Defensive/dumper hall of fame

[Dillon Compton]

716- an excellent dumper.
306- great defense!


1394- well, we arent worthy yet, but that is only because our drivetrain is so strong that we A.) misaligned our extruded aluminum chassis the first time we turned on the motors on the ground because of our extreme torque, and B.) bent the 3/8" steel shaft our wheels run on! This caused problems all regional with us dropping chains on the field almost every match...but we still pulled 21st seed overall (3rd after selections), out of a field of 46 (our best year yet- it's sort of embarrising). However, just wait untill nationals; we'll be affecting a change to wheels with a 5/8" or 1/2" hub so that we cant bend the shaft, and adding tensioners incase we do to prevent us from dropping our chains as easily.

drivetrain weighs in at about 70 lbs, and our tranny assemblies + motors take up about 35-40 of that; 4 AM single speed trannies, 4 small CIM motors, 2 minibike motors.

Be afraid!

-Dillon Compton
1394

[Greg Marra]

Team 195 demonstrated their immense pushing power and one point scoring capabilities at the scrimmage the UTC regional. They also have a sophisticated autonomous program (which won them an innovation in controls award) that lets they dynamically set where to go during auto, allowing them to defend against anyone.

And if they load up with thirty balls and come over to your side of the field, you better watch out...

[Fred Sayre]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

Dumpers:

1359 The Scallywags
488 Team X-Bot

Defender:

753

Thanks for that!

to brag just a little
We definitely finished better than we started. Last 5 matches we had a nearly flawless 10 ball auto, and scored the 34 points against the winning PNW alliance 254/753/1887 while also defending 254 and 1887 for ~45 seconds. Unfortunately 254 got by us and could score 11 balls in about 5 seconds.

We'll see how it goes in ATL!

It was nice to meet you in Portland by the way. You seem to be doing a great job representing the PNW regional.

[Ebolagirl]

Originally Posted by GB330033

I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but I think 1255 could have made it into the "Defensive hall of fame" had we not been plagued with chain tension troubles. The times that all our chains stayed on, and everything worked, we played defense like nobody's business. That, combined with almost automatic ramp points, helped us a bunch. However, we had a bunch of problems with our chains, and then faulty code in the elimination rounds that didn't allow operator control. We shot accross the field in autonomous mode, but then couldn't move for all of the operator time. By the time we got it fixed (After quarter finals), 1902 decided to use their replacement robot for us. No hard feelings though, we still had a great time. I just wish we had the chance to show our stuff...

So that's what happened to y'all. I was wondering. It seemed like a lot of people were having chain issues this year. I know we popped a chain almost every match until the quarter finals, then we fixed it. Aww... I was sad when y'all weren't out there because I wanted to see that.

[Team ERV]

goin with chuck 84 on this one

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by fsayre

Last 5 matches we had a nearly flawless 10 ball auto, and scored the 34 points against the winning PNW alliance 254/753/1887 while also defending 254 and 1887 for ~45 seconds. Unfortunately 254 got by us and could score 11 balls in about 5 seconds.

I had almost forgotten about that match. Only two robots managed to slow down the Poofs at Portland -- 753, when the Poofs finally had to give up on the center goal and run to score a bunch in the corner, and then 488, which held the Poofs for a long time until a short lapse in coverage let the Poofs do their insta-shoot trick. Those two matches were when I realized that to stop 254 you have to guard them every second, and if you make one mistake, they're gone.

I might make it to Atlanta. I'll look you up (and 492, and 330, and...)

[dan 322]

Originally Posted by David Hoff

Without a doubt team 322 deserves to be mentioned. Team FIRE was the number one seed at the West Michigan Regional this weekend and they were terrifying. They zoomed around the field and would just inhale balls like they weren't even there. They're the fastest bot I've seen so far this year.

Thanks........you guys had a great bot also, we wanted to pic you guys but you were gone by the time we got back around. Thanks again.

