D-FENCE: An Anecdote

January 31, 2013 • 4 notes •

Very few FRC teams come close to undefeated seasons.  Even if you build exceptional robots, the random nature of qualifying matches will occasionally just stack the deck against you.  For example, 2056 OP Robotics has won every single regional they have attended (for the bean counters in the audience, that’s 14 in a row!).*  However, over the life of the team they’ve “only”** won about 80% of the matches they have participated in.  A number of teams have come close to a perfect season, and today we will be discussing one of them.

In 2006 Team 25, Raider Robotix dominated their way through 2 regionals, and most of their way through Championship qualifying rounds before losing their second to last qualifying round (which would lead to Newton ‘06 being a case study in picking strategy).  On their way up the ladder they would lose twice more before ultimately being eliminated in the finals.

image
(CD Source)

You’ll notice something very interesting about their robot though.  They shot from basically the floor!  All you had to do to block them was stand in front of them.  And yet it took almost all of the road to Einstein before anyone did this well enough for 25 to lose a match.  They also exclusively human loaded, which CD was generally dismissive of until 25 began dominating.

Worth noting the Finals in 2006 really were electrifying.

But after you’ve watched some really great robots play two really great matches, there is a lesson here for defensive and offensive robots.  If you’re playing offense, the defense might not be that smart.  And if you’re playing defense, play smart defense!  Great defense often does not involve ramming the other alliance really hard, even if that’s what 90% of defensive robots do.

*In a perfect world if OP Robotics had a 95% chance of winning any regional they entered, there is still only a 50% chance that they would have won all 14! (Binomial Distribution)

**This is also just insanely competitive.  I would guess that maybe 10 teams have played at this level at a large number of events for the past 6 years.  On the back of this napkin, it looks like 1114 has won around 85% of their matches over the same period, while 111 has won around 70%.  That level of sustained quality of play is just mind-boggling.

  1. scych reblogged this from twentyfour-ewcp
  2. cadandcookies reblogged this from twentyfour-ewcp and added:
    2056 just blows my mind; what would I give to sit in on one of their design sessions some day. Also, Team 25 is amazing...
  3. twentyfour-ewcp posted this