INsight: 2018 Indiana State Championship

FIRST General Forum
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We’ve decided to change the format for our Indiana State Championship coverage. Instead of our normal categories, we’ve compiled a ranking of Indiana teams and present to you our Top 15 Indiana teams going into State:

1. TechHOUNDS - 868
The clear favorites in the state to win it all, the team from Carmel has shown amazing growth since its Week 1 foray in the Miami Valley Regional. They have one of the most feared autonomous modes around, and they control one of the most prolific Scale-scoring robots in the state. They ranked #1 in all metrics (district points, OPR, average qual rank, playoff points) and it’s safe to say their pit will be full of hopeful teams barking up their alliance.

2. Harrison Boiler Robotics - 1747
Even though they haven’t seeded particularly well, HBR has always been playing the long game. They happily sacrificed their Switch autonomous for a 2 (on the edge of a 3) Cube Scale autonomous, which has helped them be dominant during gameplay, bell to bell. They’ve powered their alliances to an average of 243.3 points of owning their Switch and the Scale. They’ve jumped out to such leads that they’ve had time to consistently focus on the opponent’s Switch - a skill that will serve them well at the next level. If their goal was to be the most attractive first pick, they’ve nailed it. And if they happen to add a consistent climber, they would be a strong top 3 seed.

3. Kil-A-Bytes - 1024
Since the team from MCIT (McKenzie Center for Innovation and Technology) played weeks 2 and 4, it is easy to forget just how dominant they were at this game. They are the most consistent at placing Power Cubes and they continue their long tradition of effective design and strong strategy. It’ll be hard to miss the bright neon when it returns from its three-week slumber with a refined intake.

4. THRUST - 1501
It is hard to believe, but the fastest elevator in the state made its mark with some stunning defensive play. Keeping opponents away from their Switch and Portal proved to be the secret sauce that took them all the way through Tippecanoe. Flying high through their fifth consecutive Blue Banner season (and sixth in seven years), the Huntington team continues to impress with its innovative gameplay and elegant machines.

5. Red Alert - 1741
Center Grove is really good at qualifications and racking up ranking points. Seeding #3 and #1 at their two events (before alliance selections), they are the most consistent Switch scorer Indiana has. They also earned a string of Unicorn matches at Tippecanoe; 6 of the event’s 14 during qualifications, to be exact. Red Alert has reached the peak on the list of Top Teams Without an Official Event Win. They got very close to breaking their blue banner curse at their last event; perhaps they’ll push through at the DCMP.

6. Cyber Blue - 234
What can Blue do for you? Only quietly be one of the top teams in the state. Traditionally not a team for chest-thumping, they’ve let their on-field play speak for itself. Teams will quickly remember what a force this team is once it enters the Arcade.

7. Digital Goats - 829
The Goats do what they do and they do it well. This will be the fourth event for Llama, who has already earned two Finalist medals and a Semifinalist finish. Since adding a climber to the design for Week 4, this has become one of the most complete robots in the state. They are in the top-6 in the state in average End Game (6th), Autonomous (6th), Ownership (4th), and Vault (3rd) points.

8. Cyber Tooth - 3940
Plagued by technical issues at all their events (floppy wrist at Miami Valley Regional (OH), connection issues at IN St. Joseph and Plainfield), the team from Northwestern High hopes to shed their troubles and reach their potential of being a prolific Scale scorer and buddy climber.

9. RoboDevils - 1018
Two events, two Semifinalist finishes. Pike Robotics is hungry to continue the success it had with last year’s breakthrough season. If the team can figure out how to gently and precisely place Power Cubes on the Scale under pressure, they’ll be ready to advance to at least the finals.

10. Penn Robotics - 135
Believe it or not, the Black Knight isn’t built on a swerve drive. Using a very effective sideways mecanum setup, Penn is poetry in the Arcade. Coupled with their rare wide robot configuration, they can slip into tight spaces and make some surprising moves around the Switches and Scale.

11. Team Hammond - 71
The BEAST is one of the top teams in the state at stacking Power Cubes exactly where they want them. What they lack in blazing speed, they make up for in efficiency. A very sure gripper, paired with a very sure climber, makes 71 very formidable foes.

12. Maverick Boiler Robotics - 4272
MBR is continuing their recent trend of taking a deceptively simple design and improving it throughout the season. They started with a double ramp system; after discovering teams struggled with lining up from the sides, they scrapped it and installed an effective hook climber.

13. Career Academy Robotics - 5484
This versatile team from South Bend have a solid elevator and robot for Scale scoring, but make the most of their robot when focusing strictly on running Power Cubes back to their alliance’s driver station and filling the Vault. They’ve made the playoffs at all three events they’ve been to so far this season. Can they make it 4?

14. Team Roboto - 447
Sorry. No scouting report on 447. We tried to watch them several times, we really did, but those dog-gone fun LED animations on the back of their robot kept distracting us from collecting data.

15. Red Pride Robotics - 3487
Not flashy, not particularly captivating, just consistently dominating. #9EveryTime has taken them to two Semifinals appearances; what will the State Championship bring? Interesting stat: Over 32 matches, their alliances have only missed playing/placing 20 Power Cubes in the Vault (1340 out of 1440 Vault points possible) - that’s 93%.

Honorable Mentions:
Westside Boiler Invasion - 461
PhyXTGears - 1720
Tiger Dynasty - 5010
Aluminosity - 5403

Strategy Discussion:

Unicorn Matches (4 ranking point matches - Win, Auto Quest, and Face the Boss) took another big leap at Tippecanoe: Indiana Unicorn Match % this season have gone from 3.8% to 10% to 19.4%. For reference, the World Unicorn Match percentages for those respective weeks were 1.67%, 3.3%, and 5.12% respectively.

