Scouting Apps: Building vs. Paper

The Paper Method

• Pros: reliable. Batteries don’t die. Wifi not needed.
• Cons: Data entry is slow. Hard to analyze trends in real-time.

The App Method (Custom)

• Tech Stack: Flutter/React Native app -> QR Code -> Master Tablet scans it -> Google Sheets/Tableau.
• Pros: Instant data. Beautiful graphs. “Which robot has the highest auto score in the last 3 matches?”
• Cons: If the app crashes, you have no data. Requires development time.

Data Visualization

Collecting data is useless if you can’t read it. Use Tableau or PowerBI to create heatmaps.

• “Where does Team 12344 usually shoot from?”
• “What is their success rate?”

Conclusion

If you have a software team, build an app. It impresses judges (Control/Connect/Innovate). If you don’t, use paper. Bad data is worse than no data.