Opinions: The importance of elevation/suspension

[blayde5]

In my opinion, if you can hang, hang. If not, score the balls in autonomous.

In autonomous, teams are relatively uncontested. I'd much rather have a team score 2 robots in autonomous from the mid-zone than hang at the end. You're doing a couple things:
- you're getting the two balls in the mid-zone either to your own side or out of the way so the other alliance can't score them
- the point value is the same as a single hang
- the robot can then work on getting the remaining balls in it's zone

I'd rather take a strong robot that can kick well from mid-zone than a robot that can just hang because they are far more useful to the alliance. But I'd also never stop a team from hanging because I don't think that mid-zone teams can score > 2 balls in 20 seconds very well.

[Alex Dinsmoor]

For my team, we have found hanging to be really important. In the last 20 seconds of the match, we have found that there won't be enough balls in our home zone to score more than our hanger will allow. Those two points from hanging is a much more reliable way of getting 2 points in the last 20 seconds, seeing how our alliance partners can score in those 20 seconds also.

Don't forget in the finale, the opponents may have the opportunity to get a red card, so many will be more hesitant to defend balls scored in the last 20 seconds, which allows your alliance partners to score freely.

Another thing, is that if you have 2+ robots hanging on your alliance, your opponents would have a hard time making up 4+ points that you receive from hanging.

[Jamie Kalb]

Originally Posted by Alex Dinsmoor

Another thing, is that if you have 2+ robots hanging on your alliance, your opponents would have a hard time making up 4+ points that you receive from hanging.

Right. This happened at L.A., in the finals. Since 330 and 171 hung consistently (almost) every match, and on the opposing alliance only 968 could hang (and they didn't do it every match), they had to have at least a 2 point cushion at the end of the match just from scoring balls. I thought the two alliances were very well-matched and very nearly equal at scoring balls, so 294, 968, and 980 really had to work to get that 2 point cushion. It made 330 and 1717 an absolutely deadly combination.

Originally Posted by JamJam263

Something interesting to bring up. At the SBPLI Regional none of the 6 robots in the finals could hang or elevate themselves.

There were 2 hanging robots in the finals at SVR, teams 254 and 100. It caused an interesting situation, because when one went to hang, the other had to follow, or risk falling behind 2 points.

[Vikesrock]

This is an extremely strategic game and I don't think there is a single answer that fits every robot and situation.

What I will point out is that many of the top robots this year can hang and have done so consistently in both quals and elims (1114, 330, 33, 254/968, 1717). That list is just a small, fairly random, sampling of good robots that hang consistently (heavily/completely slanted towards the last week).

If you can hang consistently and you feel that you would not be able to score 2 balls in the time it takes you to hang, in most situations you should probably hang.