Hello my name is Ryan Swanson and I’m an FRC addict. I’ve been watching tons of match videos from week 1, and will certainly be watching a lot more. I would love to generate a thread full of cool matches to watch. Feel free to share your favorites!
I’d love to check out matches with unique/effective strategies that are explained in the thread, personal best matches, or matches where a team does something really cool. Anything that stands out to you as something worth sharing… I want to hear you brag about the cool things your team accomplished!
For me, 4607’s 2nd Semi Final match was one of my favorites. The strategy was for 2239 to play defense primarily on the far side of the field, with 4607 cycling to the Lower Hub from the far side of the field. The goal was to give 876 the best shot at open field cycling by feeding them easy to score balls via the Lower Hub, and keeping most of the robot traffic on the far side of the field. The other benefit of this was that 4607 effectively was playing defense at the same time as playing offense. 13 Low Cargo while playing defense and a Traversal Climb with the pressure of being down a match was cool to see.
This was a fun one where we (4089) beat 2910 in a quals match even though our traversal failed by outdriving the double defense on the red side and flying across the empty blue side of the field to collect cargo. I didn’t realize just how aggressive yet controlled my driving was until after I watched the replays after day 1.
Personally, my favorite match would have to be qual 36 Lake superior. We (4728) knew that the match would be tough going into it, 2052 has some amazing cycling capabilities. Getting the four ranking points from the match as well tops it off for me. Qualification 36 - 2022 Lake Superior Regional - YouTube
Strategy wise, I would like to point out 4481’s strategy at the south Florida regional South Florida Regional (2022) - The Blue Alliance. They understand that the only ranking point that they can guarantee in a match, is the cargo. With their 5 ball auto and incredible low goal cycle time, they get that ranking point every match. When heading into playoffs they switch to a 1 low 1 high cycle. Shooting one ball into the high goal and one into the low goal, each cycle. Which is interesting, but cuts back wind up time. It makes me question if low goal is the way to go in quals, then to switch to high in playoffs.
I like how 148 didn’t climb to traversal here. They knew they had the RP for climb and the win on points, so don’t add the risk of going higher than needed.
The 1477 semi-final 1 was a nail biter and super fun to play. (might be biased because im the operator) but the last second double traversal and defense on 624 was super cool strategy and match play.
Unfortunately a video is not up yet
Also the first the upset of the entire tournament
This is super accurate lol, you were easily the fastest robot on the field but you were 100% in control of the robot the entire time. How much practice did it take to turn the speed up that fast?
Surprisingly very little. We don’t have a field, or even any large space of carpet to drive on at our school. We barely got that robot finished before week 1, however I have been driver ftc 2020, 2021, and frc 2022 offseasons, and have watched an unhealthy amount of matches. Also designing a really durable intake removed any fear of destroying it in matches making me feel more comfortable driving really fast. I was very surprised I was even able to keep control of the robot in the first couple qualification matches.
At the Detroit regional a team scored a cargo into the high goal by utilizing a boot attached to their robot which I thought was super neat/unique to see.
I imagine 4607 was well aware of this match, but Qual 45 at Lake Superior will forever hold a special place in my heart. Shining example of killer 2526 defense! Just another reason why I’m so grateful to be coaching these outstanding drivers
Q19 was a really good showing for us. 18 scored in the upper hub in teleop and a traversal climb.
I made a pretty critical coaching mistake in this match though. I should have had us go for another cargo cycle to secure the ball RP, since we didn’t have the capability to get the HANGAR bonus as an alliance in this match. Live and learn, this game has a lot to keep track of in-match.
This is really critical when coaching this year’s game. Knowing when to go for it and when not to. We had several matches where we went for the 20 to get that ranking point, knowing well ahead whether we needed to go back or not to hang. When we were partnered with a team who didnt score well or played defense in matches, but could high bar hang, we asked them to go earlier so that it gave us a better picture of what to do towards the end.
However, the coolest thing we did was a 6 second cross field move through 3 other robots to line up and shoot, between 81s and 75s on match time. I was just so impressed with my drivers. However, after watching that our driver was very upset he didn’t take the easier path lol.
Check out this video “FIRST Robotics Competition | Kokomo District Event | FIRST IN Robotics” https://www.twitch.tv/firstinrobotics/v/1417226844?sr=a&t=24560s
3940 rocked it this weekend. I’d imagine it’d be even harder to make that call from the red alliance since there wasn’t a screen over there and the lights on the driver station shelf can be pretty tricky to read in the middle of the match.
