NOW have a great robot.

FYP.

It took them all Thursday and most of Friday to get there - thus their placement in Detroit. That's not to detract from the team. Their finished product is one of the small tier of good robots - let's say top 6 or so - in Detroit. But it wasn't there in the opening rounds, and they knew it.

I expect them only to get better. BEWARE!