In previous years, the average match & win scores have consistently climbed as the season and robots progressed. However, this year’s unique scoring mechanics have thrown a wrench into that progression. For Indiana, average and winning scores jumped by roughly 20 points each from week 2 (299.26 average, 374.66 winning) to week 4 (320.25 average, 399.30 winning), but slightly dipped from week 4 to 5 (317.75 average, 399.19 winning). We’ve likely passed the peak of average scores, since the Scales and Switches will be more and more contested as the competition heats up.

Of the 32 robots competing this weekend at the Memorial Gymnasium in Kokomo, 4 of them are Switch-Exchange (Read: What Scale?) specialists. Will the lack of depth affect alliance selections, or will we see a team or two switch up their approach and take some of their focus away from the Scale? A strategy that may become more common is an alliance deciding to completely ignore the Scale and instead attack both Switches and force the game to be decided by the End Game and strategic uses of Power Ups.

Good luck to all teams competing this weekend!

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So who is providing the unicorn stickers? :]

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Don’t sleep on 447. They were killing it practicing at our shop last weekend.

Dognaux’s prediction: Whichever team gets blessed by the match schedule Gods will seed high (duh.) We’ll either see an elimination sweep or some scorched Earth alliance selections. I’m hoping for the latter.

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+1

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Given that the team can facilitate double climbs in some way, I agree.

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This will be an interesting event. I think Indiana’s small district size is actually changing this game in unexpected ways. Because we work with the same teams at each event we are becoming very good at working with each other.

I see strategies play out in Indiana that are barely touched on in other regionals.

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With all the best Indiana teams at the event scorched earth is much less likely.
Also schedule Gods owe us a few.

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Thanks Ryan!

Our Bling Team was thrilled with this review! The Drive Team is ready, Programming team is feeling good, and the Fabrication team, hot off creating a buddy bar to facilitate partner climbs, sent the parts to be hydro dipped!

Look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!

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I am looking forward to seeing the new buddy bar. :slight_smile:

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I’m amazed and quite frankly humbled at how far the TechHOUNDS have come since I graduated high school in 2008 (not just from a competitive standpoint, but culturally too).

With how strong the state of Indiana is, INsight is being too kind. I hope we can live up to the lofty expectations.

Best of luck to everyone at State Champs!

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We got jealous of 1501’s lift and had to speed ours up: https://youtu.be/Ivv7a74QxM0

We may crank it up faster tomorrow. We’ll see :slight_smile:

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This is gonna be an interesting competition. With so many great scale bots, it is very possible that at least the top 6 if not all 8 alliances will have two competitive scale bots. At this point, I’m willing to make a little prediction: A lower seed will win the event. It is very possible for, perhaps the 5 seed alliance, which will most likely consist of two very decent scale bots, to pick up a steal in an incredible switch bot and rule the floor.

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This is how it has been for the last three years. Indiana has had some incredible statistics. After Indiana State last year, Indiana, in two competitions (States and 3rd District) had 10% of the world’s 4 rotor runs up to that point. However, that also showed through Indiana “skipping” a stage of play last year, which was when 3 robots could easily do 3 rotors, but it was very hard for 3 to do 4 rotors. This was one point balls could have really mattered, but Indiana completely jumped it.

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Can’t wait to watch this competitive event from home. As a student, I always felt angered around this time of year because Indiana really deserves more than 9 spots. Good luck to all teams and my former team!

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I don’t know if everyone has seen this tool, but the following is a chart made using data from all 3 district events I believe.


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Indiana has had a consistently high threshold of advancement on points compared to most other districts. I charted all the data from the http://frc-districtrankings.firstinspires.org/ page, discounting the teams who qualified for DCCA, EI, RAS, or Winner. Data is current for districts that have competed in their 2018 district championship.

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This is a direct result of Indiana’s size, number of slots, and the nature by which district points are distributed. You can see the similarity among the other small districts, NC and PCH, and conversely the larger districts such as FiM and NE have lower thresholds.

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What I’ll say- competence and strategy. A good scale bot with two good switch bots can win match after match, despite the opposing alliance. We saw that at Tippecanoe. It’s significantly harder to pull off, because it puts a lot of pressure on the scaling bot, but it’s easier to play your own robot than it is to play another team’s.

Current bet on the top seed right now is probably 1720. my reasons: they’re solid enough to get the auto RP every time, and they climb. Their major downfall was scoring at their last events, but I have no doubt they’ll be able to step it up, and work well with alliance partners. Additionally, they have that ramp that works incredibly well with alliance partners. Many matches they get the double climb rank point.

Even still, match schedules reigns supreme. Playing against tough alliance partners is what will determine most outcomes. While strategy will tip the scales in some matches, only the most competent team at the event will be able to pull it off- it would require perfect auto, quick grabbing, and quick, accurate placement, with solid alliance coordination.

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About 350 unicorn stickers should arrive to the competition with me tomorrow evening!

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Looking forward to a great competition, seeing good friends, and making new ones.

Team 447’s buddy bar is cocked and ready for action, although it will be under tight security while in the pits and in transfer. We will consider sharing the technology after the event is over this time. Don’t want to get beat by our own climbing tech this year. cough 2 cough 3 cough 4 cough :yikes:

See you all in a few hours.