Breakaway in review: what have we learned?

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by IKE

Comp-team.
Highlight all the penalties in the rule book, and do your best not to do them. I can understand driving up on a ball especially when going over a blind bump. Penalties are the make/break point for low scoring matches. Keep it clean.

This is the best advice for the upcoming regionals. Team 422 got into 2nd place in the standings by not receiving any penalties. In our last match of day one, the ball return penalty took a glaring loss for us into a 22-point gain in the standings. We never left the top eight on day two by playing methodical, penalty-free ball. We won two of our elimination games off of penalties.

Another tip is to "topple-proof" a bot. They ended up on their sides often. Our elimination alliance had our bot, which had a net preventing a tip, 2016's climber could be tilted to the side to push the bot upright, and 816 was tunnnel-capable and close to the ground. This advice is a little late, but it's something to keep in mind if you want to edit your bot for your regional.

[delsaner]

In addition to the talk about penalties, there was a 71 point penalty, a 22 point penalty, and a 14 point penalty in New Jersey. Most, if not all, of the penalties were because balls were not returned in time. Big ones come from balls falling off before the photo-gate, or human players not realizing there was a ball scored. That is a lethal penalty that can wipe out a score no matter how big.

Another penalty that came up multiple times; the 3 inch ball violation. Make sure that you edit your robot so it will not roll over a ball. It happens very often when a robot rolls up the goal ramp while possessing a ball.

Just a warning to watch out for.

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by delsaner

In addition to the talk about penalties, there was a 71 point penalty, a 22 point penalty, and a 14 point penalty in New Jersey. Most, if not all, of the penalties were because balls were not returned in time. Big ones come from balls falling off before the photo-gate, or human players not realizing there was a ball scored. That is a lethal penalty that can wipe out a score no matter how big.

Another penalty that came up multiple times; the 3 inch ball violation. Make sure that you edit your robot so it will not roll over a ball. It happens very often when a robot rolls up the goal ramp while possessing a ball.

Just a warning to watch out for.

Going along with the warning about ball return penalties--make sure that, when you reach for the ball, you are not reaching too early. If you reach in before the ball has fully cleared both sensors, your hand might trigger the sensor, causing the field to think that another ball has been scored and expecting it to be returned.

[Chris is me]

Wheel guards are a good idea to not run over soccer balls.

Trying to do two conflicting things well will result in you ending up not being able to do both at all.