What has surprised you this year?

[Lil' Lavery]

I was surprised at how "easy" () it was to build a consistent scoring mechanism. I expected far less precision in shooting, and a lot more missed shots. This also led me to believe the mid-level teams would not be able to build a useful full court shooter.

[joelg236]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I was surprised at how "easy" () it was to build a consistent scoring mechanism. I expected far less precision in shooting, and a lot more missed shots. This also led me to believe the mid-level teams would not be able to build a useful full court shooter.

I was in the same boat. I was talking to a few team members today about this exactly. When I first heard that we were shooting frisbees I was sure that they would be nerf-foam type stuff. I could not even begin to imagine a shooter that had any accuracy. The whole wheel idea was not obvious to me at first. Somehow wheels actually work really well, which amazes me. It's one of the only FIRST games where the way to achieve any points wasn't completely obvious. But somehow it's actually relatively easy. Even some lower-tier teams can shoot pretty accurately (>75%), which is pretty new. Last year that was definitely not the case.

[Ivan Malik]

I missed how open the field actually was. I originally thought that there would be a lot more traffic jams around the sides and in front of the pyramid than there were, making cycling less effective. I thought that just sitting in the feeder station and getting discs down field would be huge for an alliance because of this.

[MattInAHat]

I think I noticed how much the "everything bots" weren't that decent. I mean, take the Fighting Pi (1718) for example. They couldn't hang, but they had an amazing shooter and autonomous. Their pairing with The Killer Bees (33) at all of their competitions allowed for a fantastic game (and fun to watch as well.)

[bitty]

Originally Posted by MattInAHat

I mean, take the Fighting Pi (1718) for example. They couldn't hang, but they had an amazing shooter and autonomous.

We have always had a 10 point hanger

[Wetzel]

I was at two regionals this year where no team "Graciously Accepted."

Wetzel

[MrForbes]

I'm most surprised that I'm not surprised by how the game works in competition. I guess I'm getting old.

We made a simple robot this year, and it was enough to win a relatively easy regional. Fortunately we picked the right things to do, and we made the robot do them well enough. Some teams that made more elaborate robots did better, but it looks like they had to really work for it. And quite a few teams with more elaborate robots didn't do as well, perhaps they took on a bit too much.

Good job, GDC

[fb39ca4]

Originally Posted by jacob9706

Smaller footprint? Ours wont even fit through a door without turning it sideways. This year we have had more surface area to mount and build on than ever before. Just got to thing outside the box (pun intended).

Attachment 14636

Heh, I remember the announcer saying that when you got an award at Seattle.

[saikiranra]

What really surprised me was the *relatively* low number of disc-related injuries and "Ultimate Descents".

[Jaxom]

I was surprised that full-court shooters were not blocked most of the time. Our very first match in Hub City we helped one of our alliance partners put on a structure to block the only FCS there (glad to see you made it, Appreciate; good luck in Archimedes). I thought that'd be happening all the time, both in qualification and in elimination matches.

In our design sessions we dropped trying for a FCS pretty early, because we thought they'd be easy to block. Obviously, some teams built some really, really, nice bots using this strategy, and it worked out well for quite a few of them.

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by Jaxom

In our design sessions we dropped trying for a FCS pretty early, because we thought they'd be easy to block.

Us, too.

I guess one of these years I'll stop being surprised when robots that can't do anything but drive around don't play defense until (maybe) elims, but every year it surprises me.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I was surprised (and tremendously pleased) that the GDC hit a grand slam two years in a row!

After seeing what I would consider to be a decline in quality after Rack n Roll up until Logomotion, seeing the GDC top their best game a year after it ended was quite an enjoyable surprise. Easy to explain, fun to watch at all levels, and manages to be strategically complex while stunningly simple and beautiful. Shrinking the load safe zone and making the scoring zone a 3 dimensional object really opened up ways you play both offense and defense and optional design constraints in ways you did not see in Foul-party 2011 or Rumble.

Come on guys, let's go for 3!

[Gdeaver]

Ether posted a chart of all the match scores for 7 weeks. What surprised me was the sheer number of low scores. I believe this shows that there is a widening divide between the average First team and the elite.

[Billfred]

Going under the pyramid proved to be far more useful than expected.

Full-court shooters actually dialing it in surprised me as well.

Probably the biggest surprise for me: autonomous was actually a highlight of our robot. Never happened in five years. Who knew?

[karomata]

I was astonished that some of the 3 and 4 thousands were showing up some of the traditional powerhouses. With a game as unusual as this one, their unique, simple, and not as experienced perspective gave them a real edge in competition.