StuySplash: Scouting and Strategy Panel

With Brian Maher 333, Tia Singh 1796, and Joe Blay 694

StuyPulse #1

Brian’s Scouting Systems over Time - 1257

• 2014
• First time scouting ever
• Very disorganized paper sheets
• One sheet per team
• No tools for reviewing/visualizing data
• We lost to #7 alliance in quarterfinals
• 2015
• More organized paper sheets
• One sheet per team per match
• Paper pit scouting

Brian’s Scouting Systems over Time - 2791

• 2016 / 2017
• Paper sheets
• Manual entry
• Excel spreadsheet
• Shared files via flash drives
• Paper pit scouting
• 2018 / 2019:
• Paper sheets
• Manual entry
• Google Sheets
• Shared via internet (USB tethering)
• NO HOTSPOTS ALLOWED AT COMPETITION
• Pit scouting also via Google Sheets

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Brian’s Scouting Systems over Time - 333

• 2022 / 2023
• Paper sheets
• Manual entry
• Google Sheets
• 2023 offseason / 2024
• Electronic data collection via https://scout.iraiders.org/ (thanks 2713!)
• QR code scanning for data entry
• Google Sheets

Ideas behind 333’s system

• Three R’s:
• Reliable
• Reasonable
• Relevant
• All data we collect should be useful for at least one of:
• Qualification match planning
• Alliance selection
• Playoff match planning
• System needs to be easy to use for all users
• All major system changes need to be tested at an offseason

2023 Scouting Sheet

2023 Offseason QR Entry

Team Lookup

• “What can team _____ do?”
• “Is team _____ trending up or down?”

Team Comparison

“Would we rather pick team _____ or team _____?”

Team List

• “Who is the best at ______?”
• “Who can do _____?”

Match Prep

• “How does our alliance stack up in this match?”
• “Should we play it safe or take a risk?”

StuyPulse’s Strategy History Timeline

2000-2006:

-0 scouting most of the time

-When scouting did happen, scout effort was poor

-Team leaders and mentors decided everything regardless of state of scouting

2007:

-Team was suddenly at champs and in important matches with a chance at being a captain

-2 students volunteered to hand write scouting sheets

2008-2016:

-Everything on paper

-0 tech

-Recordings of all matches

-Late nights

-Reliance on global scouts

2017:

-Attempting scouting app at Brunswick Eruption. Data was bad, qualitative data didn’t exist. Decisions made by head of strat

2018-2023:

-More offseason attempts at scouting apps, sheets, etc...but never satisfactory

-Big advances in using gsheets to input and analyze data from paper sheets

-TBA has a ton of data and match film right away

2024:

-Working to automate FIRST/TBA’s API into our data sheets

-Working on some visualizations within data sheets

StuyPulse #12

StuyPulse’s Scouting Principles

• Paper scouting only
• With data entry into a spreadsheet
• Physical sheets used for match strat, data sheet used for pick listing
• Scout as few things as possible
• The less things scouted, the better the data on the things you do scout.
• Make it as easy on your scouts as possible
• Leave tons of space for comments
• Remember that the sample size is so small for scouting a team for a regional that you do not need crazy data analysis to understand a team, but you do need to be able to see the data
• Don’t get fancy, most teams can’t afford to exert the resources required to get fancy. Focus instead on the things that make a difference
• Rely on the students and their knowledge of the teams they are watching

StuyPulse #13

Pitscouting

• Completed before practice matches start on practice day
• Info is especially useful in early matches, but you must take what teams say with a grain of salt
• We generally avoid the “how many game pieces can you score” type questions
• We need to do QA on our pitscouting sheets, this is an area we need to improve for 2024

StuyPulse #14

Strat Mat

• We usually have 10-15 of these printed and laminated.
• Alliance station being on there is important
• We either design it ourselves or grab one that someone posted of chiefdelphi and edit it to suit our purposes

StuyPulse #15

Data Sheet (Summary)

StuyPulse #16

Data Sheet (Individual Team)

StuyPulse #17

Picklist

StuyPulse #18

Picklist

StuyPulse #19

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2006

WHAT’S FRC?

ROOKIE

2008

NEW TEAM

WHAT’S COMP?

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WIN=MOVE UP

RANK=BETTER

ROOKIE

2010

GREW TEAM

MAGIC PAPER

(TIPS FROM STANDS)

PIVOT POINT

2007

JUST MAKE A ROBOT

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ROOKIE

2009

2009 ATL CHAMPS EXPERIENCE

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FIRST WIN

2011

Paper Scouting

5th Seed Captain

1st Attempt

Folders

Data not compiled

ALL PAPER

2012

Formal Scout Team & 4 Match Analyst

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2nd Attempt

SCOUTING TIMELINE

2013

21

2016

IOS scouting app and central collection via bluetooth

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Digital Attempt 1

2018

Paper Scout

Google Sheets

Back to Basics

2020-2021

Never Used

Learning Period

COVID

2017

Icloud backup

Lost data in 16 from bluetooth

Data Pull

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Digital Attempt 2

2019

Google Forms

&

Tableau

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Tableau

2022

Our first year having a full system

Website Launch

Refined & Altered

Improvements

SCOUTING TIMELINE

2023

OUR MATCH

SCHEDULE

1796 RoboTigers

Competition Website

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• MongoDB database
• ExpressJS backend
• ReactJS frontend
• NodeJS backend

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Hosted on Heroku

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Curated by

Game Analysis Subgroup

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PIT SCOUTING

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PIT SCOUTING

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STAND SCOUTING

SETUP

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• Uses Blue Alliance API
• Simplifies Scheduling
• Limited Input Required
• Manual Mode Available

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STAND SCOUTING

PRE-AUTO

BEFORE AUTO STARTS

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• Match Info Top
• TAP for position
• Rotate Field diagram to match Scout View

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STAND SCOUTING

AUTO

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• Purple Cubes
• Yellow Cones
• Red Attempted
• Hold to reset to zero
• No Show Option

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STAND SCOUTING

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STAND SCOUTING

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DATA VISUALIZED

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DATA VISUALIZED

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DATA VISUALIZED

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DATA VISUALIZED

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RTESS

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MATCH ANALYST

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PICK LIST

Pick List Meeting

• Us
• Where we place
• How we compare
• What do we need?
• Categorize team based on best abilities using scouting data in Tableau
• Rank Teams in categories
• Rank Teams Overall

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PICK LIST

SAMPLE SCHEDULE