[FIN] INsight: 2023 Indiana State Championship Discussion

Competition
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DISCUSSION
Indiana Programming
Mobility scores have been (mostly) increasing throughout the season, peaking at 82% at the most recent FIN event. Every event has outpaced the global average of 50%. At a base level, Indiana teams understand the importance of earning “free” points.
It’s the same story with auto engagement points. Three out of four events have eclipsed the world average of 51%. We expect the Championship event will hit three-fourths of matches featuring auto balances.

Hoosier Hospitality
Indiana folks are just plain nice. Helpful, friendly, courteous, kind - we’re a state full of boy scouts. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Coopertition Criteria Met. Worldwide, 65% of alliances are “nice”; Week 5 in Indiana, this was boosted to an incredible 96%. Keep in mind the middle section is the toughest area in which to score - Indiana teams go out of their way to be nice to their neighbors.

Links
Getting five links is tough, y’all. The first week was a massive learning curve for Indiana; we were happy to score, without much thought to where the game pieces actually went. Then we saw the big ol’ goose egg for Unicorn Matches and we collectively decided to get our act together. There will be a lot of firepower at the State Championship, and a lot of clever strategists. We expect Unicorns to be quite commonplace, especially with the proliferation of teams scoring in the Coopertition Grid.

PREDICTIONS
Engaged
461
With three Blue Banners in two events, Westside Boiler Invasion is the clear cream of the crop. It’s been a long time coming, but they certainly seem to be the Team of Destiny this season.

1501
They’ve shown a deep understanding of the game, prioritizing links and smart play. Another high-flying product from Team THRUST.

3940
They made a big splash at Mishawaka, scoring their first career win from the first rank. They followed this up with another #1 alliance captain at Center Grove. If they can build a strong alliance around them, they’ve got a strong shot at another trip to Worlds.

4272
They’ve hung a blue banner every competition season since 2019, and don’t look to stop now. Maverick Robotics has staked their claim as one of the top performing teams in the state

7457
SuPURDUEper Robotics won the Tippecanoe District from the 1st alliance captain position. They were shot out of a cannon in their rookie 2019 season, and look to continue their dominant ways.

Docked
234
Cyber Blue has consistently improved their performance; if they can speed up their game piece acquisition and scoring, they’ll be contenders.

829
On paper, 829 is one of the strongest in the state. On the field, they get bitten by bad luck. Can they find the consistency and break through to defend their State Championship title?

868
When they’re on, the TechHOUNDS are one of the best around. However, inconsistent play has been their downfall. This team has been dormant since Week 2; we expect them to show off reliability upgrades and better control of their machine.

1024
Another perennial contender, the Kil-A-Bytes do what they do and they do it well.

3176
More than another Everybot, their elegant swerve drive, aggressive driving style, and innovative floor pickup system elevate them among the state’s strongest.

5010
Tiger Dynasty has been on the cusp all season, placing 3rd in each of their events. Can they squash the gremlins and find success?

5484
Strong contenders all season long, they’ve been bitten by the bad luck bug twice, just missing the finals round in consecutive events due to unfortunate scoring errors. This, combined with their third event experience, give them the hunger and perseverance needed to thrive.

Parked
71
135
292
3487
3494
5188
6498

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Love me some corn. Thanks for the thoughts. I always love hearing the INsight predictions.

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A few teams not mentioned -

4926: They had a rough 1st event but have steadily improved. They may peak at the right time or end up rounding out a strong alliance.

7657: Quietly have improved as well. Their 2 piece auto should not be overlooked

7617: Started off strong this season but couldn’t carry it over to their 2nd event. Watch for them to rebound here.

There will be 24 solid options for robots that can contribute on offense. Will triple O win the day or will alliances go back to 2O+1D?

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I’m not sure what is leading to this conclusion - my guess is the slight obstruction from the charge station? In my experience behind the glass, the charge station really isn’t a barrier to scoring on the co-op grid at all, and in fact the improved visibility from all stations makes it the easiest on average. The most difficult grid to score is whichever one is furthest from your driver station.

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I think if a swerve bot drops to a 2nd round pick, you might see some successful 2O+1D. I initially thought this was unlikely, but looking at the depth of the field it seems plausible. The problem is these swerve bots are often effective scorers you’d hate to lose on offense.

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The correct answer for this game at almost all levels of play is triple offense. That only starts to break down when we start to see full grids earlier in matches… which I wouldn’t anticipate at this event.

Prediction: Alliances that build around 2O+1D will lose early in the playoffs.

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I agree, the most that I saw any bot get held was ~ 5 seconds. With a normal 10-12 second cycle, there is not enough point delta to switch to defense (assuming that all 24 in playoffs can cycle 7+ game pieces).

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Some total Dark Horses not mentioned are 3147, 7657(Mentioned by Ryan), and 7454. 7454 seemed to have fixed a lot issues with their arm at their last comp and coupled with their fast swerve drive were a lynch pin in a lot of unexpected wins/link bonuses at Greenwood. 3147 played a consistent offensive game at Tippecanoe and was pivotal in getting the 6th seed alliance to finals. I can see all these robots being picked late and taking their alliances unexpectedly far.

Lastly, 292 is underrated in this post. Their 2 time finalists was no fluke, I feel as though they are preforming on par if not better than teams like 1024, 3176, 829 or 234.

Also Welcome back INsight :slight_smile: !

