Your game predictions - Car Nack Style

[vhcook]

At least once during the regular season, a robot will accidentally fire a trackball into the stands. The crowd will respond by using it as a beachball. The footage will appear in most highlight reels.

At least once during each regional, a robot will turn too early and recross its own finish line.

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

One of the winners on Einstien will have a higher number than any previous winner on Einstien.

It is worth noting that this has happened every year since 2003.

Originally Posted by Ricksta121

Defense will be almost non-existant in the first week.

Quite the contrary... defense will be most prevalent in the first week, as teams discover that their manipulators don't work. This game will look a lot like 2005 in a lot of ways for many teams.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by vhcook

At least once during the regular season, a robot will accidentally fire a trackball into the stands. The crowd will respond by using it as a beachball. The footage will appear in most highlight reels.

At least once during each regional, a robot will turn too early and recross its own finish line.

In 2002 there was this trackball sized ball being gleefully (and strangely competitively) bounced around the stands during the closing ceremonies. One of our mentors snagged it and tried to run away with it and she got jumped by three kids from another team who took it away from her.

[gurellia53]

Originally Posted by iCurtis

1)

3) Why not just hurdle it and ensure you get the points? If you place, you get 12 points that can be taken away, if you hurdle, you get 8 guaranteed points. While this builds up over two trackballs, will you get 2 good hurdlers together in a seeding match? I'd bet maybe twice a regional. So I see hurdling as more valuable unless you absolutely need those 4 points, and can't get them racing around the track in the time it takes you to position that ball.

I agree. Hurdling gets you 8 points plus 2 more if you cross the finish line. So taking the time to place a ball would only get you 2 more points.

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by gurellia53

I agree. Hurdling gets you 8 points plus 2 more if you cross the finish line. So taking the time to place a ball would only get you 2 more points.

unless you are on your opponents side of the field with no chance of getting to your finish line.

[Jonathan Norris]

I agree with slot of these predictions saying that it will be a very auto heavy game with low scoring. But I do believe that there will be hurdleres who can average 3-4 hurdles a game. But thse bots will give up the advantage of being able to place at the end, but then again there will be the beatty, simbotics, poofs, ect. That can place and hurdle like mad.

[ALIBI]

Originally Posted by iCurtis

1) I don't believe so. Going straight for 50 feet is hard! It took us nearly 3 years to get it down (granted, we didn't spend the whole time working on it). And the real problem won't be that BLUEABOT1 isn't able to do it on his own, it'll be that BLUEABOT2 and BLUEABOT3 will be gunning for it at the same time, and someone will get clipped, then they'll spin out, and trap the rest of their alliance behind them. Additionally, it will cost nearly all teams at least 5 seconds to stop, knock the ball down, and then start up again. Not to mention, it's probably worth your time (if you hurdle) to have hold of that ball from the start of tele-op.

3) Why not just hurdle it and ensure you get the points? If you place, you get 12 points that can be taken away, if you hurdle, you get 8 guaranteed points. While this builds up over two trackballs, will you get 2 good hurdlers together in a seeding match? I'd bet maybe twice a regional. So I see hurdling as more valuable unless you absolutely need those 4 points, and can't get them racing around the track in the time it takes you to position that ball.

1. Going straight has not been that big of a problem and using the robocoach to correct for traffic will offer some help to cross at least two lines. Think of the robot that hugs the center divider and turns left when it runs out of wall or the robot that hugs the oustide wall and follows it around. Who says that it takes 5 seconds to remove the trackball? Suppose that you could remove the trackball without stopping. I do agree that if you can get contol of the trackball when you remove it from the overpass, you will have some advantage. Getting a trackball off the floor will take some time if you opposing alliance is pushing your trackball around.

3: To hurdle you have to be at your own finish line and the trackball must have crossed the opponents finish line. To place, the trackball does not have to cross the opponents finish line nor does it have to be placed above your own finish line. I just think that you have more chance of being in position to place at the end than hurdle.

