Hey everyone, I have been looking at all the bots and ideas people have been posting for the Change Up 2020 season, and I have got to say that I am really excited for the competitions this year. I have looked all the robot reveals online, as well as a lot of robots in my area. I have comprised what I think would be the meta this year, and i’d love everyone’s ideas as well.
Note: For this topic, I have made:
-Attacking: Filling up the towers
-Defending: Claiming as many towers as possible and keeping it that way
-Support: Stopping enemy team from scoring and helping in any way possible
Here are what I think the bots will be and what they will specialize in:
-Snail-bot with a high-speed rollers rather than capacity: This bot will be a snail bot that focuses on getting as many balls as possible on the top of the tower, rather than filling up the towers themselves. They would ideally have high speed drivetrains, and may be lighter than your traditional snail-bot. Essentially it is a simpler snail-bot with less functionality and more speed. Due to having a faster speed, they could also play a defensive role by blocking towers and harassing the enemy team bots. I do not have a link for this, but I have seen many of these bots in my state, and have seen some ideas online.
Role: Defending/Support
-Snail-Bot with high capacity: This would be your traditional snail-bot, that could hold 5 balls or more. This bot would most likely focus on filling up all the towers as fast as possible, and then trying to take over towers. They would be trying to gain towers rather than defending towers. There are a lot of these on YouTube, and if you are reading this, you most likely know what I am talking about. Here is an example, 29760C’s robot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3cQQMjxdb0
Role: Attacking/Defending
-Lifting-Bot: By lifting-bot I am thinking about 64811A’s robot. It has a capacity of 3 balls, and lifts a sort of tray that puts the balls in a tower. They are very fast, and good score goals quickly. Looking at this bot, I thought that they would be very good for defending as well. They could essentially take out an entire team’s tower if they wanted to, and could have it filled up to be their tower by their teammate or themselves. It would also be very good at stopping the enemy team from scoring as well, as it has the height to stop balls from going in. It is like the Snail-Bot with high-speed rollers rather than capacity. An example is 64811A’s bot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQJKRrMzxiM
Role: Attacking/Defending/Support
-Tray-Bot: These are the tray-bots from last year that have been modified for this competition. From what I have seen, they seem to be like the Lifting-Bot, but more focused on capacity rather than speed. They have the potential to have a very large capacity if built right, and could hold a lot of balls. Because of this, they would be fantastic at filling up the towers, and could continue to do this all game. An example would be Mankato Area Robotics Club’s robot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulsw9Kp4YII
Role: Attacking
-Claw-Bot: We all know the clawbot. We all started there. They have a capacity of one ball, and can be speedy if the correct speed motor is used. It could honestly fill any role, as long as the driver plays it right. I have seen claw-bots excel with great drivers. This bot will depend more on the driver than the bot, but has great potential. If you live under a rock or are new to vex, heres a claw-bot credit to Liam H4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHBwebBId0c
Role: Attacking/Defending/Support
Best Robot Compositions:
-Tray-Bot and Snail-bot with a high-speed rollers rather than capacity
-Snail-bot with a high-speed rollers rather than capacity and Snail-Bot with high capacity
-Lifting-Bot + Anything
**NOTE: THIS IS ALL MY OPINION OF WHAT I HAVE SEEN. I HAVE TRIED TO BE AS NON-BIAS AS POSSIBLE. **
As you can see, each bot has different pros and cons. If you have a different view or idea, please respond. I would love to see what everyone else thinks!
Thanks and good luck to everyone this season!