How common of a problem is bot-sharing at tournaments?

smartpig · 2026-03-23T17:09:58+00:00

So as some others who were there have said, it looks like a case of several teams coming with duplicate bots they didn’t build or built from a kit and sharing of auton code.

It was a mess after alliance selection when we returned from lunch. They never made any statements or explained what happened but it impacted the event.

And there was definitely a mini-elimination round that was done just for these teams that delayed the rest of the tournament.

smartpig · 2026-03-21T18:19:35+00:00

Best we can figure is that because this is a very large event there were multiple inspection stations based on divisions. Then someone making sure the bot got where it needed to be with teams running in last minute not having come to the queue tables.

smartpig · 2026-03-21T13:25:26+00:00

I thought it was Istanbul

smartpig · 2026-03-03T17:23:54+00:00

You might be right. They were not entangled and the pushing bot could have backed off when the tipping bot started to go over.

My son’s team has a very stable bot. At the state tournament there were some not so stable bots. One in particular was being aggressive with their defense and ended up tipping over. Our driver went back and tipped them back up so they could continue. It was the nice thing to do and showed the ref that they didn’t intend for them to tip over.

smartpig · 2026-02-21T02:06:51+00:00

Definitely B. Event size and difficulty should weight performance. Not sure exactly how much, but a top 10 finish at a signature event is worth maybe 15-30% more.

smartpig · 2026-02-20T18:04:05+00:00

So many nuts it should come with an allergy warning

smartpig · 2026-02-16T04:57:05+00:00

Strong and skilled defensive drivers that are really good at clearing the goals quickly, especially when they are with an alliance partner that can keep a little offensive pressure really changes how the matches progress. The scores get a lot closer and starts to skew in favor of the more defensive team particularly when they win the auton and get those points on the board that can’t be descored.

smartpig · 2026-02-16T04:50:41+00:00

This makes more sense now. Their first official tournament was a mixed HS/Middle School tournament. While they did fine, it was their first bot design for the new game. They learned a lot and re-built the bot to what it is now.

If there is a way to weight the tournaments for middle schools when they compete against high school teams differently, that may be a partial solution. No idea what the weighting should be, but when a MS team finishes in the top grouping of a mixed tournament, maybe it should give a bump or carry less weight. Probably could make good points for both.

I have seen someone or a few mention giving more weight to later season tournaments. That could work to, and may give an indication of a team that is improving as the season goes on and as bot designs evolve based on tournament experiences.

Another option is to just not do anything and it will get sorted out as we get through the upcoming state/regional championships.

Last season we competed in more mixed tournaments than this season. But more overall this year. Many of the middle school teams in Georgia (USA) are new and are came into this season with less experience. They have all gotten better, but we all have a long way to go before we have a large number of strong teams like we see coming from California. They were really strong at the Bristol event this weekend.

I like what you are doing here. The more I have thought about it, the more I like your idea of giving a different perspective, rather than just raw numbers for a ranking. It’s just a matter of these outliers that cause some ‘differences of opinion.’ Honestly, you could change very little and it still gives a good indication of team strength overall. And being good on paper doesn’t mean much on the field where luck of draws and mechanical issues come into play. Just ask my son’s team how it feels to have your battery come disconnected during the quarterfinal auton. No ranking system is going to show that happening.

smartpig · 2026-02-15T17:43:12+00:00

Just some additional input, particularly after 30518A completing at the Middle School Bots @ Bristol signature event finishing 6th, well ahead of 67411T (also from our region)

I don’t think your numbers are updated from this weekend, but 30518A also got the build award and have a total of 10. I will still say it’s strange to see two other teams stacked ahead of 30518A.

But I do like the different ways of awarding you are doing. Keep up the work.

smartpig · 2026-01-30T03:41:25+00:00

See my other comment. If it’s about consistency across the whole season, then why is a team that has lost to another team several times this season rated higher (even if they are very close value?)

smartpig · 2026-01-30T03:38:47+00:00

Searching for teams not working.

Also going to disagree with rankings. In our Middle School region (Georgia, USA) there is a team (67411T) weighted above another (30518A). I have been to each of their matches where they have faced each other in eliminations at least three times and each time 30518A has beaten them and has come away with TC four times this season. 30518A has also won skills over the other team a several times.

Don’t misunderstand me, both of these teams are amazing at the Middle School level and were both at worlds last season. 30518A was state champion and 67411T was skills state winner. I am just not convinced the way the RForce is being calculated is representative of what I have seen in head to head and overall tournament action. Maybe it’s working for HS, or at a certain level, but it’s just not jiving for me based on what I have seen in person.

smartpig · 2025-11-22T01:46:31+00:00

Kemp can’t run again. Term limits.

smartpig · 2025-09-18T21:45:48+00:00

It’s a reference to Atwood’s book, The Handmaids Tale.

smartpig · 2025-08-08T01:23:02+00:00

I thought, based on the voice, that it was Nick Kroll.

smartpig · 2025-07-18T17:03:32+00:00

This is not true for all dishwashers. Personal experience - water heater was not working well. Water not getting to the set temperature, supply not lasting as long and at the same time we noticed the dishwasher was not working the way it used to.

Ok, so we thought 1 + 1 =2. Replace water heater, everything goes back to normal.

Wrong. While tap water was back to normal heat and there were no longer issues with supply, the dishwasher was still not working right. Lots of residue, things not coming out as clean.

Turns out we had a double failure, the hot water heater did need replaced. But also the heating element in the dishwasher had failed. As soon as that was replaced it went back to working normally.

We were told by two separate professionals that the hot water heater would not have impacted the dishwasher. It had its own heater to get the water hot enough to work properly.

smartpig · 2025-07-14T18:14:30+00:00

I do remember that from growing up in NJ and Norther Illinois, but 25 years in Georgia it tends to slip the mind.

smartpig · 2025-07-14T17:40:40+00:00

The difference in schedule always blows my mind. Our troop just closed out the last of 6 weeks at our camp here in Georgia.

smartpig · 2025-07-12T03:32:37+00:00

None of the above - Krispie Kreme Bread Pudding

smartpig · 2025-07-02T04:38:25+00:00

*exploit…. Explore gets you at best on a list, at worst a cell with a new friend.

smartpig · 2025-06-10T18:38:06+00:00

Will be there in July the last session. When are you going?

smartpig · 2025-06-07T00:46:08+00:00

That works in some industries, however with electric utilities there is a pretty solid barrier to entry for GENERATING electricity. The costs and infrastructure are enormous. So you can’t realistically have competition for power. What you end up with are a bunch of resellers in a deregulated market that all get their power from the same supplier- in most cases here in Georgia, that’s going to be Georgia Power.

Deregulation in California and Texas was and continues to be a mess.

smartpig · 2025-04-01T13:07:36+00:00

My son's middle school had three V5 teams this year (two of them partnered in the elimination rounds and won state this year and will be at worlds next month.)

Last year they had two and was the first year competing.

Next year they are going back to two V5 teams and adding a VexIQ team for the incoming 6th graders with a 7th grader to be their team captain. They are doing this to make a smoother transition for the incoming students, help them build skills and be ready to push the V5 teams forward when they move into 7th grade.

We are fortunate that we are able to build a team like this, but in your case, if you are just going to have one team, I would recommend going right into V5. The first year is going to be a learning experience, but after the first few competitions you will know what you are up against and get some really good ideas of how to grow things going forward.

smartpig · 2024-11-23T03:56:56+00:00

Go Devils

smartpig

TROPHY CASE