For all of you who participated or spectated (in person or via webcast), what have you learned about ULTIMATE ASCENT and the robots playing it so far?
John
We learned that our pick up system was very effective and will be very nice in autonomous.
Our shooter works very well shooting into the 3pt goal with chains from the feeder station and from the front and back sides of the pyramid.
Last our 10pt climber worked like a charm and was one of the fastest and easies hanging mechanisms at our event. 3 seconds and only 25psi.
We also learned that if a frisbee is upside down and gets stuck on your wheel,it can really mess with your driving until it gets dislodged.
In the last 30 seconds, there will be frisbees flying EVERYWHERE.
I can see a small subset of human players going over 50% with their Hail Maries.
Reliable full court 3 pt shots are definitely a thing, and it will be fun to watch teams realize this on Thursday/Friday.
Driving in the last 30 seconds with all the frisbees on the field will be entertaining.
Lots of frisbees will be going over the netting.
There are going to be lots of ineffective human loading robots.
Not many robots are picking up from the floor… I wonder if anyone built a pickup robot that can dispense frisbees at the height the loading stations are? That would be pretty neat.
10 pt hangs will be fairly common, 20 and 30 pretty darn rare.
The field will be pretty crowded if you can’t drive under the pyramid, and pretty open if you can.
EVERYWHERE. It’s crazy.
It was raining frisbees!
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take 
As expected, 30 point climbs are rare.
We had one here in the week zero i attended in Minnesota, it took a good minute and 20 seconds for them to reach from the bottom to the top.
Correction: Fast 30 point climbs are rare.
Very few robots picking up from the floor at Suffield Shakedown. My old team is working on a very reliable pickup system, and we anticipate it being a big advantage at GSR. I thought it was great seeing solid teams like 2168 and 177 avoiding the big row of frisbees at midfield like the plague.
You best not be stealing my signature!
But in all seriousness, I am scared. A lot of discs from the human player hit near the pyramid. If a robot was attempting a 30 point climb, that could be something to watch for.
3 bolts per wheel on a dead axel setup isn’t a good idea.
I’m calling that part “the Blizzard.” Sort of New England thing this year. Wall to wall “snow” by the time the match is over.
Interesting. Do you think this would fall under G16? How could you tell if it was intentional or not? I guess its under the discretion of the refs, but it seems like this could be a pretty big factor, especially for teams who assume nothing will contact them while climbing.
You would be hitting your own robots, so i don’t think G16 would apply.
Not sure how I didn’t think about that. 
we were so worried that there wouldn’t be enough Frisbee on the ground to pick up. our robot was built practically around the pick-up because we worked so hard and were so dedicated to picking up. After seeing webcasts we know that a pick up will for SURE work out and be beneficial! it took awhile for teams to drive and load to and from the feeding zone. also alot of missed shots and alot of human players throws made it look like it was snowing.
Lastly i saw a few teams angling their shooters extremely high and shooting into the 5pt goal right next to the pyramid. none went in.
Not true.
A lot of things I saw today; Only 1 robot had a floor pickup mechanism and very rarely used it. The last 30 seconds there were quite a few Frisbees on the field & a frenzy of Frisbees flying everywhere from the HPers. The nets did have to be raised higher up to protect the scoring table. They will need to add additional netting at events on the ends to protect crowds & any audio/visual personnel & equipment. The net opening where teams enter/exit will have to be modified so robots don’t catch the drooping netting. there were issues today & we came up with a temporary fix. FIRST has been made aware & hopefully will provide a solution for week 1. Numerous robots were able to rise to the 10 point level during the last 30 seconds.