What criteria do you use for "good" defender?

[lcoreyl]

<sarcasm>1361 has decided we are going straight defense. Our criterion? We successfully defended the smoke detector from a vicious attck by the magic smoke contained within a PWM cable.</sarcasm>

[Mike Schreiber]

Why would you ever have to defend if you can outscore them?

Straight defense bots screw over not only themselves, and their alliance by not being able to score. They reduce the overall score of the match which kills the ranking for the team their against too...

There is no such thing as a "good" defender, especially in this game where you can only block their path and not mess with them in the zone (without penalty).

[Koko Ed]

Just remember good defense is not just racing around the field and smashing into opposing bots til they fall over. You just want to delay them more or less. Outright stopping them could lead to the chance of getting penalties from pinning. A thorough understanding of the rules is paramount.

[MagiChau]

Rating defense is a bit opinionated. But, I would agree with using the criteria of how "annoying" they look to the other teams with their attempts to block the path to score. Perhaps count every time they block someone from reaching a part of the field they need to. If you got a good sense of time, count how long they delay a team in one part of the match.

[jwfoss]

Never discount a solid defensive bot, in some matches they are they key to winning...

In my opinion there are three things you need for good defence:
-Great Drive Team
Driver training and coaching will be a major key to a "defence only" strategy, the ability to have the foresight to antisipate the other driver and get in their way. This does not mean running around the field hitting everyone and driving like a crazy person, but calculated position to best effectively stop or at least slow down the scoring. Hint: Do not Pin... Pester.

-Clear Understanding of the Rules
You must know the rules inside and out to avoid penalties. This year pay attention to the End Game rules.

-Solid Drivetrain
You need to be quick enough to get in the way, but strong enough to push people around if needed.

[Jared Russell]

A good defender does not take (unnecessary) penalties.

[Chris is me]

Usually the regional has 1-3 standout defenders, a whole bunch (5) that keep away from penalties and kind of get in the way but don't really do anything, and the rest are never worth it.

Picking for defense is something I've usually done only when they can bring something else to the table. In 2010, 1124 at WPI had one of the few functioning autonomous modes in the second round which we used to advance a ball forward. 173 at Connecticut had a reliable 3 ball autonomous mode which kept the front zone dry for the first bit of the match.

Also, functioning swerve drives as defenders are awesome. Just sayin'.

[Peter Matteson]

A good defender prevents more points being scored by their opponent than they would have scored playing outright offense creating a net positive score differential.

A good defender will recieve no penalties.

A good defender will be a reliable robot driven by a smart drive team.

A good defender will not get in the way of their alliance's offensive robots.

[gyroscopeRaptor]

A robot that can stop the equivalent, throughout a match, of more than one robot (Example: always blocking one, holding a couple at once for a small portion of the match) without interfering the offense, will be my criteria for a good defender. If the robot cannot score otherwise, then they are burdening their team.

[voltage5]

Yeah, I agree. A good defender needs to avoid being pushed around. The main defensive strategy in this year's game will be to block opponents scoring pegs and minibot deployment (if that's legal), not simply drive around crashing into other bots. I think defending is a valid strategy in this year's game as long as you have a good minibot. Just my 2 cents.