How does your team scout?

[Chris is me]

First, we figure out what an alliance needs to win the match. We try to be as specific as you need, but no more. Being too specific constrains you too much (committing to "two scorers and a defender" in Lunacy was the downfall of many teams, for example), but being too general doesn't form the alliance you want. In Breakaway, we wanted an alliance that could shoot 6 in auto, had an agile striker, high traction feeder with excellent ball control, and a defender that could at the very least clear balls in auto, with a hanger or two thrown in there if possible.

Then you figure out what stats will best demonstrate who is the best at the roles you've dictated for your alliance. In Lunacy, +/- was a good indicator for almost any alliance. Breakaway, it got more complicated. Auto kicks, front scores, mid feeds, pushing, hanging, etc.

Then you assemble your list or lists based on your data and who's best at what you want. You figure out what you want in a first pick and what you want in a second pick, then you make them. This year there were two general approaches to the two picks, mainly the "front last" second pick and the "back last" second pick (even if they started in the middle to allow the primary scorer access to 3 balls in auto). Alliances like 254 / 233 / 3357 picked their frontbot last, while alliances like 2056 / 1625 / 3138 picked their backbot last. This depended on what was available in the field, what choices people had, etc. I know both times for my team we ended up picking the backbot last, but for different reasons. 1124 was inexplicably still around for the 12th pick of the draft (granted, this was before they changed their code and became the frontbot they played as at CT and champs), and they had an auto that could theoretically clear 2 balls out of the back. At CT, the much deeper field left 173, 3125, and 102 available for that 12th pick; 173 had a lot more consistency on Saturday morning than 3125, so the choice was made to pick them.

[Bethie42]

The major factor for our team has always been number of scouts....in past years we've had a small team....small as in, 5 or 6 students total. My first preference would be that you have a fairly large scouting team, enough people in the stands to watch EVERY robot in EVERY match.

My first two years as scouting captain I was also the ONLY scout, those were fun times....

This year [Autodesk Oregon Regional] was the first year I had a laptop. Don't underestimate the power of one really dedicated person with a laptop. I was also very fortunate this year to actually have a second person in the stands scouting with me. By the end of the competition [heheh] we had the system down to a science: my scouting partner would watch the robots on one alliance [easier to do that, than by zone, because of color, and the fact that robots don't always stay in their assigned zones], and I would watch the bots on the other alliance. I had the laptop, and would enter data on my alliance during the match. Scouting partner would feed me data after the match.

The only way this method would work [with no special program, just an OpenOffice spreadsheet] is if you have The Scout who does nothing all competition except watch every single match. The Autodesk regional is one of the biggest I think [60+ teams this year] but I still had a good handle on knowing each and every team and robot on the field.

Over the years I've become less interested in pit scouting, at least at Regionals. Anybody can say they can score in autonomous, but only the matches will show whether they DO. The chief value I see in pit scouting is establishing a rapport with other teams, and it can be hard to judge early on who will be in the top seed. Of course, by the end of the practice matches at AOR I had 'the cozying-up list' which included the teams that went on to place first and second.

I would encourage teams to not just shuffle off scouting on the members of the team who don't have anything else to do: it really takes a lot of dedication. One person has to be willing to spend the entire competition [before breakfast, during matches, at lunch, after the matches end, at dinner, after dinner, at all hours of the night] doing nothing but become familiar with every robot on the field. It's fun.....