Observations First Day of Matches

[PetersJ]

At the BAE regional, team 121 did stand out above the rest. Although most people were impressed by the massive amounts of moonrocks they scored, what was most impressive to me was their driving skill. They remained without a single moonrock in their trailer for at least 4 solid minutes in one of the matches. It seems any team can be an asset to an alliance with good driving, even if their robot is not a frequent scorer. The dumper robots seemed to have an early advantage because many of the shooters are still working on code issues. Once the code is perfected, I believe the difference will be less than it seemed today. It was also clear that the human player skill varied greatly between teams. Several supercells were scored, and these may make a greater difference in match outcomes than anticipated. So although some robots are not perfected yet, defensive driving and good human players may triumph over any robot failure (as long as the robot moves somewhere )