News from the Rocket Ranch - Day 1 was interesting

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Posted by Mike Sklar at 03/02/2001 11:24 PM EST


Engineer on team #21, ComBBAT , from Astronaut H.S. and Titusville H.S. and Brevard Community College and Boeing Company and NASA-KSC.



Well here's another report but it will be brief. My ComBBAT team worked hard today and I'm exhausted.

Before the results the big news is most teams do not understand the scoring at all. Many teams over emphasize the high-testosterone act of balancing 2 goals and forget how powerful the time multipliers are. We saw many points left on the floor (ie they had them if they stopped, but kept going lost the time mult. and had less). People either don't know about the time multiplier's or are simply just can't multiply 2 * 2.5! But they caught on slowly.

Almost no one (maybe 2) can balance 2 goals before 30 seconds left. Aboout 10-15 teams can balance 1 goal before 60 seconds left (which is a 5x multiplier!) There is a tremendous amount of luck involved. And those who can lead and communicate well have a tremendous advantage.

Here are the top 8 after 6 matches (note it's a 44 team regional, we'll do 9 matches total):

1st #342 Bosch Trident 212 ave pts
2nd #21 Boeing ComBBAT 189 ave pts (Yeah ComBBAT!)
3rd #415 Bosch Williamston
4th #312 Heat Wave 158 ave
5th #37 Cordis 156 ave
6th #343 Oconees Hamilton Career Ctr
7th #395 Keyspan engineering 144ave
8th #233 NASA KSC Spacecoast 140 ave

In my mind ( some may argue) Heatwave is the best machine. They are fast as always. They can place 1 goal on the ramp, but they can balance 2 goals (if someone places the other) on ramp from the floor and let go and go to the end zone. The Bosch team #342 is the best goal handler and balanced 2 goals on the ramp (before 30 seconds left!!!) once or twice.

The key is brains, cooperation and a hefty dose of good luck.

We'll time to rest for our big run tomorrow. Wish us luck!