Two weeks of Overdrive are in the books, and what a two weeks its been. This game is starting to evolve, but it’s doing so in an interesting, but not entirely unusual, fashion. Trends are forming that show this game plays one way in highly competitive regionals (MWR, SD, SL), and another in weaker ones (KC, VCU, NJ, PNW). In strong regionals, the elite teams have opportunities to build potent, well-rounded alliances capable of playing high-tempo, high-scoring, trackball-oriented games [not always the same as hurdling-oriented]. In the weaker fields alliances have much harder times controlling the tempo, trackballs, and penalties. Defense becomes oriented around robots rather than balls, and trackballs on the overpass become critical components rather than added bonuses. Certain degrees of variance exist, especially with the occasional unification of elite teams at weaker regionals (#1 alliance in NJ).
Richmond’s play perhaps best exemplified the “weaker-regional” style of play, with the stronger robots getting divided fairly evenly among the top 5 alliances. Due to some excellent alliance selection by 1793 (who managed to secure the #1 despite not being able to hurdle and only getting around 5-6 laps), who broke up “the Sparkies” (384/1086) and secured 1731 for themselves, no alliance was able to secure enough talent to dominate. Interference with hurdling efforts, especially against 1731, became common in the elimination rounds which greatly reduced their scores (and if it weren’t for valiant efforts by 2108 in a few matches, would have doomed their alliance early on). Penalties decided many a match, and far less than 25% of the matches, even in the elimination rounds, were penalty free.
Also…PENALTIES. <G22> seemed to be called almost every match. Three of the first four elimination matches were decided by penalties. The match that decided the regional…was decided by penalties. They aren’t going to go away, teams need to learn to deal with them.
Kansas City, Arizona, and Finger Lakes mirrored many of these qualities as well. The highest score for the entire KC regional was a paltry 86. Finger Lakes had a handful of elite teams broken up in the eliminations, leading to another field lacking an easy favorite. While it was higher scoring than VCU or KC during the eliminations, it couldn’t summon the play of any of the top-tier events. None of the quarter-finals even had a blue team win a match. Weaker play, namely in ball acquisition, by some of the 2nd tier partners doomed elite teams (such as 365 and 67).
and there were a ton of Penalities! i think there may have been 3 matches during qualifications that were penalty free
The grinding style of play does not leave these teams without merit though. 1731 put up an impressive effort during the VCU qualifications, not only as the best hurdling machine, but with a 3 line/1-2 ball hybrid, and the best ball removing (which was critical) machine as well. They were hampered some in the eliminations, which let Blue Cheddar (1086) shine their way to winning both the regional and Chairman’s. For the 3rd consecutive year, 1731 couldn’t close the deal as a member of the #1 alliance. Will 2009 finally be the year for Fresta Valley to win VCU?
365, 67, and 20 each displayed machines that could be nationally competitive in Rochester. 20’s first trip to FLR had them debut a blazingly fast (~20 fps according to sources) mecanum drive and impressive hurdling machine. More importantly, 20 earned a regional gold, for the first time, and these guys have been around since it all began in 1992. HOT was easily the most impressive of the Michigan teams, with 65 showing a decent racer and 68 a less-than dominant arm. 67 was called by one of my sources as the best “pure arm” bot so far this year, but they still have a glaring achilles heel, their hybrid. Shooters, such as 250, 272, and 1126, had strong outings, but not on par with the 3 arm bots (20, 67, 365) just mentioned.
39 utterly dominated Arizona. They lost one match, going 13-1 as the #1 seed. They had wins of 82-0, 58-0, and 48-0 in the qualifications, and 112-30, 90-38, and 86-22 in the eliminations. The 39th Aero Squadron won BOTH the Driving Tomorrow’s Technology award and the Industrial Design award. They join 103 as the 2nd completely dominant “pure shooter” we’ve seen so far.
San Diego was the crown jewel of the week 2 events. The elimination play-style was the closest we saw to MWR and St. Louis, but sadly hardly nobody saw it as it wasn’t webcast. Twelve times an alliance broke 100, and twice both alliances did. 987, 968, 330, 1717 and a handful of other displayed very potent bots, and it would not surprise one bit if one (or two) of these teams ends up on Einstein. The finals have been called one of the most exciting and competitive in years. 294 ended making a huge difference with their defensive play and skilled driving, managing to pin 330’s trackball for essentially the entire final match. 987 put out a fantastic arm, 968’s machine resembles a graboid, 1717 is perhaps the best “pure lift” we’ve seen, and 330 is fantastic as always. None of these teams should be trifled with.
