I will bet anything that a ball bot that gets 20 balls in one goal will beat anybody, as long as they can control that goal. If you just can pull goals, than 20 balls will counter your two goals. Balls are the difference
Very true team 173 RAGE showed everyone that balls will come into play in finals at the Long Island Regionals. So look out for all the ball bots including team 56.
Brian
As a member of team 16 I can assure you that when we grab only that one goal and put 20-30 balls in it, then go home in the last 4 seconds, we will more than likely win the match.
Ask anyone who went to the Houston regional.
P.S. We seeded first also. I love us ball getters.
*Originally posted by Ogre *
**I will bet anything that a ball bot that gets 20 balls in one goal will beat anybody, as long as they can control that goal. If you just can pull goals, than 20 balls will counter your two goals. Balls are the difference **
THAnk you!!! i said the same thing in our initial design meetings, but all the engineers could say was that it would be easier to build a goal robot than a ball robot. Yeah. Never mind that there seems to be a MAJor lack of ball robots at ALL the comps. Ugh. Anyways, to all my CD posting friends, put in a good word for Beach 'Bot with your teams…we happen to be a wonderful goal grabber and will most likely be groveling at the feet of any teams that can handle lots of balls in the finals.
Love y’all!
Amy (Beach’Bot, 330)
at UTC there is more ball handlers then goal grabbers.
THAnk you!!! i said the same thing in our initial design meetings, but all the engineers could say was that it would be easier to build a goal robot than a ball robot.
Actually Amy, at least ONE engineer argued strongly for a ball robot and even built a couple of prototype collectors.Gee I wonder who that was? 
Though I agree that a goal grabber is simpler. As I recall the decision came down to a single vote, so there were strong arguments either way.
I’d have to agree, Balls are the difference. In our qualification match against Beatty, we had only 1 goal, but 18 balls and 1 robot get back, they had 2 and 1 robot get back, we won 38-25…thats why we have a ball bot.
In our qualification match against Beatty, we had only 1 goal, but 18 balls and 1 robot get back, they had 2 and 1 robot get back, we won 38-25…thats why we have a ball bot.
it must have been 38-30 because if they got 2 goals and a robot back that would be 30 points.
Brian
My fault on that one, they didnt get a robot back, and they got 5 balls in from the human players.
Team 930, Mukwanago Masters of Machinery
our motto: “It’s easier to pronounce than Occonomowoc ;-P”
I agree, balls are the difference. We made some rookie mistakes at the regionals and we are making some improvements to our manuverability for Orlando. The other thing, I don’t think we promoted ourselves well enough.
Falco, I don’t know if you saw it, but we had a match where we got 19 of the 20 balls on one side of the field in one quick,long pass. There was no room for the 20th ball and the 19th had to be backed out so we could lift the full basket. It was a cool sight.
Hopefully we will be able to consistently show that off in Orlando and the manuverability changes will make the difference. I believe we could fill and dump twice in a match.
By the way, you guys did great!
No, I didn’t get to see that one, but I believe you guys could do it, you have a great ball bot. And thanks for the compliments, we can hold 9 in our basket and about 3 in our rollers,the most dumps we did in a match was 3, but there was time for a fourth. See you in Florida, maybe we’ll give a pronunciation class there lol. 
Balls are defintely the difference. We’ve been on both sides of the coin of ‘winning by a ball.’ Rather than having 20 balls in one goal, however, just have one goal in each scoring zone, the other neutral, and one has one more than the other. That is what it means by balls are the difference.
Balls are definately, without a doubt, a major factor this year. Just ask the Technokats or Wildstang (but not DJ!).
