INsight: Tippecanoe

[INsight]

Top Contenders:

• 868

  The Techhounds are a perennial contender in the state of Indiana and have a low bar capable, 8-wheeled drive train with an actuated intake and wheeled high goal shooter. This year, they have decided to return to a familiar event, going out of district for the Queen City Regional event in week 5.

• 1024

  For the first time in years, Kil-A-Bytes have actually built a short robot. They’ve been slowly revealing the robot on their Twitter account (@FRC1024) and appear ready to compete this weekend. They are one of 4 Triple-players in the state of Indiana (Attending all 3 district events), which will give them plenty of chances to prove themselves as a top team in the state.

• 1501

  THRUST is one of 3 Indiana teams that participated at the first NC district event at Guilford. They’re in the low-bar challenged group of robots, a rare-breed of robot this year, but they are more than capable of being a scoring threat. They prefer to stay in courtyard can score auto high during autonomous, but can switch to low goal if needed and at a moment’s notice. They quickly adapted to changing conditions and their future looks bright moving into Indiana district play.

• 1747

  Harrison Boiler Robotics revealed their robot as a high goal shooter with a solid, tread drivetrain. They demonstrated a very repeatable autonomous, high-goal scoring in their reveal and at a local week 0 scrimmage. We’ll see if their eats, shoots, and leaves technique will last through three district events in the state.

Up-and-Coming Teams:

• 135

  The Black Knights are coming off of strong showings over the past 2 seasons, can they make it three?

• 4272

  The team out of McCutcheon High School are bullish on doing some damage and continuing to gain notoriety with their fellow Tippecanoe County teams. They demonstrated a good firm grip on the boulders and that they are a quality high and low goal scorer. Defense crossings are no problem for these mavericks.

• 5188

  This alien team participated at NC-Guilford, where they attempted hanging and worked to improve their robot throughout the competition. They will hope to have their bugs worked out in time for this weekends competition.

• 5403

  Aluminosity is a low-goal specialist robot that will look to establish themselves after an impressive rookie season. How will they follow up their All-Star rookie season; will they hit the sophomore slump?

Hiding-in-the-Corn (Sleepers/Darkhorse picks):

• 45

  The Legendary TechnoKats utilized the expertise gained from watching the Robot in 3 Days - Team Indiana and built a robot that expanded upon it. Can they find success with the design?

• 447

  Team Roboto always seems to be a darkhorse and sleeper team. Will they be sneaky good and fly in under the radar again?

• 829

  The Digital Goats: always good for a joke about moats and boats and whatnot. Their kit wheels make crossings particularly rough, but will most likely prove to be very capable defense busters with only 14 wheels.

• 1741

  Red Alert fields a robot with a strong drivetrain and will look to a potentially dangerous team with practice.

• 3940

  The Cybertooth team will be fielding another clean and attractive robot. Can they back it up with a clean performance?

Ol’ Reliables:

• 292

• 461

• 3147

Strategy discussion / INsight:

• No rookies at the event, no excuses for these veterans.

• Will Indiana teams spend time attempting multiple high goal shots or will teams value low goal scoring to save time?

• Will Indiana teams focus on scoring boulders first or will teams focus on defenses and clean up boulders as an end game?

• Will we see Indiana teams ditch breaching to park on batter / challenge tower, valuing attempts to win over the guaranteed ranking points (RPs)?

• How much alliance coordination will we see during attacks on the Drawbridge/Sally Port? Coordination makes destroying the defense easy, but requires exceptional teamwork. Will Indiana teams be able to work together well enough or will the defenses defeat the teams?

• Indiana teams get the benefit of playing two weeks in. What role will the new low bar, Cheval de Frise changes play on their designs or will they adapt?

• Indiana teams are a savvy bunch. Will they cherish their RPs and focus on offense? Or will we see more teams play defense during Qualification rounds? Or will we see a hybrid of strategies?

We can’t wait to see how these teams do this weekend storming the castle. Good luck to all teams competing this weekend!