I haven’t seen any posts on how successful the inbounders are doing so I decided to make this one. Hitting the rim is no problem for me, it’s just the when the ball curves that throws me off. :ahh:
I was quite surprised to see the balls curve myself, but it’s definitely there. I observed that, when people threw the balls in a sort of quarterback style (giving it a “spiral” spin), the ball would curve right quite a bit (a couple inches? More than enough to make a difference) if thrown by a right-hander.
How successful an inbounder is, has nothing to do with making baskets in the last 30sec of the match.
It has everything to do with how accurately he can feed a robot that is shooting 90% during the rest of the match.
A challenger (to the OP) appeared!
Anyway, i quite agree with Adam. The inbounders who can consistently feed basketballs to their bots on the other side of the bump will be a MUCH LARGER factor in matches than the ones that can make the occasional shot during the last 30 seconds. I’m not taking anything away from the masters of the hail mary shots, but 90 seconds of consistent feeding will outscore 30 seconds of Hail Mary shots.
I have seen some skillful inbounding across the field. Something not mentioned explicitly is accurate end position. Placing the ball by the robot so it doesn’t have to chase saves vital seconds. I have seen balls roll in to an awaiting robot’s intake system. Be able to vary the path of the inbounded ball. Being predictable allows the other alliance’s robot to steal or block balls easily.
My $0.02 on inbounding.
We have found that having an inbounder who is both completely aware of the game and can get a ball over the bump in many ways to be a great benefit. The inbounder needs to know if the other alliance is playing defense on them, must predict that robot’s actions and correctly get a ball through them. Therefore it helps if you can accurately bounce a ball over the bridge, over the coopertition bridge, and over the bump.
Did you see Queen City F-2? 781’s inbounder scored a 2pt shot that (well, kinda) won the regional. That’s definately something I can see happening more often on Einstein.
That was quite an awesome match, but to say that same situation will happen on Einstein is a bit much. There’s way too many variables to measure there. Assuming all alliances are balanced, then it will all come down to strategic execution. It’s VERY HARD to have a tie in this game, going into the last 15 seconds.
Oh, sorry this post was for all-around success. I guess feeding balls has come to ease to me on our practice field.
I meant HPs making baskets in the last 30s. I think that the teams destined for Einstein are going to try to be making at least 2-3 HP baskets per game. That will win games. 9-4 pts is not a little, especially if they starve the field of balls and make HP shots be almost the only shots taken.
It’s an interesting theory, we’ll see how Einstein goes. Will ball starving be existent though? You could argue that if a human player is good enough to pass a ball directly to their robot, then starving won’t be needed, and the difference in the match won’t be decided by hail mary shots. However, if starving is rampant, or one team starves the other, those hail mary shots might be really important.
I think you’re going to see a lot of inbounder blocking in elims.
I hope they start calling hoarding fouls again.
On the robots or the human players?
Our inbounder actually had shoulder surgery right before the season started so he has trouble throwing the ball down through the slot normally.
Instead he uses a full-body-thrusting motion(Sort of like a “drop it”) - that while fun to mock - makes him the most accurate of any inbounder Ive seen.
In 2 events hes only ever missed getting 2 balls over the fender. And both times it was because a robot drove in the way.
Human players. Drives me crazy when we’re blocking the inbounder slot.
Has the GDC ever clarified if human players hoarding balls in this fashion is “against the spirit of the game”? I’m pretty sure that’s what they meant when they said something along the lines of human players are there to put the balls in play as soon as possible.
They don’t have to. They set a maximum the Inbounders can hold, two apiece, and a rule that the corral has to be emptied as soon as possible.
So question, if they empty the corral holding two balls and don’t feed the balls onto the field, is that hoarding or…?
It’s a perfectly sound game strategy - one that a team like 45 may be wise to employ. Check out this thread- especially post 12 and on.
You’re welcome to keep up to 6 balls [5 is safer] behind the glass at any one time. I have no problem with this (totally within the game spirit), we and do it quite a bit ourselves. I’m talking about hoarding, i.e. inbounders deliberately holding more than 6 balls or deliberately keeping balls in the corral: G31. It’s a crazy difficult call catch consistently with reffing this year (I know it), but it drives me crazy as a coach, even in quals. I’ve lost track of the number of alliances I’ve seen hoarding just while walking past the field.
The setup for HP foul calling this year is my biggest problem with this game. It kills a lot of strategy.