pic: You guys remember what most of us said would never happen last year?

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

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“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.” -- Sun Tzu

Every robot is defeatable, and every strategy is defeatable. All these teams have produced great looking robots with excellent capabilities. But they are far from undefeatable.

Good luck teams, the games start in just 1 week.






... and they do look scary together, don't they?

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.” -- Sun Tzu

Or, in the words of the just-as-eloquent and prophetic Dennis Green,

"IF YOU WANT TO CROWN EM, CROWN EM!"

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Jared341

Or, in the words of the just-as-eloquent and prophetic Dennis Green,

"IF YOU WANT TO CROWN EM, CROWN EM!"

But we don't know if they are who we thought they were.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

But we don't know if they are who were thought they were.

Looks like the younger Lavery is looking for a seat on the GDC -- he's already mastered Buddhist kōans.

[Jessica Boucher]

The better question is, how is YOUR team doing? What are YOU doing to make your team better, stronger, closer to YOUR goals?

Your job is you. Focus on yourself and your team. Research of others is important, but it should be focused on how you can learn from it. Once you learn and you share what you've learned, everyone will benefit. Speculation for the sake of speculation is just wasted time.

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

The better question is, how is YOUR team doing? What are YOU doing to make your team better, stronger, closer to YOUR goals?

I know our team is doing just fine. We really pushed ourselves this year in every system we built, and were successful in most of them. My point is more to the fact that next year we'll probably look for some sort of build-season alliance in addition to everything else we've done so far. Everyone seems to benefit from it. Sure, this year our bot will be competitive, but we don't have a promo video that's nearly as intimidating as these 3. Guess we'll have to see what video I can get in DC. I mean, after all, it was one of our strategies to lower everyone's expectations at the DC scrimmage by not moving at all...silly regolith paneling .

Our strategy would be to out-drive 1114's shooter, use our UI on the laptop to lead the shots on 217 & 148 a la Descent I and II, (after all, none of the 3 can move sideways ), and stick to the original plan that with a shooter it doesn't really matter what your fire rate is so long as the opposition stays in range. Oh yea, then there's a play I like to call 'bait, switch, and tackle', but that will require someone else to have a ball handling design similar to ours .

[Ian Curtis]

Like Dave keeps sayin', 71.

Let's review their record of success when there are mobile goals on the field, shall we?

2008 - No mobile goal, No Championship
2007 - No mobile goal, No Championship
2006 - No mobile goal, No Championship
2005 - No mobile goal, No Championship
2004 - Mobile goal, Championship #4
2003 - No mobile goal, No Championship
2002 - Mobile goal, Championship #3
2001 - Mobile goal, Championship #2
2000 - No mobile goal, No Championship
1999 - Mobile goal, No Championship
1998 - No mobile goal, No Championship
1997 - No mobile goal, Championship #1
1996 - No Mobile goal, No Championship

In summary, there has been only 1 game with a mobile goal that did not net Team Hammond (71) a national/international Championship. And that, my friends, is what we like to call scary...

[A Bear]

nice stats

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by JesseK

My point is more to the fact that next year we'll probably look for some sort of build-season alliance in addition to everything else we've done so far. Everyone seems to benefit from it.

Just to clear somethings up, there are no common parts on any of the 148, 217 & 1114 robots. We all share a common sponsor (as well as 254 and 2056) who graciously manufactured our sheet metal for us. What we have benefited from as a group is our discussions during build season. Each team designed and built their robots on their own, but constantly bounced ideas off of each other. (1114 made some small parts for 148 that couldn't be made easily in the Robowranglers shop) These types of discussions proved to be very valuable, as it's nice to get an unbiased opinion on an approach. We also had these same discussions with many of the local teams in our area, including 1503, 2166, 2702 and 2809.

I think this form of "talking collaboration" has really benefited all these teams. I know some teams enjoy the secrecy of build season and working on their own island, but we've found that some good old fashioned peer review sessions make a huge impact, and open our eyes to merits and flaws of our designs. It's so hard to evaluate your own design honestly, having a fresh set of eyes look take a look is a great asset. It's just another form of co-opertition.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

The better question is, how is YOUR team doing? What are YOU doing to make your team better, stronger, closer to YOUR goals?

Your job is you. Focus on yourself and your team. Research of others is important, but it should be focused on how you can learn from it. Once you learn and you share what you've learned, everyone will benefit. Speculation for the sake of speculation is just wasted time.

Umm... I hope this type of comment aren't directed at me, because the intent of this picture was just to make people laugh (hey, JVN laughed when I showed him).

I kinda want people to fear something like this happening Fear drives others to do better. I know it did this to me.

Also note that this compilation had nothing to do with the 3 individual teams. It was me posting the pics to make people laugh and not them. Do not drag the teams into it please.