I’ve already started pre-scouting worlds and have 70 done out of the 194 (as of now, it will probably be at 250 tomorrow). But has any other teams going to worlds start pre-scouting, if so how do you do it?
What I do is watch the teams regional and then take notes in an excel spreadsheet and I do at least 4-7 data entries per team. (I’ve watched over 200 matches).
Thanks!
Don’t kill yourself scouting 400 teams. Divisions come out about 1-1.5 weeks before champs. Scout 10 teams a night for a total of roughly 67 teams rather than trying to scout 400 teams.
What I did in 2015 for pre-scouting was just general notes but, that was just counting stacks. Maybe just look at gear count, climb %, and note teams who can do fuel.
Edit: I plan to pre-scout if we qualify to worlds but, I’m definitely going to wait for divisions to come out. Keep in mind, previous events will NOT reflect how a team does at worlds. Some teams who look good in pre-scout don’t do so hot at worlds and vice verses. Just use pre-scouting to determine which teams to “keep a closer eye on” if you think you have a chance at being an alliance captain. Good luck at worlds and in your pre-scouting.
I plan to do some pre-scouting for Worlds once divisions come out. I’ll be glad to work with anyone on gathering information.
I agree that scouting all 400 teams is not really worthwhile. Once divisions are released there will be a lot of stats and information about the teams in each division at my site which would be a good place to start: divisions.co
Even if you wait until division assignments get released, the information you can get online from regionals/districts is still only going to be rough and approximate.
Most teams that have qualified for championships are probably frantically adding functionality to their robots right now. The data you’ll collect today isn’t necessarily relevant to the robots you’ll see in 2 weeks.
How you use the data is also important. Teams will likely go all out to improve from their last event to championships. When using prescouting data for your first match, assume your opponents improved and your partners didn’t. Best case the match was easier than expected. Worst case, the match turned out exactly how you expected. Simply looking at their robot in person when you get there can also be helpful. If your notes say they are a just a gear bot but suddenly it has a turret, odds are they might try shooting.
Just because you can’t be touching the robot does not mean you cannot be adding functionality to it. You can mess with the code all you want ahead of time. A lot of these teams have practice robots and will have quick ways to implement changes at champs. The bag isn’t that big of an impedance to many, more of an annoyance.
Nothing he said was incorrect. Nothing you said was incorrect. But the way BordomBeThyName said it feels more accurate to me being part of a team that makes heavy use of the withholding allowance.
Also Champs is 400 teams in 6 different divisions of ~67 teams each, if you pre-scout 150 teams you will statistically have scouted only 3/8ths of the robots that will end up in your Division.