Pre-Shipdate UTC Scrimmage

[Ian Curtis]

I wasn't there, but I watched about 3/4 of the webcast.

Ramping?
Ridiculously important. I was astounded by the lack of ramp robots there. Many matches had scores of 4 to 2 (or something in that range) and even high scoring matches typically did not go above 30. 1@12 will probably win matches in early regionals.

Difficulty of Ramping?
Severe, many ramps folded, or were just too darn hard to get up. Steepness was also an issue. Matches were 3vs3, and I didn't see 2 robots up, but it was pretty close a couple of times (it may have happened when I wasn't watching)

Autonomous?
Bad. I didn't see a single keeper scored (but I saw 230 almost get it several times.) People didn't even play defense. No one moved. This was a scrimmage, so autonomous is probably still under development, but I don't think this bodes well for Rack'n'Roll autonomous. I really wanted to see some autonomous scoring. Guess I'll have to wait til week 1.

Opposite side?
Nope. Robots couldn't score on their own side, let alone their opponent's.

Tubes?
Their own. Too far to go to get the ones in the home zone.

Robots on opposite side?
Only if they had a good tube placer. Then that tube placer was defended like crazy. Otherwise, no. Too difficult to score.

Rack Swingage?
Yes.

Overall, I was astounded by the lack of ramps, and the lack of scoring. I was expecting no more than 3 tubes a robot, but in most of these matches, robot's were lucky to get 1 up.

[BobC]

I have video of a couple of the matches on my camera. I will post them either to google or youtube tomorrow. It is 10:15 and I have to get up at 5am tomorrow. It has been a long two days with setup and break down but i will try to get the video's up sometime tomorrow morning and post links here.
Good night all.

[Jack K.]

As expected Aces High went above and beyond to put on an exellent event. The teams attending got a good look at the game and all its glory. I think that ramping is going to be a big factor. What I saw today was alot of different angles and materials on the ramps. If you don't have at least a 1 1/2 inch clearance it is going to be tough to climb. I also think if you are going to attempt to climb, you build a practice ramp to get use to staight shot climbs and sudden stops at the top. Well good luck to all and I look forward to seeing you all at Hartford. Come say Hi (look for the HAT) Again my hat comes of to Aces for a GREAT JOB

[Greg Marra]

I am currently ripping video. Expect to see some stuff from The Blue Alliance tonight.

[BoyWithCape195]

Here are a few pictures from today’s scrimmage. Some teams brought older bolts with different manipulator, so you may recognize some from 2005. Thanks to Megan from 195 for these photos, she got as many robots as she could before the battery died!

2007 WWZ Bot pics (15 teams)

[Golto]

I think that everything went well, considering one, we are a rookie team, and two, one of the teams broke a tooth on a nylon hear that just snowballed at the end. All I know is, I scored the first ringer for the team!

(BTW, this is the pic of our bot from the post above... http://good-times.webshots.com/photo...75543707UlHkbx )

ANOTHER EDIT:

here are some pics from today
http://24.151.3.19/FIRST/gallery2/ma...?g2_itemId=192

It shows a lot of our bot and a few pics of the competition

[artdutra04]

What was more important- ramping or racking?
Seeing how there was only a few teams there who actually had their 2007 robot (and not their 2005 or a practice/prototype robot), there wasn't much scoring on the Rack. When our team went there today we didn't even have our manipulator mounted; all we did was drive around the field so I could practice driving.

At early events (Week 1, some Week 2), ramping will be more important than racking in many matches. But as the competition intensifies, expect racking to become just as important.

Generally speaking, how hard was it to get on the ramps?
Ummm, yeah. :-/ Generally, I would use the advice that one ramp bot != automatic 60 points. 30 points would seem feasible most of the time, but may ramps are not much bigger than the robots themselves, and with bumpers on a robot, ramps become even harder to climb up. Most teams who did ramp started doing so with around 30 seconds left in the game.

I imagine many matches weren't actually played with three per alliance, but did any teams get two robots up?
Actually, every match I saw had three robots playing against three robots. In one of our three qualification matches our alliance had 2 at 12".

Were teams having a difficult time scoring with defense being played on them, or was it nice and easy to sling 'em up regardless?
New England or not, this was a scrimmage event and more or less there wasn't any defense. All teams seemed like all they did on the playing field was test mechanisms and practice driving.

How about scoring on the opposite side of the rack? Did it happen? Easily?
From a driver's point of view, it looks like it would be a bit easier than I originally thought at the New Hampshire Kickoff event. But again, this was a scrimmage event and little scoring of any kind actually occured.

Were teams using the far side tubes, or entirely their own?
Human player tubes.

Grouping the past few questions, was there much cross-side mingling?
It was a scrimmage, so there wasn't too much or anything that occurred. But I didn't seem to have any problems zipping around the rack to the far side of the playing field and driving around all the other robots and tubes there. Granted, there were no serious attempts at defense, but it looks like fast, maneuverable robots will venture down to the far side of the field more often that slower ones.

Did the rack swing like crazy?
The rack definitely did move and swing, but it didn't seem to "swing like crazy". Again, when most matches had only a handful of tubes scored, there wasn't much robot+rack interaction.

Any cool auto-modes figured out yet? Was there anything?Team 230 has an almost keeper (it was about 50% onto the spider leg), but autonomous ended before they were able to score it. However, the current procedure for a partially scored tube seems to be pause the match, have a referee go out, and literally slash the tube to instantly remove it from game play without having to fiddle it off the robot and the rack.

