Hello, I was just wondering if anyone thinks that four rotors is possible given the defense, cycle speed, and time limit that teams will need to overcome to attain all four rotors. What would be the specs required and at what sorts of partners would one need?
If you’re talking one team doing this, it would be difficult, and I’m not sure we’d see it outside of the best teams on Einstein come April.
But if you’re talking an alliance, this has already happened, and has happened more than once.
4 rotors was achieved 2+ times that i know of at lake superior regional, once in semifinals
According to blue alliance it has happened a total of 10 times in playoff and qual matches each. I’m going out on a limb and assuming each of these matches was a mix of great 3 great bot alliances, up against little to no defense. Either way, it is a rare occurrence, and although it is week one I doubt it will become all that much more common in the next few weeks.
It’s already happened. You need three fast and reliable gear scorers and the other alliance to be too far behind to devote resources to defense (i.e., they don’t get rotor 3 finished until you’re almost finished with 4).
The more evenly matched the alliances are, the less likely you’ll get to 4 rotors, because of defense.
In week one events, 10 qualification matches and 10 elimination matches managed to get four rotors turning. So yes, it is definitely possible.
It will happen more and more often as the weeks go by, but probably still pretty uncommon. Especially in qualification matches.
As for exact recipes, there are a number of variations that can lead to a successful alliance. I think at least one of the robots needs to be able to pick up gears from the floor. I saw a lot of gears dropped either by the feeder station or at the airship. Also, if an alliance can get 2 or 3 gears in auto, that gets them off to a good head start.
5687 is crazy
There may be more information here, at this thread which discusses instances of teams getting 4 rotors at the week one events.
To get 4 rotors, it requires an alliance to place 12 gears or 4 each. If the preloaded gear is placed in auto or right after auto, that would require each bot to make 3 complete cycles. Doable, but very hard.
It did happen a few times week 1, and the frequency of occurrence will increase as the weeks go on. I don’t think it is a viable strategy to even attempt 4 rotors in 98% of quals matches. The cycle power just is very rarely there. Once you start getting to District Champs and Worlds, things will change. It will still be very uncommon, but much less so.