I have seen a lot of discussion about this and as my teams Coach I am really curious.
-Which teams are intending to throw out tubes into the playing field as a general strategy.
-Which teams are intending to throw out tubes only in particular situations. I.E. Opposing alliance robots cant pick from the ground or maybe only one of the three can.
Only intending to throw say the circle tube cause that one seems easiest to throw across the field.
Only start throwing in the last 1 min or something.
-Absolutly no throwing of game pieces into play except maybe just to throw right in the lane in front of the human station.
We’ve been working with our human player on being able to throw tubes about 40ft, so that it is very close to our home zone… The less time being spent going across the field, means more scoring… We designed at robot that is scary fast at picking tubes of the ground… But we can get tubes from the slot and the lane if need be…
I’m the human player for our team, and if you can pick up from the floor consistently, then I cannot see a reason why not to throw the tubes. Without too much practice they can be thrown 35ft, and with daily practice you should be able to get that up to 45ft+ (and if you keep going, you’ll hit Robonauts HPing)
If both alliances are throwing them, then it will require less robots crossing the field. However, a new position to play might be “tube stealer” instead of “tube runner”. It’s going to take a few matches to see the best strategy.
I’ve been wondering about this too, and thinking that a ‘starvation strategy’ may work against an alliance that throws their tubes out there ‘willy nilly’.
But what I fear is going to happen is that enough teams will start throwing tubes that the other side has little choice but to follow suit, flooding the field and making the game a lot less interesting.
However, the current plan remains don’t throw tubes. Remember ball starvation in 2009? It’s the exact same thing.
Everyone claims they can pick up off the floor and that’s fine n dandy.
The question isn’t whether or not you can pick tubes off the floor. It’s how quick you and your partners can get those tubes off the floor compared to the others guys behind the opposite glass can. Teams need to be dead set honest with themselves on this because if they overestimate their capabilities and underestimate their opponents capabilities they could be setting themselves up for a serious butt kicking.
That means scouting is really important this year. Not just to determine who you want on you alliance but what the other robot can or cannot do so you can do that voodoo that you do so well.
I think that by the end of week one we will see that running to get tubes will be to time consuming and those teams that choose to go that rout will be the ones that fall… more often than not…
Excellent point. This is always a problem though teams claiming they can do things they cant. I always try to be as diplomatic as possible and tell them to stop kidding themselves. I find it is much easier when it is an adult coach not saying I have not meet some killer student coaches. They just are more honest with themselves
We’re planning on watching what happens in weeks one and two before we decide on strategy.
Picking up from the floor is always harder than people think, especially with six robots on the field. Most teams will not be able to do it well and even fewer will be able to do it under defensive pressure.
Exactly. Every year the game changes drastically between week 1 and 6 anyways, so we will just have to play it by week.
Also, will anyone really be able to starve a team of tubes? I mean, the objective is to score more than the opponent. Once you get a tube, why wouldn’t you hang it (if capable)?
