there is some footage posted on simbotics website from one of the regionals they attended. http://simbotics.homedns.org/?p=video&skin=redstuff
I can’t wait for the video of the semis at GTR!!!
The triplets are truely a force to be reckoned with… but only championships will tell. I do believe that it was the alliance of these truely consistant robots that really makes them powerful. I think separate, they are powerful, but not as scary!
I wanted to say one thing to a question early in the thread. I dont think any of the triplets would purposly throw matches to be low and be in an alliance with the other two. They are just not like that. Now if two were in the top 8 would they decline? Likely. Any team that had won 3 regionals with another team would be silly to not try and create that alliance again. Is it fair? who knows. But is it smart? yes. Does it scare the rest of us?? Heck yes!
I saw a lot of matches from behind the “black table” in Toronto, and I observed a couple things that lead me to believe they are stoppable. In one match, 45 was able to keep 1503 from crossing the centerline, and defeated them purely by staying in their way. However, once a triplet parks at the goal, its nearly impossible to move them. I saw a few teams do this, but it might have only been 3 times in the entire regional, in all of their matches on the pontiac field.
Another thing is that I was shocked to see the match in which 229, 217 & 4 danced their way around the 2/3 triplet alliance. 217 founded the match by scoring more balls than both of the triplets together! Without a camera, the triplets take a long time to line up before a match, and it seems if they are a bit off, it just isnt as powerful in automode as some of the teams that use the camera.
But their robots are solid & amazing designs, rarely seem to fail, and the consistancy with which they play their matches is really amazing, and what makes them among the best in FIRST.
Im looking forward to seeing what Champs brings them (hopefully separate divisions or we are all in for a shock! lol).
While I have not seen the triplets play, what you say here makes me wish our alliance at Vegas (25, 897 and us) would have gotten a chance to play them. Just becuase our alliance featured two excelent shooters, each loading differently (25 human, 987 roller) and our robot, that managed to play some strong defense during the tournament. I think it would’ve been an interesting match.
Sumadin
no this is incorrect. none of the triplets have an all girl team.
What is absolutely amazing about the triplets is, echoing what a lot of other noted users have said already is their almost mind-boggling inability to be moved when they are parked in front or to the ramp side of the goal. That PID has drawn comparisons to Beatty’s 2002 walking robot, though I personally have not seen that particular robot. At the same time, I have seen evidence of a new autonomous mode that dodges the need to go to the centre of the goal, where most teams can counter if no other team sets a pick. The mode seems to be able to go near a corner goal and shoot at a much sharper angle. They also have added a plastic flap, something insanely simple to their shooter that allows them to shoot in the manner of 703 and 229.
Put it simply, they are a very very very good team because of their ability to do the things that they do very very very well. This should be a philosophy for every worthy team to follow. You must be able to pick a function for your robot to do, innovate and create endlessly until you can repeat that action, then test it, break it, and do it all over again. The triplets can do just that. Are there other teams that can do that? Definitely. Are there other teams that can innovate and create under pressure like the triplets with that plastic cover? You bet.
All technical attributes aside, it comes down to team composition, chemistry, leadership and overall strength. They have some of the brightest and most strategically minded individuals leading their respective teams, but yet again, so do other teams. I think it is incredibly difficult and to a point, irresponsible to label them anything other than a new set of legendary teams to enter they fray. And they are 100% Canadian and proud of it too. 
That Match against two of the triplets was so insane. Our driver never shifted to low during our matches except when he tried to get onto the ramp because we had a leak in our pneumatics and he didnt want to waste air and risk falling out of gear. I just wish our team had more time to work on our robot because we got it so late into the competition. It was a well deserved win though. Extremely strong robot. The tank treads, coupled with the PID is just lovely. Defense against these bots is soooooooo necessary. i think the best way to stop them though is to keep them from parking near a goal.
Team25 has won every regional undefeated, they have an amazing robot. Haven’t seen the triplets play though, I guess we’ll see at nationals.
Triplets are one of the best, however, 25 is better and undefeated for good reasons.
It’s a quick loader, HP loading is working a lot better than anyone ever expected, it holds a good amount of balls 20 or so? Autonomous works every time, and they have a few to select from. The drivetrain is unbelieveable, it’s quick and with 2" thick, 9" wheels they got a lot of traction and that makes it pretty tough to push them around easily, on top of that it has a brake, and Corey knows how to drive it. But the thing that seperates this robot from everyone else, they shoot soooo fast, they have a catapult like mechanism to keep the balls flowing in, and then the shooter shoots them like any other robot. Nobody has shut them down at all, there are strategies you can use against them, but nobody can find the right combo.
The triplets do have one thing going for them though, there are 3 of them you need to beat and they can load off the ground.
