It has been over half a year since Over Under was released. And, seeing how the meta has evolved, it’s time to issue my complaints on the game. But first, a brief description. Over Under is a VEX robotics VRC game where you manipulate acorn-shaped triballs. You can score in offensive zones for two points, or in the goals for five points. In the final 10 seconds, you can elevate your robot for up to twenty points based on a place system.
First, the triballs. They are weird-The shape is a massive Releaux tetrahedron wiffle ball of 6.18 inches. Although the triballs are interesting to manipulate, why should you? Intakes aren’t that useful this year compared to Spin Up, where they were key to success.
Second, the terrain. Over Under has one of the most difficult terrain surfaces, with huge pipes spanning the middle. This is a huge skill difference. You almost need to get over this barrier to go anywhere. This leads to people designing massive 6 motor tank drives, and having to use the full 18 inches. This leads to only one meta- 6 motor drives with 1 motor intakes and 1 motor catapult with piston wings and piston endgame. And if you don’t have $300 pistons (Like my team), what then?
Third, the endgame. This is probably my least favorite part of Over Under, where your robot has to climb a pipe. There is no point to it- any way to get high on the pipe would take a massive amount of room. It would be better if the tiers all had individual values, but the max you can get is 20 points. A lift would definitely hinder you from scoring 20 points in triballs. So, people either hang for their life on the horizontal bar, or park on the middle bar and have a pneumatic thingy touching the bar for 5 points. But that makes the triballs the only way to success almost no matter what.
Fourth, the match loading. You just back into the corner and shoot-It’s an interesting feature of the game, but you have to rely on your teammate’s ability to load. You’re relying on the human aspects of your team. That just seems wrong for a competition based on engineering.
And now the pros of Over Under:
Of course, I have to give the Vex corporation some credit. The game encourages teamwork, and most people love that. It also is the exact opposite of Spin Up-It is a game for new teams, with 2 ways to score points, and you can’t win without teamwork. It’s almost necessary, and that’s why I hate it.
