RoboCup: Immortals vs. ZJUNlict

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Sunday starts with the match for the 3rd place between the German-Iranian team Immortals and the Chinese team ZJUNlict. Whoever wins this game will advance to the final and face the already qualified German team TIGERs Mannheim at 1:00 pm.

You can find the link to the live ticker as always on Twente’s YouTube platform or at this link.

First Half

05:00 The game is kicked off. Immortals is playing in yellow jerseys, ZJUNlict in blue.
04:46 And the first goal already falls: After a chip pass by ZJUNlict, a second robot takes a shot, and the ball rolls into the net: 0:1 for ZJUNlict.
Immortals 0 : 1 ZJUNlict
04:06 Dangerous situation in Immortals’ penalty area: ZJUNlict takes another shot on goal, but the Iranian goalkeeper is there to clear it out for a corner kick.
02:59 Currently, the game is clearly dominated by ZJUNlict, as expected.
01:53 Currently, nothing interesting is happening; the game is meandering a bit. A shot on Immortals’ goal, but the ball misses.
01:36 Attack by Immortals on ZJUNlict’s goal, but the bots can’t get through the wall of robots.
01:36 Timeout for ZJUNlict.
00:22 Strong attack by ZJUNlict, but the Immortals’ keeper holds it.
00:00 Thus ends a moderately interesting first half. ZJUNlict is leading, but the team’s performance hasn’t been outstanding.

Second Half

05:00 The second half begins, no sides or colors are swapped.
04:46 The game continues as it ended before halftime: ZJUNlict taking shots on goal, but they lack precision. Perhaps Immortals doesn’t want to reveal all their strategies, so they’re intentionally playing worse, or they’re heavily trained against TIGERs Mannheim. In any case, their play is not as strong as in previous matches.
04:16 And now it’s 2:0 for ZJUNlict. Triggered again by a pass, the goal scorer can comfortably turn in front of Immortals’ goal, and the defense closes the gaps too late.
Immortals 0 : 2 ZJUNlict
04:16 Immortals utilizes their power play of 11 to 10 to launch an attack on ZJUNlict’s goal, yet they still can’t break through the Chinese defense.
04:14 Currently, the second goal is being discussed, as it seems to be a chip kick. In my opinion, the chip kick is under 15 cm and thus valid, but the final decision lies with the referee.
03:11 And another goal for ZJUNlict. But the ball seems to have been too fast, so the goal doesn’t count. It remains 0:2 for ZJUNlict.
02:41 But now: Directly from the center, one of the ZJUNlict bots shoots towards Immortals’ goal, and the keeper can’t hold it: 0:3 for ZJUNlict.
Immortals 0 : 3 ZJUNlict
02:16 Lots of shots on goal, but again off target. As mentioned before, ZJUNlict’s performance in this match is not at its peak.
02:04 And another goal: ZJUNlict is solidifying its lead.
Immortals 0 : 4 ZJUNlict
02:04 Timeout, this time for Immortals. Personally, I don’t believe they can make a significant comeback against ZJUNlict.
01:45 No, the timeout didn’t change much: 0:5 for ZJUNlict.
Immortals 0 : 5 ZJUNlict
01:35 After the kickoff, a direct attack on ZJUNlict’s goal, but they manage to clear the ball out of Immortals’ goal area.
00:18 Only a few seconds left on the clock. But that doesn’t stop ZJUNlict from scoring another goal, making it 0:6!
Immortals 0 : 6 ZJUNlict
00:00 And thus, the game ends with a clear lead for ZJUNlict. Although the Chinese team is very strong, they objectively haven’t impressed much: they’re likely holding back for the match against TIGERs Mannheim and want to keep their strategy secret?

RoboCup: Immortals vs. KIKS

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Now we have the last game of the day between KIKS and Immortals. After their outstanding performance against TIGERs Mannheim, many teams seem to be cheering for Immortals. We also hope that Immortals will win.

You can find the link to the live ticker as always on Twente’s YouTube platform or at this link.

