Overview

Our subteam is in charge of monitoring the progress and capabilities of other teams as well as our own. We do research to find where our team’s weaknesses are. Then we lead discussions on how we can improve in these areas. We also host post-match debriefs where we discuss our observations with the rest of the team and propose goals for the next match. We collaborate with our alliance partners in order to come up with the best strategy for gameplay. These strategies can either focus on offense (scoring the maximum amount of points) or on defense (preventing other alliances from getting points).

Game Strategy

Each year our team's strategy changes according to the current game and the different teams we are competing against. This year is different since we are not physically facing our competitors in the ring and the majority of our research is online. As a result, we are focusing on the robot's consistency and maximizing scoring points. Our basic strategy is to transport the wobble goal to its respective square as well as target power shots during the autonomous period. During teleop, we are aiming for the middle goal, along with any power shots during the endgame.

Research

This year, strategy development looked slightly different, with the majority of our scouting and game strategy being conducted online. We looked at past years' games that had similar objectives, such as shooting an object across the field. And we did research to learn how other teams are addressing the game elements. We also analyzed our own performance in the matches.

Analyzing Matches

We focus on analysing our scrimmage videos to detect where we can improve our design. We document the percentage of shots made during the autonomous period and driving portion of the game. We observe which points are the most crucial and which are the easiest to obtain. After each match, we identify areas in which we can become more proficient and combine that with our observations regarding point scoring to adjust our game plan accordingly. Additionally, we scout other teams and observe how our competitors are handling the various game elements and which particular tasks are their primary focus.

Scouting

Building Inter-Team Relationships

During the competitive season, our team concentrates on building relationships with other teams. We spend a lot of time visiting other teams in the pits (where the teams work on their robots between matches at a competition) and oftentimes, we will invite other teams to join us for lunch after an event. Several times a year, we either host or participate in outreach events, where our team gets to interact with other potential competitors and alliance partners in FTC. This year, we made those connections with nearby teams virtually, using Zoom and social media as platforms to discuss strategies and learn about the mechanisms of other teams’ robots.