Pitfalls to avoid when brainstorming the 2011 game and robot

[EricH]

Originally Posted by iCurtis

If there are loose, spherical objects on the field, the majority of them will come to rest against the edge of the field. Be able to pick them up there! Year after year teams struggle with this, and it never gets any better...

No. Kidding. Back in 2000-2002, the balls started against the walls and rails. Teams slurped them right up--I remember 330 in 2000 (2001 and 2002 didn't handle small balls) being able to go straight up to the far wall and slurp in 3-4 balls that were resting up against it, no problem. Dump them into a goal, repeat for another minute fifteen, and use the remaining 30 seconds to hang, because that was the game that year.

Since then, teams haven't been able to pick up in that area very well. 2010 was kind of an anomaly, because you couldn't really slurp the balls in, but 2009 and 2006 had a lot near the edge.