The maximum number of points any alliance can reach is 193 (before penalties).
Will any alliance reach this score?
Personally, I don’t think so. According to my calculations, if an alliance scores all 7 game pieces in Auto, they still need to get and score 21 game pieces in tele-op. This means that even if all 3 bots are scoring they need an average cycle time of 13 seconds. The cycle time also includes around 90 ft crossing the field. I don’t think any alliance is going to be able to pull off this 13 second cycle 21 times in a row. Especially if the other alliance is playing defense.
I’m not confident enough in my prediction to bet something as crazy as eating a shoe though.
I think we’ll see it by champs, I think given the right alliance in quals we could see teams get close as early as week 1 at a competition like Hueneme Port.
Gear cycling from Steamworks/2017 should be a reasonable proxy. We managed to average a bit over 6 gears, and never did more than 9 in tele. You did not need to raise an arm to place a gear, but there was defense when acquiring gears.
It will take coordination, not getting in each other’s way will be the biggest challenge – but certainly not impossible.
To me, 2019 seems to be a somewhat close comparison for scoring: this was the highest scoring match in 2019, with I believe 32 game pieces placed over the whole match by blue. Unless I’m missing something, compared to 2019 this year the scoring locations are all very congested together and the substation is on the other end of the entire field compared to the half-field of 2019. Certainly harder to score every game piece, but not impossible. IMO maximum points seems unlikely.
At least one robot on the alliance needs to score its preload and then do two cycles all within 15 seconds, all on the highest grid, which isn’t impossible but would be pretty impressive. The other robots need to score their pieces on the highest grid twice and then one has to balance on the charge station. It would be an incredible feat if that happened either in quals with random teammates or in elims with a 3rd pick robot. Maybe at world champs?
Likely at champs, since teams have some level of control of where they place the pieces autos are relatively independent of each other. In an earlier season regional with a bit of star power we may see quals give us this by chance, at worlds I would be surprised if we didn’t get it based on the higher density of teams with good autos.
2019 field was much more congested if there was any defense at all. Congestion here is only between alliance members, which if they are all cycling well should be manageable, swinging around the CHARGE STATION feels a lot like swinging around the AIRSHIP, a little tighter, but it is the age of swerve.
Open field defense in the age of swerve is going to be very hard, everything about the field and scoring feels much closer to 2017 to me. Not saying it will be easy, but I will not be shocked if/when it happens.
I think the complexity of the autonomous is nontrivial when you are coordinating 3 different robots on the field. Two robots will need to go the same direction around the charge station during auton which is kind of a nightmare to coordinate not interfering with your alliance partner. Unless one alliance member goes over the charging station during auton which is again not impossible but it would really require all the stars to align at a regional or district event.
While I am optimistic about this, I think that estimating 10 seconds for endgame is a bit too optimistic, particularly given that the max would require it to be balanced.
But I wouldn’t be shocked if some alliance fully fills the scoring positions.
Autonomous pathing and timing is not conducive to absolutely maxxing scores. I personally can’t wait for the first time a team tries to cross the Charge Station in one direction while their autonomous alliance partner has it tipped up in the opposite direction.
Comparing to recent games, this endgame is probably most similar to the “dukes of hazard” level 2 HAB climb from 2019. Those took a reasonable fast drivetrain and about 2 seconds.
I could be wrong but the double-hinge on the balance looks fairly generous. It should take at most one driver adjustment to level. Say, 3 seconds.
As a coach I wouldn’t let my drive team pass 10s without docking, but I think a reasonably skilled driver could easily engage in 5s of reaching the charging station.
Agree a perfect game will require a bit of luck, both in scheduling, to get complimentary autons, low defense opposing alliance, as well as in game for balance, lack of collisions, but there are a lot of matches in a season, big enough numbers make their own luck.
