Flash forward to the finals of Houston Champs. Which strategy will take the cake?
2 rotor auto? 40 kpa auto? 4 rotors? 3 rotors + defense? Teleop shooting?
1 rotor auto, 4 rotors, 3 climbs, and #onlyfuelmatters.
I think 4 rotors, at least 1 auto gear, and 40+ kPa will win. The question I’m curious about is whether the best alliances will try 2 rotors in auto, 2 shooters in auto, or something else entirely.
Once the high tier alliances start forming up 4 rotor matches will likely become a given, unless special circumstances (like really good defense) stand in the way of it. Fuel is what really will decide the matches, the individual points count tremendously if the two teams are evenly matched and I see that happening in the high tier alliances.
I would say two shooters…a lot more value from double hoppers as that is a possible 50 points compared to 20 pts from the two rotors
As evidenced by week 6 and 7 play, there are multiple ways to play the game.
- 4 rotors+fuel
This strategy is the main all-offense type of strategy, where you try to get 4 rotors and 40 kpa and maybe some extra fuel, as shown by the winners of the Ontario, New England, and Michigan district championships. There are other nuances, like when to switch to defense and when to switch off this strategy if your gear offense is stifled, but this has seemed to be the dominant strategy thus far.
- 3 rotors+fuel+defense
This is getting to a 3 rotor threshold (or even 2), and then running 1-2 defenders and scoring fuel to get the 40kpa, or even just to get more fuel than your opponent. Numerous regionals were won this way, but the most notable is the DTE Division Winners at MSC or 2337-107-5561, who won their division scoring just two rotors in almost every match and playing knockout defense. They nearly beat the eventual MSC champions, losing by a missed climb.
- 4 rotors+defense
This is getting 4 rotors, and holding your opponents to less than 4 rotors or tying them. A huge plus to this strategy is a 2 rotor auto, which gives you a good tiebreaker over other 4 rotor alliances, and lets you beat opponents with 4 rotors+some fuel. This struggles against the other two strategies unless your gear scorers are utterly dominant where you can get on defense quickly.
There are other strategies that won earlier this season, like 3 rotors+d which would stand barely a chance at the championship event without being able to force some other sort of advantage, like with fuel or really dominant swerve drive defense.
I think the Ontario District Champs showed the most effective way to win: 4 rotors (1 in auto), triple climb, and fuel - lots of it. If a really good fuel robot and a quick gear robot can pair up, it will be nearly impossible to stop. In Ontario, 2056 could clear 60 or more kPa while contributing a couple gears while 610 sped through gears and shot fuel once 4 rotors had been achieved. 4814 helped primarily with gears and climb and, more than anything, completed the alliance functionally as they see fit. Even under decent defense, 60 kPa + 4 rotor wasn’t difficult for them, and if good fuel and gear robots pair up, there is little that can stop them. The question is whether or not an alliance like that will be able to form.
I’m gonna call it now.
All the lift pegs will be broken. All of the hoppers will fail to deploy. All six robots will climb. The deciding factor will be who can shoot in their 10 fuel preloads.
4 rotors (1 in auto) + enough fuel to get 40 kPa will be the winning strategy. 4 rotors (2 in auto) will get you pretty far, but not all the way. 2 rotors (1 in auto) + shooting and D will beat some of these alliances but will eventually lose against one with strong enough gear robots.
Are 4 rotors stoppable by good, post 3-rotor defense?
I predict that the winning alliances in Houston and St. Louis will use different strategies. One will be won by an alliance that can do everything well, and plays different game strategy depending on the opponent. The other will be won by an alliance that plays a fairly consistent strategy which prominently includes defense. The Tournament of Champions will be hard fought, and far from certain, but I’ll pick the flexible alliance for the win.
I wanna see 4 rotors defended, or maybe 3 rotors with an insane amount of balls, but most likely its gona be 2 auto rotors, 4 total rotors, and a ball shootout.
Not a snowball’s chance in hell that the winning alliance will score less than 4 rotors on average.
It comes down to 4 rotors + as much fuel as you can manage. The winning alliance is the one that picked gear bots that are elite enough to handle almost all of the gears by themselves. This will allow the alliance captain to keep shooting fuel as long as possible.
While working with 33 at MSC, we decided that as soon as we held the gears for the 4th rotor, we would start peeling off for defense. Out of our 10 playoff matches (with division champion semi’s and finals), 9 included 4 rotors and only 1 match did our opponents. The fuel shooting was irrelevant to our success. Our alliance decided we could do better with 1 auto rotor, 20kpa in auto, 4 rotors and defend. We were looking at base scores of 450 points, which sure seems like it would win a couple matches.
Auto will be very important it can not be defended. The closer an alliance can get to 200 points the better their chances of winning. If an alliance during auto can get 2 rotors (120) 3 mobility (15) 40 fuel (40+20 bonus) for a total of 195 or more they will have a major advantage over the opposing alliance. They can change their streagy from match to match keeping the other alliance off balance.
Getting the opposing alliance down in the first 15 seconds I think will be key to winning Einstein. Once ahead in auto an alliance just has to keep pace with the opposite alliance to win.
An alliance that can get 2 rotors spinning and 40+ fuel in the 15 secs of autonomous?
Color me skeptical.
We did 3 events this year. There was 1 team that put a side gear very quickly and then went straight to the side loading station to shoot balls during auto.
If they get dialed in, its very possible they could do 40kpa and score the gear. However, during the event we participated with them, the robot didnt always align right, and they ranged from 5kpa to high 20’s with lots of missed shots, but always scoring the gear first.
Team 3132
It’s going to take a very special alliance to be able to do it. 118 is the closest I’ve seen to doing it here. Presumably if they hit 32 kPa and delivered the side peg, while their middle team shot 8 kPa and delivered the middle peg, it could happen.
Will it? I don’t think so. But I’d love to be surprised.
It would be interesting to have an alliance that had 2-3 1 gear+10kpa autos, and have one of them finish up the 40kpa in teleoperated.
The other way this works is if one of the few teams with a 2 gear auto is on the field and can take the gear from the partner doing the 40kpa auto and score it. But that level of alliance coordination would be very difficult.
I think a consistent improvement on the world record high score match will win. 40Kpa in auto, run gears until 4 rotors, and then keep shooting for more Kpa and play defense. A high score of 583 will be achieved.