Troy Athens Regional

[Paul Copioli]

Originally Posted by David Dawson

We knew we had a decent bot this year so why not play to win?

Right, play to win. Play to win the event or play to win one match? This year, unfortunately, they are not the same thing.

[BJC]

Originally Posted by Paul Copioli

Right, play to win. Play to win the event or play to win one match? This year, unfortunately, they are not the same thing.

It depends on your position. If you have a chance of seeding high play to win seeding points. If you don't have a chance at this, play to show off your robot so you will be picked for elims. Either way, the goal is to ultimatly, win so teams have to do their best with what their given.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by BJC

It depends on your position. If you have a chance of seeding high play to win seeding points. If you don't have a chance at this, play to show off your robot so you will be picked for elims. Either way, the goal is to ultimatly, win so teams have to do their best with what their given.

If you seriously have the ability to stop 469 where other teams do not, I think other teams' scouts will notice even if you don't shoot yourself in the foot ranking wise.

I used to subscribe to the "show off your robot and press your luck" strategy, then my team went from 17th to 7th at WPI with 5 carefully calculated matches. We ended up conceding 2 matches versus who would end up being the #1 seed, blocking our own goals in the second of those matches, which helped us keep our ranking up. You can turn any schedule into a positive schedule if you're smart and have a versatile robot.

Despite only playing incidental defense, smart scouts did notice my team and saw that we had the potential to play smart and aggressive defense rather than simple pinning and ramming.

[Jen.Scharl]

Originally Posted by Paul Copioli

Right, play to win. Play to win the event or play to win one match? This year, unfortunately, they are not the same thing.

I agree. However, when faced with the difficult task of a match against 469 on Saturday morning, our team had a dilemma. Half of our team wanted to "pull a Thunderchicken" and stack our seeding points, which no doubt would have put us into picking position, and the other half wanted to see what we could do against them. Some members figured that even if we lost (highly likely) we would be able to impress teams so we would get picked higher.
We knew we had an autonomous solely made to stop 469 from getting in the tunnel, but we had yet to try it out.

So what do we do? Guarantee ourselves a higher rank by scoring on ourselves? or fight like crazy to impress everyone, and show that 469 is stoppable?

I will admit I was torn as well. But, after talking it over, we decided to give it a fighting chance.

Seeing our autonomous work and hearing the whole crowd go crazy, was one of the greatest feelings ever. And while we only beat 469 by a penalty, we also had one dead robot, and our robot's signal was cutting in and out. Even if we had lost, we showed to everyone and ourselves that 469 can be stopped. It was a much more satisfying feeling, then purposely throwing away the match.

However, I will not criticize anyone who has used the 6 v 0 strategy. I understand why it is used, and how effective it can be. I just ask that teams think about actually trying to win first. It is much more satisfying and requires some, dare I say, fun strategic planning.

Congrats once again to 469, 217, and our mentorees 1188 for their great win at Troy. We will see you all at states!