[FourPenguins]

Originally Posted by Billfred

That said, 1251 was no slouch as a dumper at Palmetto.

Team 1251 not only dumped, they took countless hits for us during autonomous rounds from Quarter Finals through finals. They are a solid and truly awesome dumper/defender!

MORT AND TIGERS AND BEARS OH MY!!!

[GB330033]

Originally Posted by Ebolagirl

So that's what happened to y'all. I was wondering. It seemed like a lot of people were having chain issues this year. I know we popped a chain almost every match until the quarter finals, then we fixed it. Aww... I was sad when y'all weren't out there because I wanted to see that.

Yeah, Murphy's Law (which we've battled all year) finally got the best of us. In the quals, even though chains would pop off, we still had enough power to get around. If you recall the one match where our bot (by some freak accident) tipped on the side, was bumped back over, and tried to push up the ramp, we were running on only 3 of 4 chains. Even at 3/4 power, we nearly managed to push another bot up our ramp. We finally fixed the chains by sliding our trannies, and adding heavy zip tie idlers to them.

After alliance selections, I got together with 1902's programmer and put together that autonomous to shoot straight accross the field, because I alone couldn't get it to work. Not sure what went wrong with the code we put in, but for some reason we could never get out of autonomous and back to operator control, hence what happened in quarters. We finally got it fixed during QF3-4, but the field guys for 1902 were getting pressure from their team in the stands to call a replacement. Despite everything finally working properly, they called for the replacement, and that was that. Kinda sucked, but like I said, we still had a blast.

[JamesBrown]

Alright first of all 549 was an amazing herder/dumper and seeded very well because of it.

213 made good use of their holonomic drive to score in the side goal.

1138 (I am 90%sure that was the number, They were from CA and got the best defense award from Team 40 in Manchester) played extremely effective defense and regularly pushed wheel drive robots around the field.

Also please in this type of thread don't post your own robot, even with an introduction about how you don't want to toot your own horn, If the robot was one of the top in the country then someone will mention it. There is no sport out there where you can vote your self into the hall of fame. After 6 weeks of build every one is proud of their robot, use these threads to congratulate those that completed the challenge this year better than you did rather than promoting your self.

[GB330033]

JamesBrown, I apologize. I thought I had tacked onto my post something about team 1902 and their amazing bot. Their autonomous dump meant they began every match with 20 points (10 from the dump, 10 for winning auton) many times. I was honored that they selected us for their alliance, and I wish we could've held up our end of the deal.

[Lisa Perez]

1504. Solid at Detroit, and from what I heard, great at Wisconsin.

[yodameister]

Originally Posted by JamesBrown

If the robot was one of the top in the country then someone will mention it.

This may not necessarily be true. The majority (at least what I have seen) of teams are from the eastern side of the country. It also seems to me that there are many more users of CD on the eastern side of the country. Therefore most bots 'nominated' seem to be the best defensive bots from the eastern side of the country. That being said, 753 and 1662 (2 west coast bots) had amazing defensive capabilities, both of which could hit the 3pt if left alone.

[Guy Davidson]

Hall of famers we probably aren't, but I'd like to nominate my own team (8) for a honorable mention for our work on the Vegas regional. As much as it does feel weird (and kind of wrong) to self-nominate, I think we did a fine job of defense. Thanks to our alliance partners (25 and 987) who picked us to do defense, we let them score and just did our part - block the other teams from scoring. All I can say, is that as an strategy and inteligence guy, I'm really proud of how well our drive train and drivers worked.
Thank you once again to teams 25 and 987 for inviting us to the winning alliance in the 2006 Las Vegas regional.

[Taylor]

I agree that 322 was amazing - it blew my mind that a dumper got the #1 seed at WMR. I also have to mention T-Rex 1272. I think they had superior drivers and coaches - from what I saw, they had a duplicate bot at home to practice, which gave them nice control, strategy, and awareness. In the semis, they single-handedly shut down 85 and 27, two of the most proficient scorers - incredible.