Starve Them!

[sw293]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

In the finals 1057 began "intercepting" opposing robots who were trying to slam into 1261, giving the #1 alliance an even more impressive advantage during autonomous (and allowing them to win the Peachtree regional).

This is the "pick" strategy that 293 tried with one other team (we were the shooter) in a qualification match in Annapolis. It was not necessary, however, as our opponent did not try to defend us in autonomous as expected. A tip of the cap to the alliance that pulled it off successfully; I wish I was there to see it.

In elimination rounds, we made at least two shots every time in autonomous (except when we forgot to change the battery before SF2-01) even though we got rammed every time, and on two occasions we made every ball we shot except the first. One of those was the 42-point autonomous period (before bonus) where 293 and 103 combined to make 14 balls in the center goal. Unfortunately, that match was restarted because the light didn't come on after autonomous.

[gail]

I love that FIRST has made a game where winning autonomous matters. What I do think is a problem, however, is that the computer does not always assess correctly which alliance won automode. That the decision is incorrect is often obvious to the teams, the refs and even the spectators.

The effect of an incorrect determination as to which alliance won automode is far greater than the 10 points. It's about the strategy the team plays for the duration of the round. This is true if you think you are ahead by the 10 points, or if you are forced to play offense first because it determined incorrectly that you lost. The 10 point swing at the end when they finally get it right cannot begin to compensate the teams for this.

I am hoping from now, through the end of the FIRST season, the refs will stop the play for however long it takes to manually figure out who won autonomous mode, and even reset the scoreboards, if necessary. Getting it right is far more important than the minute or two we may have to wait.

[Springman]

I am looking forward to seeing team 469 in Georgia, since their design is so similar to ours. It took us a while to get the camera and turret in sync, but when it came together at the Boilermaker, it changed everything. I just want to thank team 1272 for looking past our poor ranking to pick us. Additionally, I would like to thank team 1319 for their great defense. I am thrilled with the way that the autonomous period dictated the strategy of the entire game. It was the primary reason for our accomplishments during the finals at Boilermaker. Looking to forward to West Michigan in a couple of weeks............