Pittsburgh and Lessons Learned

[Paul Copioli]

Well,

We arrived home at 12:30am Saturday night (Sunday morning) and it is my 1st day back at work. We learned a lot at Pittsburgh and will be ready to go at Great Lakes this weekend. Here is a list of things I observed (no particular order):

1. Getting to the wall first is a big advantage, but if you don't get there first, good driving can overcome it.

2. The pusher bots (especially limbo) with good drivers dictate the game. De-scoring is very important and these bots do it well. I was very suprised by how much the pusher bots had affected the outcome.

3. I have not given up on stacking, but it is really easy to de-score and render good stacks useless.

4. Teamwork will win this game. Unlike other years, you will NOT win without teamwork. Good teamwork is the best way to make stacking possible. A team must run blocker while a stacker is stacking or run interference to keep the bins in scoring position.

5. One robot will not win this game by itself.

6. Did I mention teamwork will prevail.

7. A single KOTH bot will not win this game. Great KOTH bots will emerge, but they will soon realize that they can't do it alone. A team who protects their stack can win with a 1 robot deficit on the hill.

8. From what I saw at Pittsburgh (competing) and Buckeye (observing), it seems like the winning combination is one robot that is fast to the wall and 2 strong pusher bots (limbo not necessary, but helpful).

-Paul