If you didn’t know, they lost their 2nd match at Finals at MMR by 2 balls accidentally thrown into the opponent goal…
yea, i’m very proud of my team’s (86) ability to pick up 25-30 balls and dump them successfully. we seeded in the 20s but that was due to a bad start…after we (the drivers) calmed down everything went fine…and at nats I think that ball bots really will make a difference…i know they did with the few ball bots at KSC. I know in the finals alot of the goal grabbers picked ball bots to balance their alliance and this proved to be quite a good strategy
I write this message with a smile on my face 
I want any and all ball loaders to try to load balls when a robot is blocking them. It’s well understood that you can suck up 20-30 balls, but it does you no good if you don’t have a goal or if you are being blocked. I hope you all look at your machines and understand that this game is not about balls, but rather goals! Cryin’ out loud, get away from those balls and start grabbing goals. (this entire message is written towards the finals – the only time this game counts!). Have fun in Disney because when it is time to play it won’t be any fun getting blocked. Mark my words: Watch extenders and goal grabbers to win.
Jnadke,
I thought a great combo for the finals would have been you guys and us (930).
as far as 1first is concerned (with your anonymous profile), the point of this thread is that the balls can turn the tide against goal bots as long as they can get one goal. Of course, if they can’t get a goal it is pointless. From my limited experience, even against a 3 goal bot, getting one goal was not impossible with a good start.
Can’t wait for the Nats.
-Jim
*Originally posted by 1first *
**I hope you all look at your machines and understand that this game is not about balls, but rather goals! Mark my words: Watch extenders and goal grabbers to win. **
Where do I start? Between our 2 regionals, team 121 has broken 3 goal grabbers from 3 different teams. They had a goal and we ripped it away from them. After we were done laughing we dumped our 20 balls. We have also broken 2 to extenders. Ball bots win regionals and will win nationals. A strong ball bot like ourselves will be able to win with only one goal. we got 34 balls from the playing field into one goal during one of our finals matches. Needless to say we won. Ball bots do the picking when it comes to alliance selection because they can score high every single round. Of the top 8 seeds at utc 6 were ball bots. The winning alliance (121, 103, and 69) all had ball handling capabilites. So next time you rag on ball bots do some research.
But, you are still missing the point. The point is that any moving robot can and WILL block you from sucking up tons of balls and also will block you from getting to a goal. So, again goal grabbers will win at nationals. One example of ball loaders winning doesn’t prove anything. This is the exact trouble we had when talking to alliance partners; they really don’t know how to play this game. Ball loaders may win in qualifying but don’t think you will win loading balls into a goal in elimination (where it all counts).
***Please: ALL ball teams think about your strategy, get a goal and get back home at the end of the match.
Balls do make a difference in elimation matches especially closer towards the finals when the scores are closer and closer… I personally have seen 2 finals matches that won the regionals because of balls
1.) At MMR it was 45/111 against 71/519, we had one goal with 8 balls…wildstang had 2 goals…the score was 28-30, the 45/111 alliance was winning… When about 10 seconds (maybe even less came around) the wildstang robot accidently (i think i can call it that) dumped 2 balls into the goal we had…making the score 30-30…That means that the 71-519 alliance won because they had more balls in their goals 
2.) This weekend there was a good example at one of the regionals (either LA or St. Louis) where ONE ball that was thrown in (i believe) right at the end won the regional for that alliance.
What you said of robots blocking ball collectors may in some ways be true…but there are many robots that are very quick at collecting balls and there are plenty of balls out there to go at, plus many ball bots out there have 1 goal grabber even 2 (ex. 111)
To 1first:
Give me a break… You mean to say balls don’t make a difference. We have a ball bot that we won the St. Louis Regional at. We also qualified first giving us first pick. You say qualification doesn’t matter, but who gets first pick on goal bots, oh yeah, it’s the first seeded person, which is usually a ball bot. Also, if you are a ball bot, you can most likely out maneuver a goal bot since maneuverability is need for getting balls. Before you go making conclusions like that, rethink your talk. We do have a very good goal clamp too, and yes, we can do our share of pulling, but getting balls is the difference in every game, all you have to do is get one goal, and just about every team can do that.
By the way, the one ball that went in to win the regional event was our human player (Matt Brinza on the Baxter Bomb Squad) I just wanted to brag on him a little.