As you all know, the regional competitions are coming to an end and we have a pretty good idea of what the worlds team list is looking like. I myself visited the South Texas regional this past Saturday for fun and found some incredible and possibly world winning ideas(shoutout to 400X, 3118A, 2587Z, and 118). The driver skills high score was once again broken making it 457 which is nearly clearing the whole field with just one robot with driver control loads(shoutout to 2587Z). In my mind, this has to be the most brutal and competitive regional competition this season and the past couple of seasons in the United States as I have not looked at countries like Singapore and New Zealand. In the finals, the field was cleared both rounds with driver control loads and one of the alliances pulled of a 5 second high elevation with both of their partners leaving about 6 seconds to spare and about 3 balls in each low goal. Obviously in the world finals, the field will most likely be cleared about 40 seconds in and having even a 10 second elevation will leave 30 seconds to spare. Now this information may be completely irrelevant to the topic, but I feel that because of reasons like this, the world championship will exciting but at the same time, repetitive. How do you guys think worlds will be this year compared to previous years and challenges?
I think that as the season continues to progress until worlds robots will become more and more efficient. Because of this there will be a lot of empty time at the end of matches. Autonomous will start to play a larger role in the overall match outcome not because of the bonus, but because of limited resources on the field. If a team can ensure they get 2 stacks in auton and then grab 1 more in the first 10 seconds that one team has guaranteed 75 points, as well as 3 of 10 stacks. Assuming your partner does the same that will be 6 of 10 stacks gone within 10 seconds. Any team that does this has a huge advantage as the other team cannot get those lost points back. Lifting will be the deciding factor as there will be a large amount of time towards the end of the match and if you wish to negate that extra stack the opposing team got a high lift will be necessary.
Sorry, I never heard about the Colorado State Championship scores but after seeing those scores, I am even more overwhelmed. I forgot to mention the autonomous period, but both of these comments just prove my point even more. Thank you for bringing this up Lorenzo, does anyone else have any general thoughts on worlds this year?
(note-this post will be left unanswered until worlds is over this year)