Maybe There Was a Better Way to Play VEX IQ Slapshot Dome Game. 

Okay - I’m sort of answering my own question here - looks like caution tape knew the field conditions would vary and bypassed the issue somewhat by shooting disks into the air - so darn smart!!! A great takeaway for us next yr - try to eliminate or work around potential variables.

I’m not gonna lie, I thought the worlds fields would be like our Texas states fields. I hoped that the fields would be really dirty, because we specifically designed our robot to adapt. We designed our flywheel to run normally on 50% velocity, and had buttons to increase and decrease velocity carefully. The worlds fields turned out to be pretty much the same and even more slippery than our home field, so we didn’t have much of an advantage, but we still did our best.😊 WE ❤ FLYING CHEESE

I feel for you, coach. I agree that all teams should play on the same field in the dome - perhaps it can be a consideration for next season. Your team did an incredible job to get to where they were, and all our kids enjoyed cheering them on. Don't be discouraged, and good luck for the next tournament. Garry (27272A, 93131A, 93131M)

Many good points made in the comments. As my grandfather always said, look behind only to learn from your past. Lesson here is we all need to allow for variances between fields and going forward - and hike bits capable of adjusting in the moment. This is true of all games, it just applies more in slap shot. I’d be curious to hear from caution tape - I know they had the ability to adjust velocity up/down as needed - would be interesting to hear if they needed to adjust mid game in the dome. Not sure if they played in same field or not. I can only assume flying cheese also had the ability to increase/decrease velocity on the spot. My takeaway for future shooting games is to educate our drivers abt all possible field conditions, practice under as many conditions as possible, and build mechanisms within bot to allow adjustments. So thank you for bringing up this topic. The discussions are worthwhile.

Thank you for this, Kermit crafters and Flying cheese had high practice scores.

Completely agree! They should have allowed everyone to practice at least three runs in the actual fields they were going to be playing in.

Thank you. My son is on Kermit crafters. Completely agree with everything you are saying. This competition is so well run and we love it. But when the kids work this hard it would be good to take more time before starting the final matches. They should be allowed to practice a few times on their field. Or at the very least everyone should compete on the same field in the dome. We love VEX but agree the dome matches need some improvement.

I asked my kids,"Which part in the Dome can be better". Ezra said:" I told Ken to increase shooting power, but I should tell him increase by how much". Ken said:" The last couple of discks, I should move to the middle lane to shoot" They are good kids. But I want to let them know, if their is mistake in your textbook, raise your hand and speak out. Then maybe you can bring the change to everybody, maybe you can make the game better.

You did amazing, sucks how it ended, but as we learned in our finals, anything can happen. It might have been unfair, but to even make it to the dome is an amazing accomplishment. So good job, and i hope to see you in later competitions.

Totally agree. Our kids had controller buttons to adjust shooting speed and could also have moved forward or back to shoot, but I’m shocked to know you didn’t get practice runs on the done fields at least. Practice runs at minimum, or better using the same or all new fields seems a no brainer. For this and more reasons we’ve told our kids aim for winning state skills and getting into divisional knockouts at worlds, but everything else isn’t worth the effort/frustration because of the flaws in game design. One team had 5 tw pairings in the bottom 10% and by trying to follow the rules were devastated with so many bots that could only empty blue onto the field and push. Is there formal recourse to discuss your feedback with RECF?

Totally, if the game relies on friction and other factors like that, there should be more preparations for the team than just inside the match. Every team that made it to the dome had chances of winning worlds, but in the end, it came down to luck and how their shooter was already compatible with the field(which was more for some). Congratulations though to Flying Cheese. They did the best they could given the circumstances and have done incredible over the past season

Completely agree with this video. I was team 1243A from Hong Kong and I was personally cheering for you guys and Kermit Crafters. They gotta make everyone play on the same field. To be completely honest, I have no idea why there even is different fields in the domes, since theres no two concurrent teams playing at the same time. Whats the point? For them to show their sponsors? Still though, you guys did amazing and you should be proud of yourselves.

I coached Rovers who had the first match on the Tesla field in the Middle School finals. We also assumed that fields would be fast and based our alliance strategy and robot setup on that assumption. As you stated, a very short practice would have given the teams the vital intel they needed to adjust their robots accordingly. It was even worse that our field had a slight tile issue with one of the field tiles not quite in place and creating a raised lip which jumped a few disks in the air and into the 1pt. It is easy to say that you could have checked that before your match... but these are kids standing under lights in a crazy arena for the first time. Besides all that, we LOVED the experience and were so impressed by the sportsmanship and friendliness of ALL THE TEAMS!

I'm so pissed at the GDC, the variance in the fields was the single biggest factor in gameplay.

I saw u You guys at worlds I was the robo knights team

this was a fail. if they ring this up to be this massive largest robotics competition in the world then it should be the same game with same constraints for each team. I would equate this to an swimmers in the Olympics all using different pools, with different water temperatures, one pool was chlorinated water and the other was salt water, one pool had ripples to start instead of the flat motionless water. The swimmer in the pool with the least desirable conditions is already at a disadvantage. I loved this game this year but the field variances for friction were problematic and not in the spirit of the game that decides winners or losers.

We were in the dome too, NASA field! But we agree with u, something weird with that field and maybe the others too! But anyway, we need 201 more points hahaha!

I completely agree. The slapshot challenge has some flaws. At least full volume does not have this problem. You guys will definitely win worlds next year! :D

Although I agree having the teams be able to test the field prior to the matches would allow teams to tune and produce higher scores, but stating the Nasa field is the worst of all the fields isn't fair for all the other teams that played on the other 3 fields that worked hard and adapted to deal with what they have been given. There wasn't a field that was easier to deal with or fairer. All the kids needed to think on their feet and adjust. Keep in mind the 2nd highest and 3rd highest scores in the middle school division was actually played on the NASA field and were higher scores than the elementary school teams that played on the same field. And in the middle school division finals, one would think the other fields are worst than NASA if one looked at the teams division final scores vs their dome scores. So yes, there are possibly some improvements that can be made to make things more predictable for the kids, however, I don't believe Vex would change this. Similar reasons why they don't allow teams to test their auto on field prior to logging in scores. Having perfect fields with ideal conditions that kids can test prior to logging in scores will just hurt the kids development and learning process. This variability and unknown is always going to be frustrating for the kids but it will also allow them to learn the most from. I always tell our lead programmer this when he complains about the field for his auto.

This years game was difficult because of how the discs slipped into the zone and to a degree, some luck is involved. Will you be doing Vex IQ next season?

Would be a better story coming from your kids.