First Half

05:00 The game is kicked off. Immortals in yellow, KIKS in blue.
04:35 Immortals waste no time: Right after the kickoff, they rush forward towards the opponent’s goal. Then the shot on goal, which counts. It’s already 1:0 for Immortals after just 25 seconds.
Immortals 1 : 0 KIKS
04:27 KIKS gets the ball from the kickoff, but Immortals gets to it quicker than KIKS would’ve liked. And even worse: the ball is in the net faster than the opponent intended. It’s now 2:0 for Immortals.
Immortals 2 : 0 KIKS
04:08 Now a bit of play in Immortals’ half, but it doesn’t get really dangerous; the shots lack spice.
03:51 Another shot by Immortals on goal, but the ball lands just inches outside. Immortals is clearly dominating the game.
03:51 Timeout for KIKS.
03:22 Bold shot by Immortals towards KIKS, but of course, such a lackluster shot is blocked by KIKS.
03:10 Currently, Immortals is building a solid lead. After some passes, another goal for Immortals: It’s now 3:0.
Immortals 3 : 0 KIKS
02:18 Another good attack by Immortals, but this time without a proper finish: It remains 3:0.
01:32 Another attack on KIKS’ goal, but this time the keeper holds it.
01:07 Another goal by Immortals! After KIKS lost the ball in a duel, Immortals passes it to one of their attackers, who successfully finds the gap between the KIKS defenders.
Immortals 4 : 0 KIKS
00:54 Another timeout for KIKS.
-00:07 After some more ball exchanges, it’s halftime with several shots on goal and a score of 4:0 for Immortals.

Second Half

05:00 And the second half continues.
04:35 The second half continues much like the first ended: Goal for Immortals, it’s now 5:0.
Immortals 5 : 0 KIKS
03:51 Another goal, but this time different: After Immortals attacked KIKS’ goal, the ball rolls into the opponent’s penalty area. Instead of safely clearing it from there, the KIKS goalkeeper, on the other hand, scores an own goal: 5:0 for Immortals.
Immortals 6 : 0 KIKS
03:15 This time KIKS managed to defuse the situation: After a corner kick for Immortals, KIKS clears it out of bounds.
01:26 After the game was meandering a bit, another goal by Immortals eventually. Apparently, this goal doesn’t count, likely because the ball was shot too fast.
01:03 But this time it counts: After the shot from one side of the goal was not possible, the Immortals bot simply passes the ball to his teammate, who then takes a shot and increases the score to 7:0.
Immortals 7 : 0 KIKS
00:17 One last timeout by KIKS, although I doubt it will help them much at this point.
00:00 With this goal, the game essentially ends, and Immortals moves forward. Their next game will be against ZJUNlict, which is a very tough opponent.

RoboCup: ZJUNlict vs. TIGERs Mannheim

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Directly following our match, one of the most exciting games of the entire tournament is coming up: TIGERs versus ZJUNlict. Although both teams are likely to face each other again, we can expect a game of very high quality.

You can find the link to the live ticker as always on Twente’s YouTube platform or at this link.

First Half

05:00 The game starts at 17:08 with a 7-minute delay. TIGERs in blue, ZJUNlict in yellow.
04:14 Immediate intense situation in front of ZJUNlict’s goal. Great move by Mannheim, but ZJUNlict’s keeper clears with a very strong chip kick.
02:52 Currently, the game is mainly taking place in ZJUNlict’s half, but that doesn’t mean ZJUNlict is weaker: the defense is leaving little room for creative attacks, and the passes are spot on.
02:35 The game is as exciting as expected.
01:52 Extremely long and intense game, which is mostly in ZJUNlict’s half.
01:26 Another very heated attack by TIGERs, which has been the stronger team so far. The ball ends up out of the field and into my hands, but somehow the ref doesn’t seem to notice it’s missing…
01:14 With this pressing, it was bound to happen eventually: GOAL for Mannheim, 1:0!
TIGERs Mannheim 1 : 0 ZJUNlict
00:05 First an attack on TIGERs’ goal, which could have been dangerous, but TIGERs simply bombards the opponent with a swarm of robots, leaving them no chance. ZJUNlict’s keeper barely manages to save TIGERs’ counter. He kicks it away again with questionable distance, they might want to check if that exceeds the maximum ball speed.
00:00 After just 11 minutes, the first half is already over, and the five-minute halftime break is due. The short playing time shows the high quality of this match.

