Week 1 Observations

[Citrus Dad]

I'm not sure what the level of interest will be in watching all of the matches. After watching a team a couple of matches it all becomes quite predictable. The only question will be if certain teams improve substantially over the competition. This will become less relevant as the season progresses and teams reach their level of proficiency.

[IronicDeadBird]

The mess on the field when one team makes a mistake is so crazy and so detrimental to the team. Another underestimation by a good 300% on my end. Mobility is more important then I thought it would be. These 6 stacks are so slow to make and so bad if they topple. The more I see the more clear the team comp gets and the more stupid I feel but whatever...

[rich2202]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

Curious, what penalties are being called?

Common fouls have been

G5 More than one person in the Human Player Zone
G6 HP in contact with both tote and chute door
G6-1 Prop open chute door - If the tote is stuck in the chute, do NOT release the chute door until the tote is cleared by the robot or gently shaking the chute.
G23 robot - knocks stack over, and it falls out of the field
G24 robot, while Coop stacking, knocks stack over onto other side of the field
G30 leave alliance station - do not step off the carpet
G31/G32 Coach touches anything
G33 throwing litter during last 20 seconds

[Ichlieberoboter]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

Curious, what penalties are being called?

Let me just give a general "thank you!" for sharing this insight with the community!

I saw quite a few penalties called when teams tried to do coopertition and accidentally knocked the yellow totes to the other side of the field while stacking them.

[alicen]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

Curious, what penalties are being called?

Let me just give a general "thank you!" for sharing this insight with the community!

GSCR just ended this afternoon and the most common fouls we called were throwing noodles in the last 20 seconds, two human players in the HP zone and a couple of crossing the start line during autonomous.

We didnt have a single G6 of touching tote and chute door, and only one red card in the entire event.

[Squillo]

Two other things I like about this game:
- It's not hard to avoid fouls, and the point values for most fouls seem reasonable, and
- The playoff format ensures more matches in the semi-finals; each team is guaranteed 3, rather than two plus a possible third. More matches is more of a reward for making it to playoffs.

(It would be better if they got three in the quarter-finals too.)

[alephzer0]

One thing I noticed (at least in MAR):
G6-1 is a killer. I saw at least 3 yellow cards and one red card from it.
For reference,G6-1 is the rule that says you can't prop open the chute door. That was a problem, I'm assuming, because HP's left totes in the chute with the door open and unattended.
Or something like that.

[Thad House]

Originally Posted by alephzer0

One thing I noticed (at least in MAR):
G6-1 is a killer. I saw at least 3 yellow cards and one red card from it.
For reference,G6-1 is the rule that says you can't prop open the chute door. That was a problem, I'm assuming, because HP's left totes in the chute with the door open and unattended.
Or something like that.

They handed like to G6-1 red cards out at Oregon City.

Some were caused by one of the chute doors being sticky, and not falling correctly. Field issue, but they couldnt fix it, and still gave out the cards.

I think it being a card is a bit too harsh. Thinking about the safety things, I think I came up with a way to keep it safe, make it not have a competitive advantage, and give less cards.

Add a safety zone 5 inches into the chute.
Red card if the HP extends past that line inside the chute
Keep regular G6
Remove the cards from G6-1 - keep the foul

That keeps the HP safe by not allowing them to put their hands inside the chute, which honestly I never saw and shouldnt happen anyway. And it take out the harsh card for if a tote gets stuck. You could also add a condition to G6 to make it so an HP in the zone cannot touch a tote if the chute door is propped open. But with the foul on G6-1 I dont really think thats needed, because that basically makes it so the chute door has to close in order to put another tote in without getting a foul.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Squillo

Two other things I like about this game:
- The playoff format ensures more matches for the teams in the quarter- and semi-finals (each QF team gets to play 3 matches, rather than only two with a POSSIBLE 3rd - in the old format, while there were "underdog victories", the likelihood was that for alliances 7 and 8, at least, they would only get two elim matches; each SF team gets 3 more, so a total of 6 playoff matches). More matches is more of a reward for making it to playoffs.

This isnt right. You still only get 2 matches in the Quarters.

[Boltman]

Originally Posted by dodar

This isnt right. You still only get 2 matches in the Quarters.

Yes this:

Quarterfinals in Regional (2 matches)

4-5
3-6
2-7
1-8

4-6
3-5
2-8
1-7

[Squillo]

Oh, well, that's a drag. But I see why it's necessary, to save time.

[Zebra_Fact_Man]

It's really difficult to watch both alliances work at the same time. It's almost like there are two separate "games" coexisting at the same time.

The other thing that I thought was kind of funny was that this is the only year to my knowledge where a #1 seed can end up playing as the blue alliance.

[tindleroot]

Originally Posted by Zebra_Fact_Man

The other thing that I thought was kind of funny was that this is the only year to my knowledge where a #1 seed can end up playing as the blue alliance.

I though the highest seeded team was always red alliance this year.

[JeffersonMartin]

Originally Posted by tindleroot

I though the highest seeded team was always red alliance this year.

Alliances reseed after each playoff round. So the 1 overall seed could end up as the fourth seed in semis.

[carpedav000]

We just came back from a week one Indiana district event, I noticed that the landfill can be a bit too crowded to make larger stacks of totes. The quarterfinals at the event were rather exciting, as the 8th seated alliance (The CyberCards, 1720, and 1741) took first and held it until the last quarterfinal match.