Steal Fuel to Win in REBUILT | FRC FUNalysis

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:04]Hey guys, Stephen here from the Fun Robotics Network and welcome back to another episode of Funalysis. And today, [music] we're going to be taking a look at playoff match number 13 from the SoCal District Championship. In this match, we have two high-powered triple offense alliances facing off against each other. And you're going to be seeing the two different approaches that they use on either side of the field to try to take victory in this match. I think this could be a preview of what week seven District Championship play looks like and possibly even [music] division global world championship play.

[00:00:31]You're also going to be seeing a last-second defensive maneuver that sealed the deal for the winning alliance in this match. So, stay tuned for a look at all that and more on this episode of Funalysis.

[00:00:42]All right, folks. So, just getting into this match, let's go ahead and kind of meet the teams that we're our we've got here. I'm going to go ahead and play a little bit just so we can get a better look at them.

[00:00:51]So, first up is alliance number three.

[00:00:55]So, alliance number two did get knocked out earlier. So, it's either going to be 1 v 3 or 1 v 6 going into the finals here at the District Championship.

[00:01:03]That number three seed is led by 1538 the Holy Cows here. So, they would actually decline the two seeds offer to form this alliance. They would pick up 973 Grey Bots as their first pick down here.

[00:01:18]And Grey Bots are a high-throughput short drum shooter that has just really, really good output. Great driving, great efficiency when it comes to processing fuel and sweeping out into the middle.

[00:01:31]1538 are a single shooter with a turret.

[00:01:35]Very high-throughput for, you know, the robot of their archetype. And also, they shoot on the move extremely well and are good at cleaning up little kind of areas of fuel that are left on the field. On the way back, they would pick up team 687 the Nerd Herd who you can see here who actually play very similar to 973 in that they have a short high-throughput drum shooter robot.

[00:01:56]Meanwhile, on the red alliance side, they would be captained by team 7415 Jaguar Robotics who would pick up 3128 the Aluminum Narwhals who you can see coming back from the bump right here.

[00:02:11]And on here. So, 3128 are also a high-throughput drum shooter, but they're tall. So, that changes a little bit how they kind of behave on the field.

[00:02:22]7415 can actually choose whether or not they're tall or short. Their hopper is expandable.

[00:02:28]Just by changing a couple bolts out, they can make the robot tall or short, which I think is kind of neat. They chose the tall configuration for this match and for playoffs. So, interesting strategic choice. They wanted the capacity instead of the kind of freedom of being able to go into the trench. So, some cool stuff already there from this alliance number six. And on the way back, they would pick up team 9084 the Octobots.

[00:02:50]So, it's interesting to me that these alliances have the same archetypes on both sides. They both have two high-throughput. In this case, 7415 is actually four independent shooters, but they they act almost exactly the same as a regular drum shooter. So, I'm going to call them that. They've got two drum shooters on either side of the field and then one single turret robot with shoot on the move capability and all that kind of stuff. So, that's interesting to me.

[00:03:16]It's interesting to me, too, that that single turret robot is the captain on one side and the second pick on the other. Also interesting is that both red alliance high-throughput robots are tall, which you would think makes them easier to defend. So, that's going to be something this blue alliance is thinking about as this match progresses.

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[00:03:58]Autonomous is going to go the way of the blue alliance in this match.

[00:04:02]And actually, the transition period is going to as well. They score over 70 fuel during it, which is very impressive compared to, I believe, 19 by this blue alliance. But or by the red alliance, but the red alliance spent that transition period prepping for their first shift, which starts now. So, 7415 had already gotten off some of the fuel in their hopper, and they're going to be joined by their partners pretty quickly.

[00:04:24]So, in terms of roles, I'm first going to be starting off on what this red alliance's plan is. Or sorry, what the blue alliance's plan is.

[00:04:35]And how they executed here. So, 973 are about filling up that hopper, sending fuel into their zone, and then just unloading it when their shift starts. 1538 are kind of cleaning up what's left. They're very good at that, finding those little areas of fuel that they can pick up and send their way. They're also going to be responsible for kind of sweeping the alliance wall during their shifts.

[00:05:00]Meanwhile, their second pick 687, who I believe are on route to their defensive maneuver.

[00:05:09]They're going to be playing defense during the red alliance shifts and then back shooting on the blue alliance side during their shifts. So, they're going to get about one hopper full done during those shifts as opposed to the two-ish they would get during a regular shift. So, sacrificing a little bit of the offensive output in an effort to try to slow down this red alliance. So, a lot of teams did try this at the District Championship especially, I noticed, trying to play defense during the opponent's shifts and then play offense during the during your shifts.

[00:05:41]It was really a challenge for some teams to be able to traverse the field that quickly and navigate around robots and the chaos that's happening during these matches. 687 was a team that was very good at doing this. So, it was a good call by this blue alliance to to run this strategy, especially because you would think that 3128 and 7415 are both defendable being drum shooters.

[00:06:04]So, red alliance shifts kind of proceeds. They are just barely past the red alliance's total from auto and transition, and then the red alliance shift is about to start.

[00:06:15]So, you can see 687 pressed right up against 7415 down here.