Second Half

05:00 The halftime break is over, and the second half begins. Let’s see how the second half unfolds. We can hardly wait!
05:00 TIGERs continues in blue, ZJUNlict in yellow, but the teams switch halves of the field.
05:00 Timeout for ZJUNlict. Let’s see what they’ve got up their sleeves!
04:45 Once again, the ball was kicked out, likely by ZJUNlict. As this was recognized as a foul by TIGERs, not by ZJUNlict, TIGERs are questioning it. Reason: TIGERs had already committed 2 fouls, and the 3rd foul results in a yellow card, which means a robot has to leave the field. It would be quite something if the yellow card ends up not being attributed to TIGERs at all.
03:40 ZJUNlict was close, but he took too much time in front of the penalty area, allowing the “mob of TIGERs” to be in position and successfully thwart him.
03:08 TIGERs have to make a substitution.
03:08 Another timeout for ZJUNlict, looks like some code changes are happening again.
02:47 After a prolonged duel, the ball chips into the goal, but it’s clearly too high, so the goal doesn’t count.
01:36 Interesting battle in ZJUNlict’s half, but the ball eventually goes out.
01:31 ZJUNlict has to make a substitution after some of their robots make mistakes. They use their third timeout for this.
01:13 Initially, the ball is in TIGERs Mannheim’s half, but their robot successfully prevails against two bots from ZJUNlict. The ensuing intense counterattack by TIGERs, with many close ball exchanges, is spectacularly converted, and it’s now a well-deserved 2:0 lead for TIGERs Mannheim.
TIGERs Mannheim 2 : 0 ZJUNlict
00:18 The only truly dangerous situation for TIGERs in this game: ZJUNlict’s robot takes a shot at the goal, but luckily, the ball bounces off TIGERs’ keeper and is cleared to the side.
-00:57 The overtime is ended when the ball naturally goes out. An overtime of 57 seconds shows just how incredibly fluid this game was. But everything has an end, and not only is a wheel distributed on the field, which would have led to the final whistle, but the ball also goes out of play.
00:00 Thus, a beautiful game has come to an end. Looking back, TIGERs clearly dominated, yet ZJUNlict was no less dangerous. We’re already looking forward to the next encounter, as we currently expect ZJUNlict, who now drops to the Lower Bracket, to mow down every team there, and thus, just like TIGERs, advance to the finals.

RoboCup: ER-Force vs. Immortals

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Now it’s time: Our possibly last game of this tournament. We’re playing against the team Immortals, which has already performed brilliantly against TIGERs Mannheim. We’re tense but also relaxed, knowing that we’ve done everything in our power.

By unanimous team decision, our robots have all been retrofitted to the old radio system. Only if everything is on fire will we switch the low numbers to the new radio. Additionally, we’re going into the game with a heterogeneous fleet of old and new robots.

You can find the link to the live ticker as always on the YouTube platform of Twente or under this link.

First Half

05:00 The game will be kicked off soon. We’re playing in white shells as the blue team, Immortals is playing in black shells as the yellow team.
05:00 The game starts with a 7-minute delay at 15:37.
04:42 Apparently, the kick-off isn’t going well, there are constant ball placements and free kicks for Immortals. However, they’re not making use of these free kicks.
04:19 Dangerous situation in our half. Currently, Immortals seems to be playing more stably; we’re defending more through physical presence than through clearances or passes. Also, our robots are moving quite strangely and are therefore not really able to play the ball.
04:18 Immortals take a timeout. One can only speculate why they need this. One noticeable thing was that they always missed the last meters of their “Cola kisses Orange” ball placement maneuver. At least it doesn’t seem to be a hardware timeout, as the robot handler is not on the field.
03:46 And thus, the inevitable happens: A goal against us by Immortals. One of the Immortals bots shoots from the corner towards the center, where his teammate shoots on goal from an acute angle and scores.
ER-Force 0 : 1 Immortals
03:19 Currently, Immortals is clearly dominating; the ball hardly reaches the opponent’s half. The only reason we’re not conceding more goals is that we’re overwhelming our defense with quantity rather than quality: Many robots in our own penalty area. But how long can we keep this up, and how long can our robots handle it?
03:11 Timeout for Immortals again. Apparently, Immortals is also getting a penalty against us. Given the number of fouls we have, this is not surprising; after all, we have two yellow and even a red card. If we get one more card and thus reduce the allowed number of ER-Force bots to 7, we would actually feel the reduction! A novelty for us, as we usually have so few robots that the reduction never affected us.
03:11 Since Immortals didn’t implement a penalty, they seem to have opted for a corner instead. An arbitrary decision, but whatever.
02:20 The game is primarily being played in our penalty area, but no goals are being scored at the moment.
01:49 By now, we already have 2 red cards and a nearly expired yellow card, which means that with our 7 robots on the field, we’re close to the allowed maximum of 8.
01:45 Timeout for ER-Force, presumably related to the radio system.
00:51 We’ve discovered a drawback of “Cola kisses Orange”: When the ball is right on the goalpost in the goal, the two Immortals bots, one on the left and one on the right of the post, try to squeeze the ball together but don’t realize that a post is in the way, so they keep trying over and over again. Quite entertaining.
-00:31 With that, the first half ends after about 40 minutes. In summary, we’re doing better than in the previous games, but still terribly. We hardly manage to get a shot on goal, as our robots are mostly misoriented and their “snouts” are not facing the ball. At least we had a good number of robots on the field, but the radio problems were constantly noticeable.

