Three observations on the game after UTC Scrimmage...

[Justin]

Okay,

This past weekend I attended the UTC pre-season scrimmage and I came away with three points or observations about this years game. I will add the caveat that this is all based on pre-regional play. Okay here we go...

1) The periods during the match are too short. From what I saw the periods during the match are too short there is not enough time in the 40 seconds to do much of anything it was hard to see anything really develop during such a short period of time. There was one great defensive play when a dream dropped a bunch of balls in front of a ramp. The lesson there...skirts on your robot are good.

2) There is to little going on on the field itself. The most exciting on field action in this game seems to be robots tipping over as they try to climb the ramp. Contrast that with all of the action last year, robots tipping, stacks being built, defense, other teams stealing tetras, stacks tumbling off, lots to watch. Here it seems as though there is very little for the audience to actually watch. I also hear some comments that the multi-color balls make it hard to figure out who is scoring and what is happening.

3) Teams need to learn how to shoot. The potential for excitement lies with good shooters. I hope teams will really learn how to shoot and move beyond having to sit in one perfectly aligned spot in order to hit the taller goals.

Those are my pre-season thoughts I think we should know if this game has any potential by the third weekend or so. Hey if not I already have a few tweaks for it in mind.

Good luck to everyone in 06!!

Justin

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Justin

1) The periods during the match are too short. From what I saw the periods during the match are too short there is not enough time in the 40 seconds to do much of anything it was hard to see anything really develop during such a short period of time.

Justin

Justin, after reviewing the tape after I got home, it looked as if the periods were only timed to be 30 or 35 seconds long at the scrimmage.

Whether or not that was for the whole event, or just the few matches we noticed it on, has yet to be seen (I have to watch it again).

Also, whether or not 5-10 more seconds would make a difference also remains to be seen.

[PVCMike]

I attended also, although my team didnt (we felt it would be better to practice at home). I agree with most of the above statements, though we have to remember, this was just a practice event, and many teams were still in the experimental stage, though i guess all robots could be considered experimental. I noticed an increasing improvement of most of the teams throughout the day, so i imagine by the qualifying rounds at the regionals teams will be alot better and the game should get more interesting.