Looking Back…
Two weeks into the FRC season, we are starting to see trends emerge, across the Peachtree district and the rest of the FIRST community. Destination Deep Space (DDS) continues to evolve as a game, and teams continue to get better as the season continues.
In Peachtree, no team may better exemplify this than 6705. After scoring zero game pieces and collecting just 11 district points at Gainesville, they turned their season around in a big way, becoming a primary cargo scorer en route to collecting a semis appearance and 42 district points. 3581 also improved on their climbing consistency and became an alliance captain at their second event for the fourth time in a row, leading the #3 alliance to a semis appearance.
This week, the importance of hatch panels was on display. While cargo scoring robots will always be in demand, the ability to place hatch panels at a high level (as 2974 did all weekend) opens up many more opportunities to score cargo, either in those new places or other areas of the field. Being solid during the sandstorm may be even more important, and 4026 rode this and a great climb all the way to the top seed and the event banner.
Dalton Finals showed how crucial defense is during DDS. 4026 gave up a primary scoring role and decided to try to shut down key players on opposing alliances, blanketing 3329 in semis and doing their best to limit 4910 and 1771 in finals. But we also saw 1771 limit 2974’s scoring exceptionally well, particularly in F-2. If a smart, capable defender can position themselves to keep top scorers at bay, upsets could be more prone to happen in later weeks.
Finally, the L3 climb continues to show its value. During QF3-2, 6887 came off their Level 2 score to push 4910 onto Level 3, and then scored on Level 1. Ultimately, while this would not have proven the difference in the match, it certainly increased the spread, and similar situations proved to be a huge difference in close qualification matches throughout the weekend.
From the Northernmost event to the Southernmost event…
For the fourth straight season, Albany plays host to a midseason district event. However, this year features the strongest robot field in event history, and it’s not particularly close. After an attendance dip in 2018, the event is above 30+ teams once again. Many teams are entering their second event, and after the minor rust is shaken off, teams should be firing on all cylinders to get to the State Championship.
The Favorites
832 leads off our list of contenders. A strong start to 2019 at Gainesville confirmed that 2018 was not a one-off and Oscar is here to stay. A consistent L3 climber and a solid cargo scorer, Oscar has the tools to be an excellent contributor to many alliances. Although their climb was a little slow at Gainesville and they aren’t great at hatches, we’re ultimately nitpicking: we expect team from Roswell to seed high and lead an alliance deep into elims.
6919 is also impossible to ignore after having the single most successful event ever for an Albany team. Picking up the #1 seed and captaining the winning alliance, 6919 also grabbed their first EI at Gainesville and rolls into Albany on cloud nine. With DCMP solidly locked up, they look to return home and pick up another banner. Despite the most consistent climber at Gainesville and a solid sandstorm hatch placement, they will likely need to improve on their game piece scoring ability if they want to grab another W.
Despite keeping their robots low to the ground, 4941 continues to leap above the expectations set for them. After winning DCMP in 2017, they followed that up with three finals appearances in district events during 2018, and look to stretch their Georgia finals streak to six. Despite not many updates coming out of Macon, rumor has RoboBibb building an elevator and putting in some solid practice time with hatches. Despite going low the past two years, if 4941 is ready when they walk in the door on Thursday, they’ll be in the conversation.
After an excellent rookie season, resulting in them being the first rookie team to be a first-round selection at DCMP, 6829 comes out of 2019 with a far more ambitious design. A beautiful orange and black robot with an elevator and a simple-yet-effective game piece manipulator, the finest feature may be their ongoing programming efforts target, move, and score game pieces with the single press of a button. If all of these can come together, expect them to make a deep run into elimination.
Wildcards
1683 displayed a solid cargo game at Gainesville. With a little more refinement, they could prove a valuable member of a mid-level alliance.
1002 has a robot capable of greatness, but Wheeler stumbled in similar, but less catastrophic, fashion to a year ago. In 2018, they turned it on at their second event, also on a back to back; can they do it again?
6471 displayed a decent Level 3 climb at Gainesville, and it helped them lead the 5th seeded alliance to a QF upset of the #4 alliance before bowing out to the eventual winners. The climb should help them seed once again, but winning and losing in Albany playoffs will likely depend on if they can figure out how to fit another robot on L3 with them.
Bubble Watch
After their first events, 5734, 6750, and 6177 enter their second event with fewer than 15 points. 6177 is of particular concern, since they started in our preseason top 20, and yet enter Albany with 5 points. 6705 proved just this past week that you can make up the ground and find a path to a DCMP berth. The Atomic Robotic Dogs have the robot to do it. But a major turnaround will be required (on the magnitude of ~40 district points).
Chairman’s Contenders: 1683, 6325, 6919 and 1002.