Predictions to win 2008 Frc Championship

[MasterChief 573]

Originally Posted by Tottanka

i predict that at least one bot will be from Midwest. It was much more impressive

That my friend is debatable.

[cziggy343]

Originally Posted by MasterChief 573

That my friend is debatable.

i think that they both were very VERY competitive! and from both of these regionals, i predict that at least two will be on einstein.

EDIT: note the at least=]

[Rick TYler]

No matter which robots win, none of them would be any good in a water game.

[cziggy343]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

No matter which robots win, none of them would be any good in a water game.

this is very true

[AdamHeard]

I'd put money on a team with a 1 in it's number winning.

[Eric Bareiss]

39, 330 or 254, west coast is gonna bring it home this year

[Beth Sweet]

If I was going solely on robot excellence and driver talent, I'd put 1114 on there. Unfortunately, they've got a target on them the size of Texas. Thus, BethNack predicts (yes, I know, totally legit...) that someone is gonna try to take them out. I hope I'm wrong, but... something in me tells me I'm not. I do hope that teams will demonstrate enough class and GP not to go Battlebots on the field...

That being said, the prediction I will make is this: the winning alliance will be composed of 3 teams fully capable of hurdling. It will contain a team well known for strategic excellence, and I believe at least one team from either GLR or MWR

[Guy Davidson]

Originally Posted by Beth Sweet

That being said, the prediction I will make is this: the winning alliance will be composed of 3 teams fully capable of hurdling.

I agree with you until here. I don't see the need for all three robots on an alliance to be able to hurdle. It does give you some strategic flexibility, but if I had to choose, I take an excellent defender / ball knocker over a mediocre hurdler every time. During the elimination, what you really need are good and experienced drivers with reliable robots.

I agree with Beth, the winning alliance will have at least one team noted for their strategic excellence. That team will also be the big kahuna on that alliance, and the lead hurdler. They will grab one of the next best hurdlers with thir first pick of the draft, and score a very strong defender and ball knocker with their third pick.

[MasterChief 573]

Originally Posted by Guy Davidson

I agree with you until here. I don't see the need for all three robots on an alliance to be able to hurdle. It does give you some strategic flexibility, but if I had to choose, I take an excellent defender / ball knocker over a mediocre hurdler every time. During the elimination, what you really need are good and experienced drivers with reliable robots.

I agree with Beth, the winning alliance will have at least one team noted for their strategic excellence. That team will also be the big kahuna on that alliance, and the lead hurdler. They will grab one of the next best hurdlers with thir first pick of the draft, and score a very strong defender and ball knocker with their third pick.

I was gonna make the exact same point, after two regionals of using a robot that can do nothing but race and knock the ball off I'm convinced that it is a very effective form of strategy, mainly because if your good enough at it you can score in the same range consistently each match. However, with that being said, a speed demon/ball knocker would have to also be able to score at least 12 points during the autonomous period in order to be Einstein because I doubt that any robot can get more than 12 laps during the regular period (we've done 11).

[Guy Davidson]

I actually think the laps won't matter too much. After autonomous is over, you have two choices (as a third robot, as there are only two balls): run laps or play defense. If you can run eight or ten laps, you earn 16-20 points. On the other hand, if you can slow down an opposite hurdler enough to cost them 2 or 3 hurdles, not only you are worth about the same point differential to your alliance, but also you throw the opposing alliance off their game plan. And that could be worth even more.

[MasterChief 573]

It depends on the circumstances, but yeah I definitely agree that in some situations defense will be more important than laps. In fact, I've seen some of those circumstances first hand already.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Guy Davidson

I actually think the laps won't matter too much. After autonomous is over, you have two choices (as a third robot, as there are only two balls): run laps or play defense. If you can run eight or ten laps, you earn 16-20 points. On the other hand, if you can slow down an opposite hurdler enough to cost them 2 or 3 hurdles, not only you are worth about the same point differential to your alliance, but also you throw the opposing alliance off their game plan. And that could be worth even more.

I agree. Your team showed how defense was worth more than just trying to do laps. As great as it is to see fast robots avoid traffic and spin around the track, they simply are not worth that much points once hybrid is over.
Wasting 20 seconds and preventing a team from a hurdle is much more effective.
Our team was able to always get 2 hurdles or more per match in Hawaii, even though defense was played on us and even if we had trouble at times, grabbing the ball. With the laps included, that's a minimum of 20++ points always. That's equivalent to a fast lap bot alway doing 10 laps. Hurdles are just worth so much more and teams that can prevent/delay hurdles is a much bigger play, IMO, than anything else. Ive seen many matches where teams get 5+ hurdles in a match, but if you watch, almost no defense is played on them at all.

[Bcliff358]

I just wanna say that anything can happen at championships, and the least likely robots can win. This being said i would still go with the powerhouse teams due to the skill needed to put up high scores. My favorites are 217, 1114, 330, 1124 and finally 987 for the repeat.

[BBnum3]

One thing that tends to happen at the Championship due to the low number of qualification matches is that a team who is not the strongest can "fluke" to the top of the standings due to good luck and/or alliance partners. We have all seen this discussed before and seen it in action in person, so I will not go into the details of it, but this is one of those factors that can severely affect the outcome of the divisions. When the weaker number 1 seeded team picks the stronger teams also seeded in the top 8, the powerhouse alliances can often get split up. Thus, it can be very hard to pick one team to win at all because of bad luck scenarios such as this. That said, if there is one robot that might be good enough to carry any alliance to Einstein, that robot has to be 1114.

[Jonathan Norris]

I know everyone likes to look at the top teams this year and predict them winning the championship, and most likely one of them will be on the winning alliance. But what I am looking for is this years 987 of last year, or 296 in '06, the team that makes major improvements over their regional performance. if you remember back to 06' a big part of 217, 296, and 522 winning performance was 296 improving from a 'good' team in their regional competitions to an 'elite' team at the championship. The same thing basically happened last year with 987 (I'm not as familiar with their regional performance), but I believe they improved a lot at the championship and really knew how to drive that bot in the elims (remember some of the ridiculous caps they made with defense on them??).

So watching the webcasts on friday and saturday morning I'll be looking for those teams that really step up their performance and fly under the radar a bit. Because I know all the top teams will be hunting for those great alliance selections, some picks may not have the pedigree thats expected and surprise some people.

Edit: post 610!!! w00t