[00:06:20]7415 actually does have some shoot on the move capability, and they just used it there to essentially continue scoring despite what 687 is doing.

[00:06:29]Now, you're going to see one of the more interesting things about this red alliance in a second.

[00:06:35]Going back to roles here, 3128 and 7415 are actually going to play almost identically. They are going to be going to the opposite side of the fields opposite side of the field during the blue alliance's shift and then returning to their side of the field for their shift. So, essentially, this entire red alliance is going to be on the blue alliance side. You're going to see all six robots in that area, which is pretty wild. So, you're essentially seeing 3128 and 9084 and 7415 all playing the same strategy that 687 does, which is going to just cause complete chaos on the blue alliance side.

[00:07:16]This accomplishes quite a few things. It accomplishes a kind of automatic level of defense because there's just so much happening on that blue alliance side, and it's also starving them of fuel. So, they're kind of leaving the close fuel, leaving the the low-hanging fruit for when their shift is actually happening so they can refill their hoppers and getting the hard-to-reach stuff when their hub is not even turned on anyway.

[00:07:41]So, that's a very interesting and kind of gutsy call by this red alliance to do it. I I very much like how they're doing it. 9084 are going to be especially kind of an offensive or a defensive robot during these times. They're going to be more focused on defense during this match.

[00:07:58]You're going to see them to make a very very good call when it comes to defense as we get towards the end of this. So, again, two very different approaches on either side of the field to triple offense.

[00:08:12]Which one comes out on top is up to the robots on the field, up to how the alliance executes. Now, you see all three red alliance robots come back to their side with the fuel they stole from the blue alliance. So, this is going to allow them to pull closer to blue. And in fact, they're going to start to kind of almost pull ahead.

[00:08:34]Um, and then 687 kind of go back to their role here of playing defense against mainly against 3128.

[00:08:42]As 973 also accomplish a little bit of stealing of their own. They're going to be also kind of just playing a similar strategy to 687 now cuz they kind of know they're on the back foot, especially with how high-powered this red alliance can be if you leave them alone.

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[00:09:19]973 are now full hopper waiting. They got about three seconds or so left before their shift starts. And 687 are about to head back. Meanwhile, this red alliance just does it again and sends all three robots to the other side. 7415 are going to be a little bit more concerned with filling up their hopper cuz they see a nice area of fuel over here. And this is again another kind of good bit of driving and strategy that you're seeing here.

[00:09:45]Taking the low-risk options. If you see a good opportunity to do something good, ignore your strategy for a second and just go do it, right? Go fill up your hopper if you see a nice opportunity to do so. That I think is great stuff from uh Jaguar Robotics. Extremely impressed with how they executed everything uh during this match and during the whole weekend, during the whole season actually. They're having a fantastic season. Um so again, because of just all the chaos happening, the blue alliance is not able to put up as much as they might have wanted during their final shift. Uh 1538 especially are going to struggle just a little bit, which is kind of interesting given the fact that they're a turret uh robot, which you would see as hard to defend, but they the blue the red alliance has actually stolen most of the fuel that they would have scored. Again, their job was to sweep the alliance wall, and they couldn't really do that because the red alliance got to it first. Um also very important deciding factor in this match is 687 no longer becoming uh mobile for a little while, and in fact when they become no when they become mobile again, that actually kind of seals this blue alliance's fate unfortunately. Um so here is the like last second defensive play that I want to talk about here. Um 9084 are going to be stealing a little bit more fuel.

[00:11:01]Their original plan, I'm assuming, was to head back and unload that last kind of salvo into the hub, uh and then hopefully this red alliance is ahead by that point. But what they're going to do instead is find that 973 are struggling to get to their side of the field or hoping to get to their side of the field so they can shoot. They're going to pivot to straight up defense, try to get the um Grey Bots away from that hub, as far away from that hub as possible.

[00:11:29]And it's going to work. That that is actually what seals this red alliance's victory. Um is that last second defensive call by 9084. Very heads up. I think being able to make that call of whether to play defense, whether to play offense, >> [music] >> is really what is deciding what is a good robot in this game and what is not.

[00:11:50]If you are able to make those dynamic strategy decisions that benefits your alliance, that is what you will make will make you a successful robot in this game.

[00:12:00]Whereas if you just stick rigidly to a strategy, it's not going to go that well for you unfortunately.

[00:12:06]Um 973 also kind of struggled to get under the hub, can't get over their bump either because uh 687 unfortunately had blocked it. And that last salvo from the red alliance uh wins wins them the match. Now, they win by 27 uh fuel the red alliance does. Um I would be willing to bet there's about 27 fuel inside of 973's hopper.

[00:12:30]Again, that's what I mean by that probably decided the match was that move right there. So um again, this is two high-level alliances facing off >> [music] >> with triple offense, two very different approaches to triple offense. So um I think it's a very interesting to note here, what do you guys think these alliances could have done differently [music] uh during this match? Let us know in the comments. Uh make sure to like, comment, subscribe to the Fun Robotics Network YouTube channel. I have been Stanford with the Fun Robotics Network, and thank you for watching this episode of Funalysis.

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