Attending Manchester Regional?

[Nathan Streeter]

"Typical Practice Day"
Well, I think that for a "Practice Thursday" today was fairly typical. Some robots were already "done" and ready to go, while others were still making improvements. At the beginning, 3 or 4 robots were on the field, while at the end of the day the field normally had either 5 or 6 robots.

"Alot of Teams Worked on Robots All Day"
It did seem that an unusual number of teams were still working on their robot just before the pits closed! Even some of the annual greats (175, 126, 121, etc.) were working throughout the day, when in past years they have only had to complete small maintenance tasks.

"Scores a Little Low"
As in past years, the practice match scores were pretty low. The "average match" ended with each alliance with 2 or 3 points; however, 0 and 5 point matches were not uncommon. I think the highest final score I saw was 8 (although I only watched about half the matches). My feeling is that, with little defense, the average Saturday morning scores will be around 5 and 6, with 10 or more being scored by the strongest alliances. So, even though the scores were not high today, I believe that will change.

"Balls Carry the Match, While the Tower Tips the Balance"
From watching the matches, very few teams (about half a dozen?) were consistently hanging. 58, 126, and 78 all had nice, quick hanging mechanisms working; however, these were a minority. Most matches would witness no action at the tower. So, it appears that most matches will be primarily scored through the soccer balls; however, the hangers will probably swing plenty of matches.

These are just some of my preliminary thoughts - I only watched about half the matches today... I spent much of the day getting our own robot working, and I took time today to check out robots in the pits. I'm looking forward to an exciting two more days!