week 1: Three Things I've Learned

[Mark Pierce]

#1.

Originally Posted by IndySam

The first couple weeks qualifications are always less exciting, even boring, because the game play and robots are new and feeling their way. The finals in St. Louis today were amazing to watch. I don't think I ever have seen a more exciting finals in a first week regional before.

I think the game is much more exciting for an audience than I expected at kickoff. I have to agree with Indy Sam here, except I would add the exciting semifinals. I certainly would not have predicted those matches to all be so exciting and close. At least this year we did not experience the field failures and match delays common in previous week 1 play. That's worth a little longer learning curve for teams in my book.

#2. I still feel some penalty calls were inconsistent or plain wrong, but less so than before I went back and read the rules. This is a part of the game and will improve.

#3. In this year's game, as in others, alliance coordination and balance is very important. In our quarterfinal matches it seemed to me that our opponents won partly by working together more smoothly. Judging a team by reputation or past history is iffy at best. However, these things can affect things like robustness, response to competition pressure, and and pit crew ability. These things can only be accurately judged by scouting the pits and careful observation, but are a consideration.

An aside on the pit crew importance: Even with less intense defense, several teams suffered damage and break downs this weekend and all of us were tweaking the robots. In some cases this included some amazing pit work. Many teams made it back onto the field fully functional when lesser crews would have had to skip matches or operate in a crippled mode.

[Craig]

I also attended MWR

I think that we all need to learn here that you cannot judge a competition of this magnitude and complexity at first glance, or even at first week.

I learned that even when you think you have the game all figured out and you have strategies planned, that experience, determination and teams abilities to evolve so drastically right at the competition can throw a huge wrench into the mix.

Of course week 1 practice and prelim matches weren't suspenseful, teams are self centered trying to prepare for the eliminations. It is not until the teamwork and cooperative strategies are present that the intensity is at it's fullest. Those are after all, the emphasis of first, right?

The evolution of competition in a mere 3 days was astounding, the true talent of teams making the elim. rounds made for some very climactic and exciting play.

Penalties are part of the game and will become less of a factor when we all learn how to play and how the refs are calling them. We can't go changing the rules every time we are faced with a challenge.

one last thing, we are all very aware that seeding teams has as much to do with luck and randomness as skill. That is part of the fairness of first. Reputation and performance are more reflective of a teams value in competition and when 24 teams are drafted, not all of the selected teams will be top competitors but they will all play an important role on the TEAM

[Jeff Waegelin]

In my opinion:

Overdrive at its worst is a slow, boring game. It gets bogged down with penalties, robots clustered up and trying to bash their way through traffic jams, and repetitive results.

Overdrive at its best is an absolute tour de force. When you have six great robots on the floor, it's exciting, fast-paced, and unpredictable. A last second hurdle, place, or ball knocked off can swing things in an instant. It's truly a sight to behold, and a very electric atmosphere in person.

[Tetraman]

Three things I learnt:

1. Hybrid Mode.
-16 points in Hybrid for one robot is two hurdles, and if your aliance can't catch up that fast, you've got some serious potential.

2. Defense, taken in doses.
-There is a new kind of defense this year, a defense that requires slick movement and speed. Defense is not required the entire time, but being able to defense smart can help imensely.

3. Aliance selection competiton
-Other than the complete shaft 1733 got at Midwest regional, did anyone notice how fast the most powerful teams were picked? Granted the most powerful teams always get picked, but this year the competition to pick who you want is even higher. I also think that second picks are competitive. Natinals isn't going to be a selection, it's a draft.

[Guy Davidson]

Originally Posted by 340x4xLife

Boring? Watch this

Or go on the same site, and watch the entire MWR elimination round. That's where this game truly shines - when the field's 24 best robots come alive. Even at it's worst, this game is better than Rack n' Roll at it's worst. Here, six boxes-on-wheels can score, and it's a driver skill competition. There, six boxes-on-wheels could do nothing.

Once they're up, I'd also recommend watching some of the Oregon eliminations. While the field was shallower, some of the matches (particularly semi finals 2 and the finals) involved some of the finest play I've seen yet.

[Donut]

I'll throw in the 3 things that surprised me alot:

1. Alot of teams underestimated the task of getting a ball off of the overpass. There were matches where an entire alliance would take more than 30 seconds to actually get a ball down to score with. I expected teams would have trouble controlling balls on the ground, but not even being able to get them on the ground?

