Is there a video that better explains this strat?
Out of the loop on this one: what happened at 2017 MSC?
Bet there’s a video that shows the obvious problem.
Somebody sneaks around the back side and slams ya while they’re in the zone and you aren’t.
This. If you’re going to pull the above strategy, you need to make sure you know the opposing scale bots that could push you around, otherwise you could easily get 2 or more tech fouls.
We found it easier and safer to “trap” opponents near their portal, blocking them from quick access back to the scale.
Left and right pegs blocked by blue, center peg was broken, meaning no more gear scoring for red. Blue would have one but they missed a climb.
The blocking in the null zone reminded me of this
Just sayin’…
Engineering≠grammar
Tried it. Our drivetrain was pretty beefy and could push/withstand pushing from many. It worked okay in quals, but in playoffs having 2 scale bots meant you were either trapped out (can’t employ the strategy to begin with) or trapped in (tech foul city). Also I’m fairly certain some refs missed this.
You are correct. This is why we included speed and drive train in our scouting after the first event. We were gathering data to determine what alliances we could reasonably sauce. It especially helped that we are using swerve, as we can easily escape in a variety of directions.
TBH I don’t really feel like this is a new strategy. I think we just don’t see it very often because then you aren’t scoring points, combined with the possibility of an easy penalty. Just my thoughts on the matter. Maybe we will see it played more in the future, I don’t know.
Preventing the opposite alliance from scoring on a scale that you own seems like it does score points.
Notable that this defensive strategy would also require hitting a lot of a robots that have their elevators fully extended and are liable to tip over. The defensive advantages of tipping an opponent over are obvious, if you overlook the likelihood of getting red-carded and ruining your reputation with other teams.
I hope all of our opponents employ this strategy.
What a dumb match. It relied on the pegs being broken to work, so essentially relying on field faults. There was no way to score a gear because the field was broken.
Event 1 - Not Picked
Event 2 - SF
Event 3 - QF
Event 4 - QF
No offense, but your success rate if you attempted this strategy seems to speak for itself.
We considered this. I’m not sure if it was kickoff day or Sunday that we determined that defense of the scale should be done at least a robot length away from the opposing null zone to avoid tech fouls, and that we should do 99% of our transits from one side of the field to the other through our own null zone.
OBTW, what were they thinking when they named it the null zone?
How many wins you got?
The point is I’d really enjoy the free points we would get from someone trying this strange idea, and from a statistical observation it doesn’t really seem to work.
Looks like they have 2…
It didn’t rely on a field fault. They would have executed that strategy with or without the peg being damaged (and it’s safe to say that the drivers and coaches have no clue the status of the pegs on the far side of the opposing airship). The strategy was aimed at denying the other alliance any reasonable chance at getting 4 gears (and the associated 100 point bonus) and then getting enough of a kPa lead for kPa to matter. It wasn’t about complete denial of rotor points, but throwing the opponent off their game and slowing their cycle times by forcing them to share a peg.