How inflated did the tubes stay? Any tube carnage?
So far it doesn't seem to be that unreasonable. Deflated tubes seem to be about as common as broken tetras in Triple Play.

Any other interesting tidbits would be cool to hear about. I wanna know how this game flows! Thanks guys!

Defense
Defense will be important, but don't expect it to be as rampant as Aim High, as the referees are calling a lot of penalties. So far it looks like this game is going to play out like Triple [re]Play, so expect a lot of offense.

Also, don't underestimate getting from one side of the rack to the other. Even driving full speed from one side of the rack to the other (without any obstructions) can easily take 5-8 seconds. Just in the time it takes to get from one side of the rack to the other gives plenty of opportunity for offensive teams to "turn and burn" - e.g. get into the rack, score a ringer really quickly, and get back out before the defensive robot can get to you. Again, another Triple [re]Play phenomenon.

Offense
I guess I can file this under offense, but so far spoilers have remained virtually virtually untouched. But then again, teams were having enough problems just scoring ringers, let along descoring them. However, IMO, give teams time to get used to their manipulators, and you'll start seeing a lot more exciting action on the playing field.

CMUcam
Sorry, CMUcam, it looks like this isn't your year. While there were a ton of teams who had them on their robot last year, there are only a few who seem to be using it this year. Again, Triple [re]Play.

Ramp bot / Tube Bots
All in all, I was greatly surprised at the ratio of ramp bots to arm robots at the event, which was probably 30:70. I was expecting much closer to 50:50, especially since New England is legendary for it's defense. Most matches seemed to have one ramp bot in each alliance. And there wasn't that many "dedicated" ramp robots without an arm of some kind.

[Kyle Fenton]

I was at the Quincy scrimmage instead, but some of these questions apply to it.

What was more important- ramping or racking?
In Quincy there definitely was a lot of tube racking going on. During the matches the averages were only about 4 tubes. But I think that was just lack of practice.

Generally speaking, how hard was it to get on the ramps?
Depends on the robot. 69 was definitely the best ramp bot. Two robots were able to get on and off it relatively easily. From what I seen, it seems that a successful ramp bot needs to have a couple of things. A non-slippery ramp, guide rails, and some type of stop at the end.

How about scoring on the opposite side of the rack? Did it happen? Easily?
Yes, it did happen. It was harder, but feasible. More practice with the drivers will make it easier.

Were teams using the far side tubes, or entirely their own? [/i]
Yes they were using far side tubes.

Grouping the past few questions, was there much cross-side mingling?
Yes, there was a lot of defense. I also saw that you could easily get between a bot and the ramp, and be effective in blocking.

How inflated did the tubes stay? Any tube carnage?
A lot of them leaked. These tubes were simply not made to take the pressure exerted by a gripper.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by AcesPease

I'd check with SHSrobotics first. We were running it on a team laptop which may have recorded the stream. I'll check later.

Ok, I just assumed it was a 176 member cause they had a Winter Warzone scrimmage T-Shirt on on and was hangin' out with 176 members during the finals on the DJ side of the back field.

It may have been a member of 230 though. idk.

[AcesPease]

Originally Posted by BobC

I video a couple of the matches on my camera. I will post them either to google or youtube tomorrow. It is 10:15 and I have to get up at 5am tomorrow. It has been a long two days with setup and break down but i will try to get the video's up sometime tomorrow morning and post links here.
Good night all.

Thanks for all your help Bob!

[BobC]

Here are some links of video. There not the greatest taken with what is supposed to be a still camera.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...40399453&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...94941328&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...30555328&hl=en

I have two more uploaded that have not become available yet. When they do i will add them here or just search on FIRST Robotics Scrimmage 2007.

[Greg Marra]

The Blue Alliance has posted a highlight reel of yesterday's competition, as well as video of most of the elimination matches. Check it out to see how this year's game plays.

[MOE]

HELLOOooo
Thankx to Team 176 for the scrimmage day and also thankx to Team 230 for the super webcast. I didnot attend but watched it all at home. I know that my team 88 had a great day THANKS AGAIN for all the effort put in by all. Great job Andy did you go ICE FISSON????? or what? oh? yeah? OH!!!! YEAH!!!!
See All Sooooon!
MOE and TEAM 88 TJ2

[KathieK]

Thank you to all the folks at 176 and FIRST who provided a great opportunity for teams to practice... and for allowing NEMO to hold our meeting there!

Originally Posted by Kyle Fenton

From what I seen, it seems that a successful ramp bot needs to have a couple of things. A non-slippery ramp, guide rails, and some type of stop at the end.

Kyle brings up an interesting point - I didn't see all the matches, but I did see a few robots tipped over at the end of the matches - maybe because they fell off the sides of the ramps? Anyone want to clarify? And I also saw the refs measuring lots of ramps to verify the height.

As far as tube carnage, I'm not too sure, but I would recommend to try and not sit anywhere near where they will be blowing up replacements - the squeal from the air compressor was awful!

[Golto]

Gael Hawks need something so that the robots don't keep falling off. We were the highest unselected seed, so if anything happened, we were up, as a result, we remained on the sidelines and got a good look at everything. They were drifting to the left.

As for 1991, it almost looked like a broken hinge, but we were towards the blue side, so I couldn't see that well.