I’ve been looking on youtube and stuff for a while, and I find tons of videos demonstrating mechanisms, but I cant seem to find what any other teams are scoring. What are all of you scoring in the 2 minute tele-op during driver practice? I’m trying to gauge what an average score for this years game might be. 
p.s. Why is there a dead horse smiley??? :deadhorse:
Hey Ampere,
It was nice seeing you guys at Ramp Riot a couple weeks ago! To answer your question, it all depends on the match. For obvious reasons, a team will score much higher when allowed to score rather than being pushed around by an opposing robot. Our team has scored 200+ points by ourselves without defense. That usually doesn’t happen though, because someone’s always trying to get in the way. With defense, I’d say scores range from 100-200 points. For now, 
Keep in mind, Mash has been dominating at the NJ events (and it seems as if they have been to every single one). They have a great robot! The rest of us are trailing behind…
At an 11/17 scrimmage in West Michigan there were about 12 functional robots. FTC in MI is a middle school program. Most matches ended with only one or two rings on the rack. There were a couple of ramp-type lifters that were effective. Robots that were mobile but couldn’t hang played defense. The highest score of the day was 102 (basically a complete middle row and a 3" lift). Regulation matches begin on 12/8.
I have been suggesting that lifts & testing for weighted rings are, compared to getting row bonuses, a waste of the end game time, which should instead be devoted to rack scoring, for the following reasons (assuming no autonomous scoring):
**
25pts -45pts -155pts 265pts 345pts … Running Total
+25___+20 +110+110 +80 … Trip Increment
+0___+0 +90+90 __ +60_ … Row Bonus Pts.**
Unless you can get your partner lifted at least ~12"+, the last 30 seconds should be used to complete your 3rd, 4th or 5th 2-ring scoring trip to the rack.
Lifting has a lower success rate than most people who make a lift expect.
We were the only team to deploy a lift platform at our 1st week of Illinois qualifier competition.
It was far too easy to defend & prevent our partner from rolling up onto our ramp.
Without some practice (and developing trust), partners aren’t typically that good at (or willing) to make the effort to attempt the end game lifting.
As for weighted rings, until you get enough scoring accumulated on the rack, trips to the corner, even with a pair of weighted rings are a waste of time better spent to complete more row bonuses.
-Dick Ledford
We had a competition in Iowa on 11/03/12 (the first one of the year, I believe), and the scoring was quite low. Only a few robots could score rings. I think the highest score was something like 120. About 3-4 teams attempted to score an autonomous ring, and only once did a robot succeed in hanging one. Lifting happened several times and was typically worth enough to win the match.
In a practice match with absolutely no defense, one of our school’s robots is able to very consistently score two sets of two rings on different pegs. We are hoping to speed that up with practice so that it can consistently score 3-4 times since (as described above) the points get so much better as you own 5+ pegs. We still don’t have a ring-scoring autonomous heading into our second qualifier, but you can rest assured that we’ll have it ready for the state competition. Scoring an autonomous ring is really difficult, but it’s also a huge advantage that’s worth going after (even without the 50 point bonus for hitting the column with the IR beacon).
The abilities of the teams steadily ramps up as the season progresses, so the very low scoring environment I describe for the first competition of the year won’t last.
I went to observe a qualifier on December 1, where many good team were competing. The highest score I saw was around 350, but this was unusual. I would have to say the average score was around 100, even against the heavy defense always found in Georgia.
But it is still “early” in the season, I will not be surprised when 350 points becomes normal.
We saw 345 at yesterday’s NJ competition. This was one full side of a rack covered with multiple rings on some. Many teams were in the high 100’s, low 200’s.
We saw 345 this weekend at a NJ qualifier. This was with all 9 pegs owned on one side and multiple rings on the top row. The line bonuses added up quick.