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What kind of scores do you guys think will be at the top? ;o

XJcwolfyX wrote:What kind of scores do you guys think will be at the top? ;o

Ideally, a team will have 15 energy transfers that count for points with start and end tasks, full impound/setup/ETL points, perfect sorting/time, and a good size score. The smallest devices in our state tournament were around 20 cm x 20 cm x 20 cm, so ideal scores for a device with that size would be 5(10 + 20 + 30) + 100 + 250 + 30(5) + 4(25) + 50 + 3(60.0 - 20.0) + 2(90 to 120 seconds) ≈ 1250 to 1310.

In case you all didn't catch it, we posted a FAQ related to Mission last week: http://www.soinc.org/node/297

2014-05-09 02:45 If an electrical current is connected, filament in an incandescent light bulb heats up, and then emits visible light (EM waves), can this be listed as Electrical -> Thermal -> Electromagnetic transfer>

No. Rule 4 clearly states a single action can only contribute to a single transfer. You would not be able to get two transfers counted for this action.

Now that the season is over, what do y'all think about the size bonus?
I think that the size score is a useful way to differentiate between teams at the state and national level, but that it was weighted too heavily for small competitions (regionals & invitationals). When a single pint container that has 2 transfers inside of it can beat a 50 x 50 x 50 device that has 9 transfers, is the central purpose of the event being maintained? I've seen many devices that were quickly made inside of a plastic cup beat out larger ones with the common, open box profile. Sure, it's the team's fault for not reading the rules more carefully, but it seems to me that effort is not being fairly rewarded.

blakinator8 wrote:Now that the season is over, what do y'all think about the size bonus?
I think that the size score is a useful way to differentiate between teams at the state and national level, but that it was weighted too heavily for small competitions (regionals & invitationals). When a single pint container that has 2 transfers inside of it can beat a 50 x 50 x 50 device that has 9 transfers, is the central purpose of the event being maintained? I've seen many devices that were quickly made inside of a plastic cup beat out larger ones with the common, open box profile. Sure, it's the team's fault for not reading the rules more carefully, but it seems to me that effort is not being fairly rewarded.

I think that the size bonus was a well-weighted rule. I understand what you are saying with the idea that a large device losing to a smaller, simpler device is not properly awarding effort. In fact, having built both styles, I know that the small device has a much greater output of points per hours of work. There are two things that the large device will have over the smaller device though. That is time delay and room for expansion. Unless a person finds an exceptionally small time wasting transfer (difficult but possible), the larger device will have the advantage of 120 seconds. The larger device will also have room for transfers which can make up any difference. The bottom line comes down to whether or not the larger device was built so that it takes advantage of its size by having more transfers while still being able to run consistently and precisely. It is poor practice to build a huge open box and to either not fill it with transfers or have transfers which will not be able to run consistently.

The bottom line is that the size bonus is awarding the engineering ability of competitors who can build a consistent device which uses only the necessary space.
This post got a lot bigger than I was intending. Sorry about that.

Would anyone like to share scores now that the season is over?

XJcwolfyX wrote:Would anyone like to share scores now that the season is over?

My partner and I had a device which scored 1117 (plus or minus a few points, I can't remember exactly) at state with an ideal time of 90 seconds. If it had run perfectly (read: I hadn't spilled some of the mixture due to nerves) we would have had a score at ~1135.

Awesome score, what place did you get?

XJcwolfyX wrote:Awesome score, what place did you get?

My partner and I got the gold medal for Mission, but our team as a whole ended up taking third.

Ohhh, at State?