Just curious: have there been any alliances with 3 robots scoring tubes yet? If not, is there a reason, aside from not being able to get an alliance with 3 capable robots, why there haven’t?
Once you get into the scoring zone there isn’t a whole lot of room to move around with three robots, it is ultimately more efficient to have two scoring and the third doing something else productive such as playing defense or herding tubes closer to the scorers. That being said I see room for a change in strategy when we get to Championships where almost all alliances will be able to score efficiently from the floor. When it gets to elimination rounds it has already been demonstrated that top teams may resort to lane feeding. If this situation arises a third scorer may fit into the cycle between feeding and scoring allowing it to be a more efficient strategy than it currently is. I still think that most alliances will be composed of two scorers and one defensive bot.
I was thinking about this the other day. Maybe, if you had some kind of rotation where two robots score while the other one is on the opposite end of the field taking the opponents tubes. That robot then goes and scores while another one rotates to the other end of the field. Three robots scoring at once just gets really crowded.
We had a match in elims at Liviona where 326/1250/818 all scored a tube within a 10 second mark
This is not unheard of. We did it more than once at FLR, though the off-rotation robot rarely strayed past midfield. (Not so hot on active defense then, but average scoring tempo was slower.)
I consider it a trade-off in scoring speed. If 1-2 or even 3 robots are slow enough at pickup (even with a feeder bot), your coaches are really in tune, and/or you’re playing tube-scarce, it may well work. If you’ve got faster scorers and/or need to play defense, 2’s usually the way to go. There’s also the “feed us, but score if you get a shot” method, which was what we usually did if coaches were in tune enough to stay out of each other’s way.
I don’t expect to see many 3-offense alliances, at least not that play that way the whole match. There certainly are some, though, and we might see a few victorious underdogs yet with it. All I’ll recommend is: communicate with your coaches.
FLR: 217, 340, 1126. Although it was only a qualifying match, the three of us were good scoring robots.
GSR regional winners 175, 176, and 1519 all scored during their eliminations all the way to a win. 
As we found out this past weekend at North Star… a good defensive robot can really change the outcome of a match. We would not have won our last match at North Star without some great defensive play.
On Thursday (Practice day) at the St. Louis Regional, 1985, 1178, and I think it was 1329 (memory not quite clear, even though I was a driver) were all on one alliance. Our score was 114* (one minibot deployed, the other didn’t**) and had filled the top and middle racks. One strategy used later on in the competition was if all 3 robots could place, you divided it so each robot only went for 2 pegs (side by side). That way, robots didn’t get in each others’ way and you knew which tubes you needed.
- The highest score at St. Louis, too bad it was not during a qualification or elimination, and therefore did not count
** If the other had deployed, it would have been a huge win (I am slightly disappointed with our success (read: no successful deployments) of getting our minibot off our robot)
One of the cooler “when your coaches can do it” demonstrations. Awesome strategy and epically executed. Can’t find a video of it, but FLR Match 47. 122-19 (no surprise there).
Absolutely!
Contrary to what has been said above, I think this is the way to go if you can get three quick scorers.
If you have an extra robot hanging tubes, each robot can traverse longer each trip to offset the time and as a result, you throw less tubes and steal more opponent tubes. IF you steal enough tubes, it can severely limit the opposing alliance. In this case: The best defense may be an offense that is precise and stealthy in its tube usage.
Also, if the robots can score quickly, they will only be in each others way for a small amount of time.
PLUS:
Contrary to popular belief, three robots do fit in the scoring zone, as long as they are not trying to score on the same peg.
at las vegas, 8th seed was 3 defensive robots, but i have yet to see 3 offensive robots (all playing offense) get to finals
We had a practice match at Toronto West with 2056 610 and us (781). and it was really crowded to try and have three scoring robots.
It baffles me how much sitting around happens in the last 15 seconds. Team Hammond at Smoky was the first time I’ve seen a team often going for tubes during the end game.
I think we’ll see a lot more triple offensive teams with one relegated to defense at the division elimination matches because the winning alliance will need 3 ubertubes up every time. When 15 seconds are left, the robot not deploying (though fully capable of it) will be scoring more tubes.
Just a hunch I have.
Thank you. So yes, it is possible, and can work out well, providing the effort is well coordinated. At FLR, there were times when robots not meant to score (and on our own allaince) got in the way of the scoring robots.
It would appear that the key to any successful match is knowing where your partners are and working together. But this probably holds true for any game…except maybe Lunacy 
As did their opponents in the finals (131,40, and 20)
As noted, it happened in week 1.
the finals at GSR were 175,1519,176 vs 40,131,20
all 6 were scoring robots, playing offense.
It’s irresponsible to make sweeping generalizations, though. Good strategy changes based on alliance and opponents. Likely, in one eliminations round a well-rounded alliance will have three scorers, and in the next will dispatch one scoring robot (probably the weakest, or the one with the strongest drive-train) to be a “pest” to prevent another offensive powerhouse alliance from outscoring. The strategy will, I think, change match-to-match, and I’ve seen that firsthand at our competitions.
…I’m honestly quite sure how they planned out that last seed alliance to work with 3 defenders, but it was amusing going against.
They shut down 2984 hard. But when the other alliance can’t score, it doesn’t take much…
It’s possible to have a 3-team offense, but the various members of the alliance need to be communicating. It’s easy to get stuck in the field with no way to score if other robots in your alliance aren’t working with you. And, if the bots aren’t that fast I don’t think it’s as effective a strategy as having 2 offensive bots and 1 defensive one.