Well. KSC was definitely fun. We spent the entire time “stuck” next to combbat in the pits. A lot of fun to be around, crazy people
I was driving the bot so I didn’t get to see much of the action from the ground. And I didn’t have any time to take pictures at all so I have some really crappy ones from finals…
Being one of the few ball bots, I have to wonder why balls were seemingly left out so often? Just not a strategy anyone seemed to use. The roccobots come to mind, as do the rookie all stars and #1 seed 945… except for the fact that I never saw them use their ball capabilities except for in practice. Along wtih several of the other ball bots.
It was good to see the bigger teams in full force. 86 is a pretty small team, and at regionals we don’t bring that many kids, so it was so awesome when 186 was cheering for us one round. We managed to make a lot of noise… some of you may have caught our main screamer, Kerra… better known as “Ohm My”… heh.
hey, yea watching the regionals up here we were surprised to see how few ball bots there were, as we thought it would be a key component to the game. We plan on using our ball capabilites often, along with our other features.
It was really weird that ball bots didn’t get picked for the finals, specially your team, which I saw more than once picking every ball in the floor and placing in the goal. The finals then turned simply into pushing matches, little to no excitement to me. Hope this gets better at other regionals.
Unfortunately there were not a lot of ball bots at KSC, so the strategy of picking up and scoring a big load of balls never took off. Teams found a strategy that worked (dominate 2+ goals) and didn’t want to deviate from it.
I cringed every time I saw 2 robots protecting two goals in a scoring zone and 2 bots left to roam free with one goal. If one of those robots could score 11 balls and their partner played defense to allow them to score, they could have won. Instead we saw stalemates where the alliance with one goal tried in vain to steal a goal from the other alliance. Sure goals are key, but a team with 1 goal can easily overcome the disadvantage by stuffing it with balls. I’m certain that as we play more matches and see more bots, balls will become more important strategically.
Katie: 86 has an excellent ball device, and I personally think the teams that passed you up for the elims made a huge mistake.
I remember there was this match with 86 in it. Their alliance only got one goal, but 86 went around getting calls on the ground. Their opponent were busy controlling their two goals, so 86 was more or less left alone.
They dumped the first load into the goal… Not too special… Seen some other round with just about the same amount of balls. Then they dumped the second load, and the goal looked really filled. I’ve never seen a goal filled up with so many balls in a match. It looked really cool.
That matched ended up with 86’s alliance winning because of the balls. The strategy ended up working out really well. Exactly like I imagined it.
Mean while, other matches didn’t work out too smoothly. 86’s basket couldn’t lift up in time a couple of times, and I guess other goal robots was stronger in getting a goal.
See, ball robots really need to prove themselves to other teams if they want to get picked. It is much easier for teams to think “if we control the goals, we will win the match”. It is much harder to convince them that balls robot would matter, simply because they didn’t see happen that often. A lot of time, during qualifying matches, the goals got filled with player stations’ balls, and that was enough to make a difference in a match.
So, it’s just bad luck at KSC for balls robots. However, you do have to realize that some of the balls robot weren’t designed to push goals as strong as Heatwave, or Metal in motion, or SPAM, etc… So that could be a reason why they weren’t picked or weren’t doing well in finals… Becaues pushing force do matter…
Not too much room to run around when the goals and robots are crowded together.
I eager await other regionals with great balls robots.
Mike,manoel: Thanks. I kinda felt the same way, but I’m sure every team that didn’t get picked for finals feels that way too. I also know that everytime someone came to talk to us in the pits, we were busy tinkering with something. Couldn’t have been a good impression. And there are so few of us at regionals that we don’t have a surplus of kids to go out and advertise.
Ken: The round where our basket didn’t lift up was because of a little leak. Pnuematics, bah! But really, that wouldn’t have made the difference. Even if we had gotten that load of balls, we wouldn’t have won. I think. That’s what I was told by a few others. After we fixed the leak (bah!) the basket was up to full speed again.
Our bot has quite a lot of pushing force, but it just isn’t going to be the same as one that is designed for it. We didn’t get into enough pushing matches to really prove ourselves, either. And frankly, I don’t want to get into any pushing matches. Not enough finesse. I’m all about finesse.
Undoubtedly, Team 86 had the best ball robot in the KSC regional. I loved watching them load up on balls while playing the Pac-Man theme.
Since KSC is one of the first regionals, the elimination strategy was quite simplistic. Control all three goals and you control the match. Nobody really got to see some of the more subtle strategies that could be executed with good ball bots.
I’m also looking forward to see what comes out of the later regionals.
I was thinking early in the season that we might match up well with a good ball bot. The thought of one fully loaded goal in our grasp versus two empty goals is an interesting twist. I’ll have to take it up with our stategy chief.
The moment I saw you guys practice with us, I fell in love with your robot. I cheered for you every time I saw you, and I nearly wept when I saw you get caught up in the goal and tip. That’s quite possibly the most impressive ball-handling robot I’ve ever witnessed, and it was just as underrated as our robot, if not moreso. I was disappointed when we didn’t get picked, and was doubly so when you didn’t either.
I honestly believe that with another strong robot, we really could’ve given the 186/180/343 alliance a serious run for their money.
Being next to both spam and combbat in the pits, we had time to fall in love with both teams. You guys on combbat definitely deserved that award for all that spirit.
I nearly wept when the robot tipped too. Heh. I … swore a lot, at least.
In practice I cheered so hard when you guys got all three goals. I wish I could have watched you play more rounds.
And I just hope we get paired with spam or combbat at nats… because we’d be awesome.
