CPR ISS Division - Strategy Example

2020 West Valley Event, Match 26

Match 26 presented a challenge between two balanced alliances. The score according to our Tableau model predicted a tie at 141 points apiece. To gain the victory, we needed to perform at or above expectations and limit our opponents from achieving their averages. What made this match even more exciting: we were facing off against Team 2910, Jack in the Bot. A win would put us in 1st place and demonstrate that we were a serious contender at the competition.

We considered our Tele-Op strategy carefully. First, we optimized path flow by having Teams 3663 and 4089 take turns going under the Trench to traverse to and from the Loading Station. The initial plan was then to have Teams 3663 and 4089 shoot from the Initiation Line. We realized that we might face defense from our opponents so our contingency plan was to shoot from the Target Zone: this would both provide us safety when shooting and might also result in legally luring the defender to commit technical fouls against us. This is indeed what happened. The defense by Team 4061 was ferocious and we were unable to shoot at the Initiation Line. Both Teams 3663 and 4089 successfully shot from the Target Zone instead. We also were touched twice by Team 4061 while we were in the Target Zone. Another technical foul was committed against us in the Loading Zone by another opponent. These three technical fouls, however, were not called. If we had lost the match by less than 45 points, we would have been disappointed. However, as strategists, we realize that we cannot count on penalties being called, especially at early competitions. The referees are trying to learn the competition just like we are. They sometimes miss calls that they might make in later competitions. We see scouting and strategy as all about probability. We strive to get every advantage we can in a match, with each element we include increasing the probability that we will win. That means that we put elements in like legally luring opponents to foul us with the idea that sometimes the fouls might be called. When the fouls are called, they can make the difference in the match (see description of 2019 PNW Quarterfinals 3 in which planned penalty fouls won us the match by 3 points below).

As part of our strategy, we also wanted to use defense to limit Team 2910’s productivity. The initial plan was to have our third alliance partner, Team 4692, traverse the Initiation Line on the opponent’s side, disrupting Team 2910’s favorite shooting position. Our partner was cautioned not to move far from the Initiation Line so that they would not incur technical fouls in the protected areas. In the actual match, Team 4692 stayed on our side’s Initiation Line, interfering with Team 2910 traveling back and forth between their Loading Zone and their Trench. This may have been a decision among our alliance members about what they felt might be most effective. As strategists, we give our ideas on the best approach to a match, but we leave it to our alliance to determine what adjustments work best for them. In the match, Team 4692 did a great job of harrying and delaying Team 2910 to and from their Loading Station.

As the game clock wound down, our opponent, Team 4061 continued their aggressive defense, coming dangerously close to our Rendezvous area. During the last 30 seconds, they touched both Teams 3663 and 4089 in the Rendezvous area. These two technical fouls were, in fact, called. Team 4061 then extricated itself from our Rendezvous area and headed toward its own. Our defensive bot, Team 4692 was in position to further delay Team 4061. While Teams 3663 and 4089 had the full 30 seconds to climb, Teams 4061 and 2910 had less than 20 seconds to do so. Our alliance’s robots successfully completed our climbs while our rushed opponents had difficulty. In the end, they were touching each other, one of them failed to climb, and they did not get any credit for the single successful climb. We won the match 147-107.

In summary, our victory in this match was due to a combination of careful strategy, solid play, and luck - much like most of our matches. 

2019 Glacier Peak Event, Match 2

We were up against an alliance that was better than our own. Our opponents included Team 2930, who ended ranked second at the competition, and Team 488 who was a strong hatch bot. We knew their third member, Team 4173, would most likely play defense on us. Regarding our alliance, we were a strong bot who could do well at cargo, adequately at hatch, and could climb to the third level of the platform. Our partner, Team 3588 was limited in their cargo ability but they were adequate at hatches. Our final partner, Team 1899 could do limited cargo. In analyzing this match, we knew that we had to manage our resources carefully to maximize our points while also limiting Team 2930’s high point capability. We conferred with our alliance partners and arranged for Team 1899 to do one to two cargo on the cargo ship and then head over to play defense on 2930. Meanwhile, we used our swerve drive to effectively evade their defender and put in several cargo. Our partner, Team 1899 did two cargo and then went and played very effective defense on Team 2930. Our other partner, Team 3588 efficiently focused only on hatches, enabling us to put in cargo in hatched bays. We watched the clock tick down until there were only 15 seconds left, deploying as many game pieces as possible. We then headed over to the platform and climbed in 10 seconds. Team 2930 failed their climb and we won 78-51 with three ranking points. In this match, we showed that a less-skilled alliance can win if they have a coordinated strategy that capitalizes on their alliance’s strengths. Our partners were excited that they could significantly contribute to beating a superior foe.

2019 PNW Championship, Quarterfinals 2 & 3

The PNW Champs Quarterfinals were a good lesson about the limits of data and the importance of adapting to changing conditions. We lost our first match which was a shock to us because our combined alliance predicted score was much higher than that of our opponent’s. Data simply cannot predict a behavior that has never heretofore been seen. Team 1425, who previously had only played offense in its matches, took on the defensive role in eliminations. Their defense was ferocious, targeted, and effective in cutting our deployment of game pieces by half. We put our heads together and used our knowledge of the game rules and experience developing strategies to come up with several changes to our match strategy for the next two matches. First, we moved our alliance partner Team 4513 to the other side of the field to play defense on Team 2471. This cut the output of Team 2471 and opened up space for Team 2147 and our team to maneuver more easily. Then, we split our side of the field between Team 2147 and us so that Team 1425 would have to choose one of us to defend while the other partner was free to score. We also had the human player throw out balls so that even if Team 1425 cut us off from going back to the feeder, we still had cargo available to deploy. You can see our team deploy two balls under Team 1425’s nose due to this strategy. Finally, we told out driver that when trying to evade 1425, drive alongside the wall or cargo ship and stay there.  That way, 1425 would be forced to move out of our way or else they would be called for pinning. That is exactly what happened: 1425 incurred 12 penalty points (six more than our defensive partner did) and we won the final match by three points. It was a hard-fought battle against an excellent alliance and it required thorough knowledge of the game and creative problem-solving in order to prevail.

2018 PNW Championship, Match 96

This match was a fair face-off between two relatively strong alliances, but to ensure a victory, we created a smart strategy that utilized our alliance’s strengths and exploited our opponents’ weaknesses. One of our partners Skunkworks Robotics 1983 could deposit a cube in the switch during auto 100% of the time. Having them take care of the switch, we focused on the scale in auto because we knew that getting a head start on scale cubes presented a great advantage when facing two strong scale bots. Our other alliance partner SHREC 5450 was a shooter bot. Now we discovered that when the scale was full of cubes, a shooting mechanism became unreliable; therefore, we made sure that SHREC could shoot into the scale at the start of the match when the scale wasn’t quite full. With data, we knew that our opponents had a tendency to contend for the opponent switch/our alliance switch. Armed with this knowledge, after auto, we made sure our switch was well-stocked and guarded. Immediately after our opponents abandoned the scale to attack our alliance and play defense, we went to work on their undefended switch. Playing smartly with strategy, we eventually prevented them from earning any points. Finishing with a double climb, our alliance won the match with four Ranking Points.