Strategy
Year-Long GoalThe Year-Long Goal phase of strategy is all about deciding what kind of team you want to be. Above all else, the team is the most crucial part of being successful. The team is required to perform and fulfill every part of the Engineering Cycle. On the flip-side, a strong team does not mean a successful one, only the potential to be one.
The Year-Long Goal phase should be spent deciding the long-term goals (such as qualifying for Worlds) and on the basics of how a team will be accomplishing this. This is where member roles are decided (programmer, driver, coach, builder, designer). For the most optimal team organization, I suggest reading the pointers on the right side of the page. The other part of the Year-Long Goal phase is deciding what type of team you want to be. This where you decide if you want to focus on Robot Skills, Programming Skills, the Competition, Uniqueness. When focusing on Robot Skills, making a fast efficient scoring robot and having a driver consistently practicing with it is crucial. Watching other's teams skills runs online is also important. By keeping up with the local opponents competing against you, you can keep track of how many points you need to score. Reducing your reaction time and making an efficient plan for the skills run should be your main goals. When focusing on Programming Skills, make a consistent, reliable robot with at least one sensor for the chassis and the lift. The more sensors the robot has the better. It is important that there are more than one programmer helping to check each others' work and to avoid changing too much on the robot to save the work on autonomous so that your progress isn't lost. Programming skills is the least focused upon part of the competition and as a result, can be the easiest means to qualify. The competition is the most difficult to qualify through. Teams have a few options when it comes to the competition to do well.
While I don't believe that teams should completely ignore the skills challenges and the competition, you can try to qualify via by being unique. You can check online what judges are looking for when they give out awards, and try meeting what they are going after. However, it can be bothersome to people when they see teams who are poor in performance but can somehow win awards, for example, for a strong design process. A good design process will give you the means to be a successful team, it is not indicative of poor performance. In a sense, this should be only a last resort when it comes to trying to qualify. |
Suggestions Based on Team Sizes
Less Than 4 Team Members
4 - 5 Team Members
6 or More Team Members
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On-Field Planning
The On-Field Planning phase of strategy is all about the coach(es) to driver(s) communication and planning. This where the team makes a plan for a match, both one with their partners for the match and a contingency plan because it is important to consider yourself as the only team you can really depend on because your team is the only team you control. There are several important parts to this phase.
- Scouting Your Opponents and Partner - Knowing as much as you can about everyone in the match is crucial. If you are facing two robots who cannot hang for points, and your partner can, make sure your partner hangs. To scout well, know primarily how many motors the other teams in the match have on their drive, their autonomous, and the focus of their teams whether it be offense or defense. This information should be passed onto the coach.
- Making a Plan for the Match - Talk with your partner before a match to determine where each team is starting, what your autonomous is going to do, and what each team is going to focus on. I highly suggest having the more reliable robot being the scoring one. If you don't score, you don't win. Then between the coach(es) and driver(s) have a backup plan in case your partner fails, in this situation you cannot waste any time on anything that won't win you the match. Ignore your opponents as much as possible and score, score, score.
- Coaching - The coach and the driver need to understand how their relationship works. If the driver can perform basic functions such as picking up and scoring, then the coach shouldn't micro manage the driver. Instead tell them where to go, when to be there, and who is going to be there. If the driver needs to be micromanaged, then the coach should focus on micromanaging them, not ignoring what the driver needs. The coach needs to have a proper sense of what time it is, and what the score is (now whether or not there is a second coach informing him what the time is and what the score is, that is up to individual teams to decide.) The driver and the coach need to know how fast the robot can perform a specific function, such as hanging or scoring in order to avoid doing something that they cannot complete with the time given. The coach also needs to be able to improvise a plan on the fly, and the driver needs to trust the coach to know what he/she is doing.
Alliance Selection
For alliance selection, you need to be checking three main things: where your team is, what teams will be picking, and what teams could cause you to climb or fall in ranks. If you are not in the top eight, talk with the higher up alliance captains, especially around 4 to 6 because they are looking for a good robot for their first pick because the second pick will not be as good since most good second picks are taken by the first three alliances. Play up what you can do, but more importantly, be the team that your alliance captain wants you to be. The alliance captains should have an idea of the kind of team they want, and it is your job to figure that out and to sell yourself as that kind of team. If nothing else, try to play yourself up as a viable second pick so that you aren't completely shut out of the finals. If you think you are going to be a second pick, then have a defensive-block autonomous already made so that you can be of use to alliances looking for an ace in the sleeve. Always make sure that you can program a new autonomous on the go if you need to, there will be alliance captains looking for teams who can do this.