This year i see alot of pictures of ball getters and for qulifying they are going to be great. BUT i do not know if they will be as effective in the finals. Offence wins games but defences wins championships.
go gaints weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
There are more than a few goal getters as well. Some of them can’t pick up a ball at all. Those robots are going to depend on ball getters especially in the elimination rounds.
Some of the ball getters are pretty good at pulling/pushing goals two. We put over three hundred pounds of kids in our goal and the robot moved it like it was empty. And we can handle balls too.
We took off the ball handler to just deal with the goals. We still can get 10 balls into the goal without our robot touching the balls.
It will come down to who can handle the goals better.
If you put your efforts into picking up the balls you had to give something up with grabbing the goals and pulling them.
The game is going to be won by the robot that can dictate who has the goals.
We put over three hundred pounds of kids in our goal and the robot moved it like it was empty
Try dragging the goal with guys hanging onto the goal while siting down on the rug. 410lbs ( thats power)
I think a lot of teams from last year are going for the two goal grabber method used so effectively last year. The differences in the game this year are major. No team can effectivly earn enough points to win their matches without some kind of ball grabbing mechinism. In my view grabbing two goals is an unacceptable trade off. Even if two goals are grabbed how effectively are they protected from being snatched away. Also there are 40 potential points on the field that are not being tapped into by those teams who can grab 2 goals. Can’t wait to watch the first regional to see how this all plays out. I get two good weeks of scouting before the Philly regional. Lets see what teams validate my idea or refute it.
…enter whitty phrase here…
*Originally posted by Strath *
No team can effectivly earn enough points to win their matches without some kind of ball grabbing mechinism.
This is not true. 3 goals in the goal scoring zone is 30 points and is impossible to beat since without any goals, the most a team can score is 20 pts for their two robots in the end zone.
We’ll have a post up soon with pictures, but MOE can get all three goals thus eliminating the value of balls (assuming it works, give us some time to tweak it 
) We know that our QP sum will be low, but our win loss record should help us get picked for the elims.
In 2000 my team made a bot to be defencive in fact too defencive there fore it did not do as well in the QR(won but pretty much no points 50-0). the whole idea of getting picked for the Championship i IFFY
*Originally posted by nuggetsyl *
This year i see alot of pictures of ball getters…
Funny, most of the bots I’ve seen or teams I’ve talked to are goal grabbers. Good thing ours can do both hopefully, we still have some work for that practice round thursday
NO one robot will ever get 3 goals. I am sorry but the only way they will do that is if the other 3 robots do not have any sort of goal mechanism that allows them to grab a goal.
Pushing 2 goals and 2 people?
3 goals will happen. What happends if one robot get to two goals and it’s partner gets to the other one. If the robot holding two had a third mechanism the other robot could place the third goal onto it and drive back into the endzone. Simple and do-able. obviously not smart in qualifying, but it will happen in a playoff match. Think about it.
In the finals with robust robots I don’t see how someone will get all three. Ours can get to any of the three in about 2 seconds with an automatic grabber, we only have provisions for 1 goal but were gone with it in just a few seconds. I see three as a possibility only if one of the opposing robots is DOA
I could be wrong must wait and see
THere are some great things coming from team 384…
some things you guys say can’t happen have…
and in a very quick amount of time…
I think that the most effective bot will be one that has a kind and gracious team, who can strategize quick…with so many bots…and so many styles…strategy is what wins
gabe g.
I think all the action is where the goals are, and any robot that can manipulate them well has a good chance of making finals. This being said, I do however think that ball getters will be gobbled up quickly when it comes down to choosing alliances 
I spent the day at the DC scrimmage, and out of the 12 teams there, not one sucessfully picked a ball off the floor and put it in a goal. Two tried. One had a spinning wheel and it didn’t throw them high enough. The other was a strait chute and it was to high or something to pick the balls of the floor.
I have to hand it to FIRST. They have managed to design a game that a wide variety of folks think THEY will be good at – each with very different machines.
I know enough to know that I don’t know.
We have a great machine. But it is only great at what we DESIGNED it to do, not necessarily what it will be REQUIRED to do.
Some folks are sure that balls matter. Some folks are sure that balls are a non-factor.
There are a lot of factors that will determine which robots will be king.
For example: Last year Beatty & other push up from the floor robots were kings. Why? Well, because that was an important skill but even more than that, it was a RARE important skill. As it turns out, being able to limbo and pick up a ball was also an important skill to reaching the highest score but this skill was not enough to make a robot king because there were MANY teams that could do this skill while only 2 or 3 were able to do what Beatty could do (and Beatty was the best at that skill, imho – sorry Walled Laken & Kingman, I have to call 'em as I see 'em).
Grabbing 3 goals MAY be the rare necessary skill. Grabbing 1 goal fast enough MAY be an antidote to that skill provided that they are paired with an effective ball handler. Lifting goals MAY be the rare critical factor. Effective ball handling MAY be the rare critical factor.
It is an interesting year.
Can’t wait to see how it all turns out…
Joe J.
All i’ve got to say is if you grab 3 goals you better have one heck of a drive train, because i know i would go after you.
Remember, any team can push goals, dosn’t matter if they are ball getters.
Incase you haven’t figured it out, i think that the extra weight of that thrid goal gripper would be better spent elsewhere- 1 is good, 2 is great, 3 is overkill.
Probably wrong,
Greg
There are a lot of factors that will determine which robots will be king.
yes there are lots of fators but only one that will do well
If your robot is the strongest and can move goals at will that is the robot that will win.
If there is a good ball handler what can he do if he doen’t have a goal to put them in.
after playing the game at Quincy MA . It prove that having a strong robot will and can score big points.
The only way you won’t score big point if the other team trys not to get points. That happen once. at that time both robots went into the other team end zone to score 20 point which x3 = 60.
so having two strong robots. you can do almost anything you wish to do.
… but I believe that it will be more complex when the dust settles.
The central question as far as I can noodle it out in advance is this:
Can two of the BEST goal handlers get 3 goals tied up before ANYOTHER robot can effectly get one and keep it out to of the hands of the other two?
If the answer is yes, then this game boils down to nothing but a shoving match of the best pushers out there with balls being a total non-factor.
If the answer is no, then balls spell the doom of the pushers.
I don’t believe this is a simple question. One day I am sure the pushers will rule the day. The next I am sure that ball handling is key.
As I say… …time will tell…
Joe J.
it is not to hard to get the goals. there is no place to hide.
the best part is the goal are so big it is very easy to grab them.
in one of the matches a team brought there goal to the there side to throw balls in. they put all ten balls in. but the problem was we had one goal and we use this goal to block them from ever coming out of there end zone. so we ended up get the point for the ten balls. this is only one way of playing the game
once again if you have the strong robot your chance of placing the point is much greater then one that does not have power.
rember it take time to pick up balls the time you are picking up ball the strong robot are taking the goals.
I hope we get pair up with good ball handler for the seeding round. you can get alot more point. with the help of your teammate.
but you can win every match by sure power.
I think that a versitile team will have an advantage in this game. Our team can acquire two goals and acquire, store, and shoot balls.