Lifting one vs. lifting two

[jgannon]

After careful consideration, I propose that a blue alliance that has a robot that can lift one robot to 12" will on average score an insignificantly fewer number of points during the endgame (say, less than five) than their opposing red alliance that can lift two robots to any height. My reasoning is that there will be a high percentage of broken, disabled, or tipped robots, or robots that just can't be lifted, or problems in communication (ever had trouble trying to get your entire alliance home?) that will keep two robots from being successfully lifted by red. In addition, the robot not participating in lifting for blue will almost certainly be playing defense on the far side of the field, and probably will frequently keep a liftee (or possibly even the lifter) out of the red home zone. Blue having unfettered access to spoiling while red is lifting is also a consideration. Am I way off-base here?

[Mike Hendricks]

I believe you're correct, but keep in mind having the ability to get 2 robots off the ground (notice how I didn't say lift .. ) is something that you should seriously consider doing (assuming you're putting design time into getting one robot off the ground). Getting an alliance to cooperate during qual matches is difficult at best. For final matches, communication between teams is key, and will make the difference of you winning or losing. Given we're not here for the robots, but a gold medal is nicer to take home than a silver or bronze one.

Depending on your robot design .. it could also be possible to pick up a broken, tipped, disabled (would that even count?), or flipped robot also.

The way you'll play, is going to be decided when you're talking in the queue .. but depending on the other side (and what happens during the match .. ), lifting 2 robots might be preferred over lifting one and having one play defense.