Saturday, January 6, 2018

Kickoff 2018

Today is the first day of build season! Like every year, we woke up incredibly early, drove to Mountlake Terrace, and watched Kickoff live after waiting for 5 eternities.

This year’s game is FIRST Power Up©®™. It features power cubes, powerups, and climbing. At first glance, it seems quite complicated, with many potential strategies we could use:


After discussing the game with other teams at Mountlake Terrace, we went back to Sammamish and began to break it down. First, we split up into groups, with each group analyzing a specific topic (how to score, playing defense, the field elements, etc.). Then, each group shared their findings with the entire team.

After lunch, we discussed various scoring methods and their pros and cons. We also ran simulations of each strategy and how many points they would give us.

We spent the rest of the day working on a decision matrix for prioritizing the different scoring options. As usual, the hardest part was figuring out which numbers to put in.

GO ROBOTOTES!!!