How accurate does scouting need to be?

[George1902]

Inaccurate data is not data. It's guessing.

Collect as much data as you can according to your resources. Even if you can only tell part of the story, it's better than fiction.

[Qbot2640]

The following is anecdotal and opinion based - so I encourage others to chime in in support or disagreement - but I believe timeliness of data is going to be paramount this year. With only one game piece in play per alliance at a time, knowing your alliances strengths and weaknesses as well as those of your opposing alliance for each match will be critical. Good data available in a timely manner will enable the proper strategy discussions to take place that will win matches. Strategy and full alliance implementation of that strategy will beat technological prowess this year.

Also - the best teams will play different matches with a completely different strategy - all based on the "mix of six" on the field.

[matthew_martin]

As one of the scouting leads on my team (pit scouting and match scouting), I say that inaccurate data is literally as good as a robot that is just a chassis. it might get a little done, but it'll never make your scouting system fantastic. Plus, this year, scouting is of the utmost importance. It's a good idea to meet with your alliance members BEFORE your match to discuss strategy and work out the game plan. I've always said that scouting is like fantasy football. You can never build a winning alliance without good data.

[rsegrest]

Insert programming adage here...Garbage In Garbage Out...

If your data is garbage or extraneous then so is your information.

George is correct. Collect as much data as you can that you can make sense of.

In our scouting what will be important are starting position, assists, truss points, catches, and goal points (not necessarily in that order).