Second Half

05:00 The second half is kicked off.
04:42 The game starts off excitingly: Our Erhard takes the initiative and rushes directly into the opponent’s half. He even manages to reach the penalty area, but he can’t score. However, Immortals seizes the opportunity to launch a dangerous counter-attack, which we fortunately manage to defend against.
02:54 OK, that was unexpected: It’s our Erhard again who takes the initiative: Initially, he races forward to engage in a duel with the opponent, but due to wild spins, he doesn’t gain the upper hand at first. But then he finally manages it and kicks towards the goal: But the post! Of all things, the post! We didn’t need that, very unfortunate! But great effort from our Erhard, our number 2, for the team.
02:02 I’m starting to get the feeling that they gave our goalkeeper, number 10, a better radio (quite realistic, as the new radio only works with a single bot). At least the keeper saves balls fantastically, clearing a dangerous situation. But the number 3 also shines. Commonality: They’re all old bots, and everyone else is new.
01:35 Another timeout for ER-Force, probably primarily for radio adjustments again.
01:04 Again, lots of duels in our half, but the situation ends harmlessly.
-00:13 One last struggle and a few final attempts, again from Erhard, but unfortunately, we can’t change anything about it: The ball ends up out of play, and the game ends 1-0 in favor of Immortals. Thus, we’re eliminated from the tournament.
00:00 Although it’s disappointing that we’ve been eliminated from the tournament and that our radio had such problems, we’re at least glad that we could offer a much better resistance than in the previous games and in the second half, we could present some good game situations.

RoboCup: KIKS vs. RoboDragons

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The last game before ours is between the two teams KIKS and RoboDragons. The favorite here is RoboDragons, which is currently among the top four teams this year, along with Immortals, TIGERs Mannheim, and ZJUNlict.

You can find the link to the live ticker as always on the YouTube platform of Twente or under this link.

First Half

05:00 The game starts on time, KIKS play in blue, RoboDragons in yellow.
03:43 The first few seconds of the game start rather calmly, the ball moves on both sides, but there are no truly dangerous situations. Still relatively smooth so far.
03:04 Audible crashes of the robots from RoboDragons, without fouls being indicated, meaning the robots are crashing into each other, not their opponents. Perhaps a flawed rule? Or rather a poor strategy?
02:30 The underdog KIKS scores a goal! One of the bots passes from the corner towards the center, only for the receiving player to volley the ball directly towards the goal and scores. Unfortunately, the goal does not seem to count, presumably because the ball is too fast.
01:47 Very dangerous situation in KIKS’ half! A very hot ball is shot towards the goal by one of the Dragons, but unfortunately not on target.
00:31 After some ball placements, there’s a phase of very fluid play, but no really dangerous situation arises.
-00:05 Thus, the first half ends after only 14 minutes. A very nice and fluid game, even though there were only two serious goal situations. However, it’s noticeable that neither of the two teams is playing at the level of TIGERs, Immortals, or ZJUNlict.

Second Half

05:00 The second half continues, the teams still play on the same side and with the same jersey colors.
02:44 The game is very fluid, but not much is happening currently. The initial assessment that RoboDragons would be the better team is not confirmed at the moment.
02:44 The commentator is confused: When was a goal scored??? It magically shows 0:1, and I have no idea why.
KIKS 1 : 0 RoboDragons
00:09 The ball is moving around in one half, then the other half, but neither of the two teams has finishing power.
-00:23 After only 30 real minutes, the game is already over. It wasn’t really exciting now, neither of the two teams had a really good attack, but at least it was extremely fluid.