Autonomous Longer????

[Lil' Lavery]

In my opinion, teams that thought the autonomous mode wasn't worth it this year, especially those that see it as only 2 points, really didn't examine the strategy and potential game play well enough. A keeper is worth anywhere between 2 and 132 points. It doubles the value of the row(s) it is in, just like any other game piece. And with this exponential scoring, a single piece plays a MASSIVE role in closely contested matches. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...9&postcount=16
Given the maximum potential score of the game (assuming nobody has found a way to elevate 3 robots, and that no tubes were de-scored and then re-scored elsewhere) is 656 points, the possible 132 point swing of each keeper is massive. In that 656 point configuration (2 rows of 8, 1 row of 5, 5 rows of 3, 3 rows of 2, 2 robots elevated), the value of the 3 keepers ranges from 40 points (6.1%) to 396 (61.3%) depending on placement. Autonomous potentially worth MORE THAN HALF of the max score, I don't think that's an worthless autonomous.
Sure, that situation will likely never happen (I don't think a "max score" has happened since 2001), but let's put it into a more realistic scenario. Redabot is an excellent scorer when left alone, but struggles when defense is applied. BlueAlliance is comprised of rampbots who play defense (and/or fail to score ringers). Redalliance has no ramps/lifts/platforms to score any bonus points. Redabot gets held to a single ringer until the last 30 seconds, when BlueAlliance goes back to score their "guaranteed" 60. During that time, Redabot quickly puts up 3 more tubes, but then the clock expires. One of the Blueabots doesn't make it up the ramp (or falls off, or is supported by a ringer, or is touching the wall, or..), giving the blue alliance 30 points. The Red Alliance has 16. If a keeper had been scored, the final score would have been 32-30 in favor of the other alliance. Well, what if the blueabot didn't fall off? Well, it would have only taken 1 more tube for red to have a 64-60 victory.
Look at the experiences of teams like 1902, 67, and 1114, and see the results they had when they scored and missed keepers. In GLR SF 2-2, if 1114 hits their keeper on the bottom, it would have extended their bottom row to 3, and inhibited the blue alliance from scoring a row of 6 on the bottom. If that happens, it suddenly switches from 68-56 Blue, to a 64-36 Red (the would also have been under a red tube), from -12, to +28, a swing of 40 points. 1902 has already attested how a keeper allowed them to reach the finals, and missing one kept them from winning the regional. Keepers are valuable people, it's sad so few teams saw that.