Re: Defense
 

I'm a huge fan of 1114, but that was amazing ot behold. "Shutdown" defense in the truest sense.
http://vimeo.com/24048339

Re: Defense
 

I have to say, I am still impressed with 469's drivetrain from that year. I remember seeing a video where they pushed all three robots on the other alliance at once, all the way across the field.

Re: Defense
 

I would watch videos from 2013 of teams like 48 and 2789, and then also 1477 (mostly on Einstein against 469, 1519, and 33) to see some important strategies. 2789, like 469 in 2011 played really good line defense, preventing teams from effectively crossing the field. 48 was able to play all around defense really well, most notably their match at IRI against 118. 1477 discouraged 469 from full court shooting, slowed down 1519 at the beginning of matches, and then competed with 33 to pick up the discs from the ground near their pyramid.

Re: Defense
 

2012 Alamo Regional Semis 1 Match 2. After 148 unveils their stinger to win the first match with a triple balance 488 and 3325 go all out on defense to stop it in match 2. http://www.thebluealliance.com/match/2012stx_sf1m2

Re: Defense
 

One of the best examples of decisive defensive strategies being the key to victory was in 2007. The alliance that won the championship that year was an 8th seed in a competitive division.

The alliance of 177, 190 and 987 based their strategy on slowing down the opposing alliance and making up the difference in score during the end game. This methodology paid off consistently enough for them to secure a championship win.

for more information please see:
http://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2007cmp

Other great defensive plays (and many poor ones) can be found by watching match video from 2006 when there was designated time for teams to play defense.

Re: Defense
 

wow... were any penalties called?

Re: Defense
 

I know this may be a bit biased, but I think when we played defense against 469 at the Detroit District (Q77) in 2013, we did a pretty good job. If our shooter wasn't dead that match (darn those BAG motors), our auto shots would have won the match.

Here's the link for anyone interested.

Re: Defense
 

When I think of great defence, I think back to 2586 in 2011. Their semifinal series at Troy District was particularly good.

This is spectacular.

Re: Defense
 

As a mentor and drive coach for a team that has played defense to great effect I feel I may be able to offer some advice.

First off, the 2014 field is very different than previous years. There are no protected zones during teleop. There are no major obstacles to avoid, and therefore no choke points. During the 2013 season HBR played defense primarily in the open midfield section in order to minimize the potential for fouls.

In my mind the most important things a team playing defense can do are:

Not be penalized.
Not damage opposing robots.
Maintain an oppressive presence (no one on the opposing alliance crosses the field without interference)

Often alliances will become so frustrated that they will have a member try and play counter defense. This is a good thing. That means a robot from their alliance isn't scoring AND you can continue working on one of the remaining two. Counter defense is a difficult task and hard to do cleanly. At BMR in 2013 in the finals the blue alliance basically threw away the two matches that had to be played, because one of their partners incurred a technical foul in BOTH of the matches. It is still my belief that the robot in question was intentionally attempting to damage HBR's robot and thus the technical fouls occurred. You can watch the video and judge for yourself. I personally believe that when an alliance or member of an alliance has become so desperate as to try and damage your robot to prevent further defensive play you are playing defense correctly.

Some notes regarding this field we'll be playing on and the game we'll be playing in:

No safe zones + for defense
Open field, no choke points - for defense
Delicate, difficult robot to robot interaction + for defense
Necessary changes of possesion that will often involve an uncontrolled ball for a period of time + for defense
a single game piece + for defense

All in all it is a great year for defense, but I'm really hoping that we don't have to resort to that. Generally HBR builds a drivetrain that can play defense well and develops an offensive mechanism on top of it. This allows us to keep defense as a fall back in years where it is a reasonable, permissible strategy.

It is immensely important that your drivers absolutely, without question, know the rules regarding defensive play. Every instance where a technical could result.

If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to help you out. Watching and coaching defensive play is a blast and the audiences and announcers notice and react. If you play well, you put on a good show in addition to winning some matches.

Re: Defense
 

With all the many robots choosing the Ri3D lean out type top roller collectors this year (and there are so, so too many for my tastes, from what I saw last night). I'd think any simple rookie team built box on wheels (w/ a great drive team), playing defense w/ a simple articulating 19.5" long 2"X4" that is about 14"-18" off the floor could have a great time just sliding it between the attempting assist passing robots this year, to put a big bosh on the ball in those assist attempts (even better if it articulated out 2 ends giving a quick choice of less bot turn around time).

My opinion is, those able to gain assists & pass that huge (single game piece), ball, robot to robot (or w/ the human player as an intermediary assist element, that I have already seen being practiced well), without using the floor at all, will have a supreme advantage in that situation of course. The year of the "claw" maybe? Or a robot w/ short soft pop-up passes and some great catchers on the alliance teaming up, will reign the field this year.

Shutting down the defensive screen can be done w/ the shooters alone if controllable shooting / catching is available. (And it will be!)

The action along the sidelines will be fun to watch. And penalties galore called weeks 1 & 2 I predict after the recent sideline safety zone changes (most will be very accidental, but will be called for human player safety reasons alone!) Inbounding will be tough now, w/ that "no mans land" added (& trying to keep the ball up off the carpet, while just learning the inbounder ropes I think during the heat of the battle).

Inbounders will now be forced (I suspect), to roll the ball off the shelf rather than toss it in, in most instances just to keep themselves from entering that safety zone w/ the hands. That will create some very early loose ball problems all on its own.

Those depending on (a great auto session alliance score), then a quick repeated inbound, truss pass, high score using only 2 bots (w/ #3 playing dedicated defense), will find their meager points every 3 cycles of offensive play actually shut down (and evened out), by a single high scoring opposing alliance cycle of all points possible scored.

This won't be quite as easy as it looks from the current single bot practice perspective by any means. Those (lucky ones), that have an opportunity to practice together in large groups of bots early, will have a supreme advantage in the early or even later weeks.

Don't you just love the late "bag day rules changes." The whole game actually changed and most were not even aware of it that day. But the GDC gave a lil', and took a lil'....It was quite fair.

Re: Defense
 

One team that played very good defense last year was team 4054. They don't have a youtube page, but there are videos on the blue alliance of them.