[dlavery]

Moved over from the other thread:

I have been waiting for Car-Nack to appear. The season just does not seem complete without the annual prognostications of our resident oracle.

But whilst we wait to receive enlightenment from upon high, I will offer up a little prediction of my own:

At least once during the season, a Trackball will leap over the extended guard rails, escape the field, and take out the entire scoring table (computers and all) before anyone can react and corral it.


-dave (I knew Car-Nack. I worked with Car-Nack. And you, sir, are no Car-Nack)


.

[waialua359]

the robot(s) that can effectively do the following will be successful:
1. grab/suck from the ground
2. hurdle
3. move with ease WITH the ball in possession around the field.

We will see many robots that will:
1. try and race around the track
2. have ability to knock balls off the overpass

I dont believe that teams that race to do laps will beat hurdlers.

Autonomous and defense are the wildcards. Lose badly in autonomous, and you probably loss the match.

[65_Xero_Huskie]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

Here are mine...what are your predictions.



*85%+ of teams who build hurdlers will hurdle 1 or less times on average per match.

*The average winning match score will be below 30

*There will be an International team on Einstein this year

*Many teams who hurdle will see the rest of the match from their backs

* Less than 10% of the teams attempting to use the IR board will actually be successful of controlling their robot during competition.

*teams that have balls on top of the overpass at the end of the match will win 80%+ of the time.

I like all of these predictions..
Except the last one.

I predict that teams with the ball on top will lose 75% of the time.

[Brandon Holley]

I think people are low balling the average score here...


Defense is going to be huge in weeks 1 and 2 and start to fizzle out as teams tune their mechanisms.





I also agree that hurdling is a more effective use of time than placing the ball at the end.

[JesseK]

--> No less than 25% of robot manipulators will be damaged beyond repair due to falling trackballs

--> There will be an average of 2 flags per match that need to be replaced due to trackball damage or the fact that the flag is taller than the bottom of the trackball on the overpass in hybrid mode

--> 40% of the bots that successfully knock off a ball in hybrid mode will have knocked off their opponents' ball instead of their own

--> The best drive train by the end of the championships will have been deemed any drive train that utilises a differential

--> There will be rampant IR interference at the championships as more teams learn how to better use their 4 hybrid commands

--> Placement of a trackball on the overpass at the end of a match this year is synonymous with ramping last year -- it's an end-game decision, not a goal

--> There will be an average of at least 20 matches per regional where no trackballs are knocked off of the goals for the entirety of hybrid mode, regardless of how many attempts are made

--> There will be an average of at least 1 match per regional where no trackball leaves the overpass for the entirety of the match due to launcher-only or racing-only style robots, either due to lack of design or damage to said would-be manipulators

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by gurellia53

I agree. Hurdling gets you 8 points plus 2 more if you cross the finish line. So taking the time to place a ball would only get you 2 more points.

This is a completely design-dependant statement. There are those designs that easily could have 1 thing different happen in order to stop a hurdle and instead place a ball in the same amount of time it takes them to hurdle. The difference for those designs is still 4 points instead of 2. It might seem small, but percentage-wise it's still significant enough to design for and consider for your strategy.

[Swampdude]

• The flags w/ lap detectors will be broken, flying and unplugging pwms, and manual lap counts will be iffy
  
• getting clotheslined on the overpass will happen every other match - which means most bots on their backs will be right in front of the overpass. other teams will help you get clotheslined, even teammates
  
• bots will move in clumps and scrum for 1 ball while good scorers will break away from clumping
  
• launchers will be very successfull - but somebody will get hurt. There will be a launcher in 75% of winning alliances
  
• at least every 3rd seeding match, hybrid mode will have a 2 bot pileup 20' from the start line
  
• the I/R controls thing will cause many match delays
  
• bots won't be going more than 13'/s even if they could - too much going on

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Swampdude

• bots won't be going more than 13'/s even if they could - too much going on

couldnt agree more here. Not enough of a "runway" to get up to speed and so much going on.