What we learned from week 1

[MagiChau]

1. A consistent autonomous is a 100% must. With the high scores being put up, every single point matters to give you the lead.

2. Full Court Shooters must not be allowed to score. 610 demonstrated their ferocious ability at Granite State.

3. Long 30 point climbers are not viable. When a robot begins climbing they put themselves out for the rest of a match. Shooting a couple rounds of frisbees and then popping for a 1 second 10 point hang out scores 30 point climbers that take a minute.

4. High maneuverability and defensive tactics is king of eliminations. Defense can wreck highly offensive robots' score output but the highly maneuverable robots like 1986 can breeze past.

These are my 2 cents from watching some webcasts today. We get to put our robot to the test in week 2 to see how we stack up in this year's game.

[Elong451]

Originally Posted by F22Rapture

We drove down to Palmetto to watch, and it seemed to me as though fouls were not being called nearly as often as they should have been. While I can't remember numbers, I recall one incident where a red robot repeatedly (at least 3 times) rammed into a blue robot touching it's pyramid. One minute later... 0 foul points.

The situation did seem to improve in the finals.

@Text change

I could swear I saw the regular, black numbering on the streams from other regionals. The only one I noticed that *did* have the clear numbering was Palmetto. I could be wrong however.

That team did that to us and we played blue and they got like all the foul points. Who sacrifices themselves to do such a stupid thing to the teams on their alliance?

[Jaxom]

Pool noodles, pvc, and duck tape are among the materials that can be easily obtained and used to block full-court shooters.

Rookies with Zoology teachers as mentors can add a 10-point hanger during lunch on Saturday. Way to go, 4552!

Multiple robots can shoot autonomous into the same goal.

The carpet seams around the pyramid get torn up pretty easily.

Headgear from 1986, 3931, and 1801 can be simultaneously worn on the same head.

[KFrisk]

There are very few full court shooters (at least fewer than I was expecting)
Team Titanium is a lot better than I expected.
I didn't think they would do that well. Then they won Hub City.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Jaxom

The carpet seams around the pyramid get torn up pretty easily.

Care to elaborate on this one? Did it have an effect on gameplay/driving around the pyramid?

[nobrakes8]

Originally Posted by stevend1994

Care to elaborate on this one? Did it have an effect on gameplay/driving around the pyramid?

We have a low hanging piston for our shooter (our robot was designed to be low) and it ended up getting caught on part of the carpet that was torn up. It bent our rod 90 degrees without us even realizing until it came time to shoot.

Team 16 had issues catching the carpet with their robot too.. But that might have had something to do when our team collided with them in our last qualification match (our frame got bent and they didn't seem to work the same again during eliminations).

But point being if you're a good robot you're going to take a beating this year and things with a close floor tolerance can poise an issue with the carpet. Also it'll be worthwhile to make a quick walk around your pyramid to make sure the carpet is taped down well prior to starting the match.

[itsjustmrb]

Battle Bot style defense is a viable solution for some teams.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by itsjustmrb

Battle Bot style defense is a viable solution for some teams.

Depends on where you do it.
HINT: Don't repeatedly do it when the team is firing away in their loading zone and you start accumulating over a hundred points in technical fouls.
Though the move 48 pulled on 1559 where they ran under the blue pyramid and shoved them all the way across the field before they could hang had to be the boldest defensive move I have ever seen. It could have backfire bigtime.

[cmrnpizzo14]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Depends on where you do it.
HINT: Don't repeatedly do it when the team is firing away in their loading zone and you start accumulating over a hundred points in technical fouls.
Though the move 48 pulled on 1559 where they ran under the blue pyramid and shoved them all the way across the field before they could hang had to be the boldest defensive move I have ever seen. It could have backfire bigtime.

I disagree!
Please continue to think that that defense is effective, we want the high score back!

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by cmrnpizzo14

I disagree!
Please continue to think that that defense is effective, we want the high score back!

Only if 4023 agrees to keep hitting you in the loading zone again and again.

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by stevend1994

Care to elaborate on this one? Did it have an effect on gameplay/driving around the pyramid?

For us it had a huge impact. We have a ramp system from intake rollers in the front to our hopper in the back, and every tape line around the pyramid was a trouble spot for us. Also in eliminations at GSR, team 175 pulled about a foot of carpet up on the corner of a pyramid.

[Jaxom]

Originally Posted by stevend1994

Care to elaborate on this one? Did it have an effect on gameplay/driving around the pyramid?

It only happened to this degree a couple of time in Lubbock, but there were many times that the field reset folks were out there with tape on smaller repairs.

[Dragonking]

What great addition out team added to our robot that has been so useful is a supershifter. We could push anyone who got in out way and we could switch to high gear and outmaneuver any one as well as get anywhere fast.

I agree that scouting is extremely important. For our alliance we got a 5 disc auto scorer with a full court shooter at the 3 pt who also had a 10 pt climb. The to of us were the top 2 seeds. The question was who else to get. We also got a second full court shooter which was too tall to be blocked against. They could also block opponents with their height.
Our alliance didn't lose a single match and outscored most of our opponents

[Jaxom]

Originally Posted by Dragonking

We also got a second full court shooter which was too tall to be blocked against.

With all due respect, there is no such thing in this game. If you're going to be a full-court shooter you're maxing at 60"; defenders can be 84". 84" > 60", and there's no way you're going to be shooting steeply enough to get over them *if* they're in the right place. Now, you may not have had anyone that set anything up to be able to block you, but I guarantee it could have been done.

Having said that, congratulations on your win. Looks like you guys put up some great scores.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Jaxom

With all due respect, there is no such thing in this game. If you're going to be a full-court shooter you're maxing at 60"; defenders can be 84". 84" > 60", and there's no way you're going to be shooting steeply enough to get over them *if* they're in the right place.

With all due respect, you're thinking inside the box. There are teams that may be able to get over 84" defenders by using other methods than the typical shooter.