What do I think all regional winners will have? In the past, many regional winners have had great and innovative designs on their robot. I believe that this year it might be a little different, I believe that a robot with a great driver and a capable arm will win. This will make scouting very hard because so many teams have a very similar arm.
Not just the driver though, a coach and secondary driver must be very heads up, they must always know who is winning, and by how much. There will be a lot more going on this year, and the driver will have to maneuver around 2 more bots and more game elements. I realize that this is always true, but I just wanted to know who else thinks that there is even more emphasis on the driving and coaching than just a good robot design. Because in the end, all the engineering is still controlled by humans, and humans have flaws. But the better the driver and coaches, the smaller the flaws.
I totally agree. Strategy, coach, drivers and scouting will play a HUGE part this year. Having an amazing robot that can stack 3-4 at a time is one thing, but to finish the match with 5-6 rows is another. But its all the better for us. Imagine matches going down to the wire, roaring crowds, nail bitting calls, that classic commentary, rejoicing teams, high-fives, hugs, and hand shakes at the end of matches! Oh boy i cant wait!. Its going to be a sweet ride.
Having an excellent drive team, as previously stated, is going to be huge this year, in my opinion. That means a number of things including awareness of events on the field and score, teamwork, general driving skills, and perhaps a small bit of luck.
My prediction is that in general, the winning alliances in regional competitions, and particularly the winning alliance in Atlanta will consist of:
-1 robot that is a true tetra scorer, that is, they will be capable of scoring approximately 12 tetras per match. I can think of two primary designs that might be capable of such a feat:
a robot that can store 4+ tetras on its base and score them quickly (see Team 340’s awesome robot)
a robot that can score 4+ at a time by using a forklift type design with a hinging fork (see “I wish my team’s forklift could lift 4+ tetras”).
-2 robots that will be strong, fast, and capable of quickly scoring on any of the goals.
Strategy, I imagine will go like this: the first minute and 20 seconds after the autonomous period will consist of trying to score as many tetras as possible. The remaining 40 seconds, the 2 strong/fast/single-tetra-scoring robots will begin strategically placing tetras so as to assure they come out on top as far as the rows are concerned.
I also expect there will be some wild and innovative defensive solutions that I haven’t thought of yet. It’s going to be a great competition. I can’t wait.
Okay so here is what i think a winning team will have.
First they will need a great strategy team. They will have to freely communicate between scouts and drive team.
Second they will need to be able to have a great coach, that is able to keep track of all 6 robots, and the score, at the same time.
A driver that doesn’t have to be baby walked through everyhthing, and that has experience on the sticks and who nows how the game works, inside and out.
An operator who can help the coach, but that can also do there own job.
But then agian it is also going to come down to what they can do.
A little luck is always important. Luck this year will come in the form of not gathering penalties either by your self or your alliances. If 2 or 3 matches you get allied with a team that draws penalties, there goes a few wins just on that fact alone, not to mention your going to simply get outscored by the other teams now and then also. So in the end you’ll wind up 50/50 with most of it out of your hands. So one team alone can’t win this thing when there’s 5 other bots on the field that can make a Big impact on the 1. So alliances are everything no matter how good you are.
With that in mind, how you employ those alliance strategies as a team is critical. You can talk to folks about strategy all you want, but if they don’t stick to it. Or are incapable of certain things - it’s just out of your hands. Not to say the other team is also dealing with the same dynamics. But overall statistically with 6 teams on the field - no 1 team can make as big a difference as in the past.
If this thread were titled what will the winning alliance have? I think it’s almost always going to be the #1 seed. Unless they have blinders on, they’re going to pick the best/fastest consistent capper. They being the #1 seed will likely be good at organizing strategy and staying away from trouble and scoring rows well or just plain lucky. You put those 2 teams together, the second seed is already picking the second, third or fourth best capper. If you’re in the 3-8 alliance I personally think your not going to have much of a chance.
I’m sure your going to see awesome teams that score like crazy deep in the seeding charts at the end of the day. Only because of the huge penalty risks that alliances will draw and that you can’t come back from.
I hope people don’t get too bent out of shape when they’re asked to stay out of trouble as a strategy…
I’m pretty sure the winning teams in this game will be able to stack tetras first and foremost really fast. I think that the team will probably be able to score the most tetras/second in the game.
Secondly, I think the teams that win good regionals and championships will be able to go at least 8 tetras high, because once you get past all the good robots that can go fast, you need to have something else over them that will allow you to keep playing after the first minute and a half when all the other robots are scoring tetras.
THe last thing that might be a characteristic of a winning team probably would be a mechanism that allows for hanging onto a tetra really good once you have it, so that once you have a tetra you can still keep scoring even with all 3 of the alliance robots playing defense on you. Either that of a long arm that can reach over robots trying to stop you.
Those are some characteristics that, even if your drivers not that good, which helps too, can win you a lot and get you pretty far in the competition. I’m pretty sure the good teams tradionally will be able to master these qualities.
The winners at regionals and at the championship this year will have a definitive, single, dedicated strategy on what to do out in the field. In my opinion, X tetras stacked on top of a goal will not be the only thing on the list of qualifications, but also placement of them and the time they were put there will be key. Strategy, as many have said before, will be a requirement. You can’t just wish for luck, for chances are it won’t come.
More importantly, and should I say basically, the robot needs to be robust. Any weaknesses may mean trouble.
In my opinion everyone has as good of a chance as everyone else. The reason being their are 5 other teams out there, a lot can happen. Any way I look at it, though, robots that are consistent and effective at whatever they do will be the champions. This is the hardest challenge of FIRST, that is being consistent in matches. Their are a lot of unknown variables and they could either work against you or in favor of you, but as long as you have a good strategy team you should be fine. Good luck to everyone!!
A highly effective scouting team in which the logistics of every match is carefully gathered, verified and computed into a general match strategy. The drive team is briefed in the beginning of each match by scouting on the strengths and weaknesses of friends and opponents, while being de-briefed after each match on observations of successful and unsuccessful game play.
[tangent]A bayesian inference will be used to predict the outcome of every match based on past conditions and strategies used.[/tangent]
The winning alliance leading team will have a thorough understanding of how different robots complement their robot, and be able to select these robots.
If the top 2 teams qualify exceptionally well due to their vision tetra capability, picking each other would not necessarily serve them well.
Strategy will be key, and the teams that can extend strategy to team selection will do well.