25 hasn’t attended three extremely difficult regionals as the triplets have. NJ and LV are cake compared to GTR. 
But as Kim said, we’ll all just need to wait until the end of April to find the truth.
This is very true. Not taking anything away from 25, because winning any regional takes effort. But GLR and GTR, along with waterloo, thats some pretty good teams they had to go through.
they are most definitly the best Alliance
but i do believe there are terams better then them. And think about it they only hav to come up with on robot design for 3 teams!! not saying that makes them worse or anything but it is just easier
also do they have something that holds them in place because at GTR they were getting pushed by 2 robots and were not moving an inch??
Special magic glue called “PID”.
not NEARLY unstoppable. They are, so far, unstoppable.
But i think much of this is because people are trying the traditional method of defense on them, wait til they get close to the goal and try to push them.
I noticed that in the Elims at waterloo, 1114, 1503, and 1281 were ALMOST stopped, by some alliance i dont remember but they put their 2 strongest bots in front of the ramp and kept the zone clear.
Since then I don’t think anyone has done it.
I think 71 and another really good shoter(25, 111) plus a real good defensive bot could beat them.
I was a ref at Waterloo, so I got to see all the action up close. After what was probably their closest match, I aksed a member of 1114 why they didn’t crush their opponents. Apparently, 1503 accidentally put in a dead battery, and 1114 fried a victor (or maybe a spike??) for part of the shooting mechanism. They quickly fixed the problem and dominated in the next match.
According to what teams are currently registered for Nationals the Triplets will all be in different divisions.
This will tell how good they really are. If they each win a division that will really make things interesting.
I think they are the best and if all three make it to the Einstein I wouldn’t be surprised.
Right now 1503 is teamed with 25 on the same field.
I believe that was the first match of the finals against 188, 610, and 771. The final score was like 40 to 29. 1114 pushed 1503 up the ramp and got on themselves to win the match.
for any team to intentionally throw their matches so they end up low in the rankings would be unprofessional and incredibly poor sportsmanship
esp since they would be pulling down the other two alliance partners in each match.
Once teams caught on to what was going on they would be boo’d and taunted until my voice gave out! :^)
From what I’ve seen, it sort of takes them a long time to load, and they really only hold more like 13 balls. Only being able to human load is sort of risky, once you face a smart defensive robot who either 1) blocks 25 in the corner, or 2) doesn’t let them over to the HP to start with.
I think 25 is really good, but to date in the limited number of matches I’ve seen webcasted, I haven’t seen a single team play smart defense on them. Most teams try to push them from the side or the rear. Not gonna work. You need to get in front of their turrett. Pretty much everyone they’ve faced has been perfectly content to let 25 make their way to the HP unimpeded, and once they’re there, they let them take all the time they want to load.
Once I see 25 play some of the elite defensive robots that have defended shooters like the triplets, and they still dominate, I’ll put 25 above everyone else.
Who said that they would be throwing their matches? If one robot is #1, it doesn’t much matter where the other robot is–the other has the first pick. Besides. It’s entirely plausible that one of the teams could hit a streak of bad luck or have mechanical problems, and end up out of the top 8.
People who discount team 25 for playing at so called easy regionals I don’t think understand how dominate they have been at their regionals. First NJ is no slouch of a regional. It was 69 teams, many of which are very competitive. When I came to 25 it was clear that no matter what happened 25 was going to win. Even more so than the triplets there is an air of inevitability about their ability to score.
To say teams didn’t play good defense against them isn’t completely accurate. They are strong, really strong. Their drive seems to be slippery in that they can be easily pushed, but very strong in that I never saw them ever get slowed by a robot when they drove head on. They pushed 522 a very strong tank treaded robot straight backward up the opposing ramp.
People also made the comment that all you had to do was get in front of their shooter to block them. That sounds really simple and I for one kept wondering why teams didn’t just sit in front but then I realized that they’re trying. 25 just pushes them into the ramp, drives up the ramp, or maybe just twists somewhat and they always get an open shot. Its just inevitable. Robots would try to square them off into a corner when they human loaded but I doubt any team will be strong enough to stop them from getting out and making their shots. Their turret is just so good that they only need a moment to get a hail of shots off and no team is going to be able to play that strong a defensive game against them for the whole match let alone even twenty seconds.
So yes they’re good. Better than a triplet arguably. I’d really like to see if they could push a triplet, that would be the deciding difference. If a triplet could square them into a corner and they couldn’t get out that would be the end of 25. But for now nobody has managed to even get close to stopping their drive train.
Are there any videos of 25 in action?
Unfortunately, I can’t search for 25 on CD because you need three letters or numbers for it to be searchable. FRC0025 and FRC25 turned up nothing…
Thanks.