Capital City Classic 2018

A Brief Sumary

As part of an eventful weekend, we attended Capital City Classic, an annually hosted offseason tournament hosted by Team 1678 (Citrus Circuits), in Davis, CA. We had a great time jumping back into action with our robot, Lockdown, before the start of the 2019 FRC Season. Alongside, FRC Team 1323 MadTown Robotics, FRC Team 199 Deep Blue, and FRC Team 3859 Wolfpack Robotics, we were able to win the tournament!

Team 254 Members pose with their alliance partners and fellow champions

Event Highlights

General Summary

Team 254 hangs at the end of a quarterfinals match

Overall, Capital City Classic was a great event for our team. After ending with a record of 15-0, our team members were excited throughout the tournament. With an 8 person pit crew and drive team, we were very effective and made sure the rest of our team members were at home working on our summer project robot to prepare to Madtown in 2 weeks.

Robot Performance

In general, we prioritized ranking points throughout the event. Since many robots at the event did not focus on the scale, we adopted a strategy of aggressive offense where we would score on our opponent’s switch. We would also focus on maintaining ownership of the scale and climbing at the end of the match for the extra ranking point. We ended up seeding first with 31 ranking points over 9 matches.
During Alliance Selection, we chose to form an alliance with Team 1323 since they had a great scale robot that could really help us establish a lead during auton. To accompany two strong scale robots we looked for two robots skilled in locking down the switches and exchange, like Team 199 and Team 3859.
During elims, we worked with Team 1323 to lock down ownership of the scale during auton. If necessary, Team 1323 would focus on offense towards the opposing alliance’s switch. During finals, we did have some scale competition with team Team 1678 and Team 1425 on the opposing alliance. Thus, we played more conservatively and made sure we had a solid buffer on the scale before rotating to other tasks. We would also like to recognize the opposing alliance of Team 1678 (Citrus Circuits), Team 1425 (Error Code Xero), Team 5458 (Digital Minds), and Team 4171 (BayBots).

Members of the Team 254 Pit Crew repair Lockdown before an upcoming Finals Match

A Special Thanks

Since this was Team 254’s first time at Capital City Classic, we would like to say thank you to Team 1678 (Citrus Circuits) for hosting the tournament and making us feel welcome.

Madtown Throwdown Offseason Tournament

A Brief Summary

As part of an eventful weekend, we attended Madtown Throwdown, an annually hosted offseason tournament hosted by Team 1323 (Madtown Robotics), in Madera, CA. We had a great time jumping back into action with our robot, Lockdown, before the start of the 2019 FRC Season. Alongside, FRC Team 1323 MadTown Robotics, their offseason robot (9323), and our own programming robot (9254), we were able to win the tournament!

Team 254 and alliance partners Team 1323 and our programming robot 9254 in position before an elims match

Event Summary and Highlights

General Summary

Overall, Madtown Throwdown was a great event for our team. Lockdown, our competition robot, went undefeated 15-0. Our programming robot, was run by an all-freshman pit crew and drive team to ensure that our new members gain a valuable experience before the 2019 FRC Season. The programming robot had a great qualifications match record and was lucky to join Lockdown in an alliance at the tournament. We also had a swerve robot, which we worked on all summer, with a 3-person pit crew, which finished 2nd to last place in the tournament. With rotating pit crews and drive teams, all team members were able to gain some valuable technical experience at the tournament.

Programming Robot Drive Team Members, Abhinav Nallapa and Dylan Shumba, are seen in action

Robot Performance

Competition Robot Strategy

During qualification matches, we aimed to earn all 4 ranking points. In order to to reach this goal, we had to run our switch autonomous program. We also fought to achieve scale dominance as early as possible during the match to allow for time to shore up our own switch/exchange, attack the opposing alliance’s switch, and hang at the end of the match. We generally went for the scale first and peeled off to either our own switch or the opposing alliance’s switch whenever needed.
During alliance selection, we partnered with Team 1323 Madtown Robotics, their offseason robot (9323), and our own programming robot (9254). During the elimination matches, we worked with Team 1323 and ran our dual autonomous program to gain dominance over the scale, while ensuring ownership of our switch as well. Lockdown and 1323’s competition robot focused on scale ownership, and 1323’s competition robot would fall back for defense whenever necessary. When we had a headstart on the scale, Lockdown would attack the opponent switch, as seen during quarterfinals and semifinals. 1323’s competition robot hung at the end of the match, but we did not pursue a buddy climb since the other two robots were unable to climb onto our forks.

Programming Robot Strategy

During the qualification matches, our programming robot played a supportive role and generally tried to get a few cubes scored in its switch, scale, and exchange. However, during the elimination matches, our programming robot functioned as a switch/exchange robot to ensure that we had enough cubes to use the levitate powerup. We also chose to defend robots from the opposing alliance when given the opportunity.

Summer Project Robot Strategy

During the qualifications matches, our summer project robot functioned as a switch/exchange robot to defend our own switch and make sure there were cubes in our vault. Sometimes, we would also attack our opponent’s switch. Unfortunately, our swerve robot was not chosen during the elimination period.

Lockdown and our Summer Project Robot in position before a qualification match

A Special Thanks

Since this was Team 254’s third time attending Madtown Throwdown, we would like to say thank you to Team 1323 (Madtown Robotics) for hosting the tournament and making us feel welcome!

Some new members on Team 254 celebrate the team’s victory