2. Bonus points are making quite a difference in some matches. Teams are leaving free points up for the opposition when they could run one less lap and lose 2 points in order to remove 12 points from their opponents.

3. There's no herding going on. I saw 111 herd a ball across rather than hurdling it once, and witnessed one other team herd a ball once or twice, but that's the only herding I ever saw from the webcast. From those few instances of herding I can also say this; the idea that hurdlers can "herd if necessary" didn't appear to be true, as most who tried to failed to get even one herding point.

[SgtMillhouse648]

Originally Posted by 340x4xLife

Boring? Watch this

Yes, AMAZING match, and look what alliances were competing Jeremiah....Personally, I thought that alliance was amazing. The people on all three teams were amazingly helpful, all three robots had crab drive too. There's very few things that can creep another team out more than a whole alliance running full bore down the home stretch zigzagging out of traffic and strafing the whole end. As for the three things I've learned,
1. The game is really exciting if you sit and watch it for a while.

2. Autonomous can be a major match winner. Look at that same match. Had our alliance not had the idea to put Bomb Squad's massive robot on that side, we would have lost the match. Instead, it created one of the largest traffic jams in FIRST history.

3. Shooters are better than arms, but the punters are in a league of their own. In the time it takes a team to set their ball on the overpass, a shooter can shoot a couple balls over the overpass and score more points.

All in all, MWR was AMAZING through the good times and the bad.
Malhon

[martschr]

I want to give the final word on why we picked 648. As 1625 said the guy who had the list of third picks (me) had one team left on the list. When I was in the stands scouting I saw you guys do some fast moves that got you around a robot and got my attention. After seeing that I watched them in a few other matches and decided they could be a good lap bot. As some on your team told me you did not have hurdling down to a science, but that was all you had tried to do in the matches I was scouting. That was why you were missed by many teams. I was worried that my gut feeling on your team might be wrong, because I did not ever see you try to be a lap bot. Thank goodness you proved me right and were an awesome lap bot. I hope that cleared up the reason why we picked 648, and shows all of you how important scouting is.

[pafwl]

I have had the the privilege to watch this competition grow since 1998. First as a student 1998-2000 and later now as a mentor 2006-Present. In my very humble opinion this year ranks way way way up there. 2000 great game, 2002 great game. Does anyone remeber 2001 now you want a bad game take a look at that.

Anyway.........

1. Game is great. It is exciting and it is fun to finally watch some hard competition instead of a bunch of robots trying to kill each other. Remeber 2003?????? I think it was with the boxes or whatever they where and everyone gave up on stacking and just fought in the middle for a "king of the hill".

2. I will agree here I think the rules when written were with the best of intent. I do not know if the GDC thought this through pratically the line violations that seems to be a huge killer.

3. Forget what 3 was but what I have learned is it doesn't matter if you are a shooter or an arm. If you are good and can do it quick and get the trackballs in possesion quickly you are quite effective. Also hybrid/auto can make or break you. That is not to count out runners either. If you are a crazy fast muneverable and have control. You are very very important to this game and often a strong 3rd pick. So if any of you speed demons are going to RIT or Philly please let me know we need to talk. ..........

[Jonathan Norris]

Yes this game might not have some of the exciting moments that Aim High did (does anyone else remember 469 and 79 pounding the goal with balls during auto?? or any of the other great shooter that year when they would single handily put 15+ balls inthe goal at once!). But when you compare this year to the last couple it matches up very well.

Take Autonomous this year, IMHO its the best yet. Its not something only the top teams can do (scoring tetras, tracking the goal, scoring keepers), its something every bot can do. For the last couple years auto has been the most boring part of the game for most matches, now thats changed for the better. There is no excuse this year for a bot to not move and score points during auto this year, and there are opportunities for the top teams to excel.

The game play is a lot faster paced then last year (when teams are actually moving..), but the strategy component is not as intense as last year. My only complaint about this game after seeing some great matches in week one is the end game, placing a ball or a last minute hurdle is just not as exciting as ramping at the last second.

Overall my favorite game is still Aim High, but Overdrive has alot of potential and does a very good job of leveling the playing field while keeping the game exciting.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Originally Posted by 340x4xLife

Boring? Watch this

I watched it... that was probably the most exciting match of the entire weekend. I was right there, in fact my team is in that match...