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I’d actually be surprised if half the field can consistently cycle 7 pieces with all 3 partners playing offense. I think some, if not many, teams will be closer to 5-6, so it will be interesting in that regard.

This is the truth. 292’s bot is simple, reliable and well-driven. They always perform.

May the match schedule gods bless us all :pray:

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This is the deepest field in the FIN district championship history. It will be very interesting to watch. Two thirds of the field is in the top and middle tiers. 15 swerve and some well driven tank bots.
I think it will be very difficult to predict and the finals will be a free-for-all.

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This is the truth. 292’s bot is simple, reliable and well-driven. They always perform.

Thanks, best of luck to both of us there!

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Very interesting first day.

I think we will have a lot of very strong and viable alliances tomorrow.

Best of luck.

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Watching everything go down, and speaking from a ground-floor view helping with Scouting, the idea that chaos reigned the day is an understatement. The schedules were unforgiving and the ranking points couldn’t come fast enough. It was so interesting watching matches laugh teams up and drop teams down. The only rule of law was to be consistent as possible, try for ranking points as much as possible and hold on. I remember speaking to other teams about how they were feeling, and their scouting meetings went like ours. more questions than answers, trying to see where people land, and just hoping that the robotics gods smile brightly upon you.

When it comes to the playoffs, I love the double-elimination brackets, but they are if anything cruel and uncaring. Winning it requires consistency, the feet thinking, and some good old fashion luck. It showed that with intensity at FIN Champs, where a missing auto, a dropped cone, or a charge station was the difference between cheers and tears. The number 1 alliance could’ve lost all its matches or it could’ve swept everything and neither result would’ve surprised me. and that’s not to take anything away from the teams that won. Alliance 3 (7617, 5010,7657) did great and I’m so happy for them the results in the bracket show just how much of a gauntlet state was. Congrats to everyone who made it and competed. all the teams there should be proud of the season they had, and here’s to a better FIN next year.

Also Renee will be missedddddd.

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1 RP became the new 0 RP, with (if I counted right) only 5 alliances ever receiving 0 RP for a match.

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Rewatching these matches only confirms how wild they were. Literally 1 game piece or one miss in auto decided matches. It was really which alliance executed as cleanly as possible because one goof could swing the match -

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I think it speaks to the high floor in Indiana. All teams including 5484 should be very proud of their performances. We squeaked it out but it easily could have gone differently.

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Thank you for your kind words, and we are so incredibly impressed with our performance all season. We lost 9 seniors last year and only had 4 returning students this year. we had 21 students who never experienced any level of FIRST. I also want to shout out 829 and 135 as incredible alliance partners.

We have always looked up to 829 for their designs and leadership. Their students and Mentors were fun, polite, and knowledgeable and we always learn a lot from working with them. It was an honor to operate together and a pleasure to watch them drive up our alliances’ score.

135 is my old team from when I was a student back in 2006 and it was an incredible professional milestone to pick them as a key component of our triple offensive alliance. Their floor pick up allowed us to gain a 3 piece advantage on our opponents within the first 20 seconds of Teleop while also keeping the human feed from being too congested. “Work until your Idols become your rivals.”

You guys were a powerhouse of an alliance and we are so happy for everyone in your alliance. You all 3 are amazing and we will be cheering you all on at THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP!!!

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I just wanted to publicly highlight this bit of clairvoyance. A 5010 mentor called out the two teams they selected to win INCMP.

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Actually, we’re really grateful to 7617 for picking US and for 7657 for being such a solid third. Like Ryan said, it was such a close and tight path to victory. Getting disabled in match 10 when our bumpers jarred out of the bumper zone and fortunate to get on the charge station while our partners finished out the match and nailed the triple without us was a nail biter! We could have also so easily lost to Alliance 7 a second time (292, 3494 & 5188) but for a last second cone dropped in low by 7657. Alliance 7 could have won it all, too, they were formidable! So many teams in the top 16 could be listed on the ‘deserved to make it to worlds’ thread.

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Just some other notes about what I thought was a cool alliance -

  • Both of our partners were running the Andymark kit drive. We were the only swerve on the alliance. The rumors of tank drive’s death are exaggerated in my opinion. 7617 and 7657’s drivers were consistently smooth and drove well.

  • Both 7617 and 7657 can pick up pieces from the floor, with 7617 especially being good at that. You’ll notice in matches how well they cleared the center first, reducing their cycle times and leaving the lane wide open for us to make runs to the feeder. Not having all 3 robots constantly clogging the loading area was really key.

  • Both 7617 and 7657 were fairly small bots. 5010’s bot this year is about as big as you can make one. Having 2 / 3 robots undersized made the triple balance pretty easy. We went to the practice field and immediately did it multiple times, so we knew we could push that last cycle fairly late and still be okay.

  • 7657 was the 3rd to last robot picked and had a solid 2 piece high auto. I’m not sure if everyone else just missed that, but wow were we glad they were still around. 5 pieces hitting in auto towards the end really helped.

  • Every single person behind the glass including coaches were students in this alliance. A credit to the drive coaches especially for remaining calm and cool and working through the strategy sessions together after each match.

Really couldn’t have been more proud of the alliance and the team this weekend. 5010 spent about every possible hour for the last few weeks, including spring break, to completely make a new arm, dial in autonomous routines and get more driver practice. A lot of late nights that paid off in the end.

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Thanks for the love, good luck in Houston!

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