Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Alright, so I was lookiNG around the gen forums today, and I noticed threads for best scores, ramps, and hybrids, but no love for those who have played the best defense in the regionals.

again no glorifying your own bots.

I would like to start off by mentioning one of my personal favorites from the NJ regional, team 637. They were essentially a ramp bot that could push just about anybody they wanted across the field like they were on ice.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

In Pittsburgh, the two that stood out to me were 247 (Da Bears) and 48 (Delphi Elite), both were ramp 'bots that could shove everyone else at will. We were with 48 in the finals against 247's alliance, it was neat watching them shove each other around, at least up until we lost the third match due to Da Bears wreaking havoc on us...:( I will update after Buckeye, where we will have a much bigger field of teams!

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

1824 at BAE.
558, 1995 at UTC.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

2108 and 843 at VCU also 539 did a decent job at VCU too

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Da Bears was also a powerhouse defensive bot at Detroit. Also was 1248 and 703. Da bears defense was totally brutal. I was surprised they didn't get yellow-carded though..

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

1501 - Team THRUST - was a big, mobile wall. Their drive train (2 wheels and some sliders) was interesting - it gave them agility and quickness. Rather than defend with brute force, they just simply got in the way. They could block an entire half a field without problems in the elims, giving 45 free reign to score at will. They, along with 1555 (who were the eventual champs), were the best lifters at BMR.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

team 558 at UTC was able to shut down great offensive robots, such as 25, 40, 230 and team 20.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I think 1155 was a great defensive robot this year. They made it to finals in NJ with it with the help of the other alliance partners.(Sorry I don't remember the numbers)

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

when i think about it from UCF, the two that stood out were 86, they went 3 on one in the first match we played in and only allowed 4 points . they played great defense throughout the elimination rounds. another one that comes to mind is 744, the way they harassed pink throughout the qualifying rounds thanks to the "random" scheduling, is really what made 233 look like they were the worst bot there (not the last place finish and they wern't the worst bot.)

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

1519 at BAE, 1516 at SVR

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

The best defensive bot I have seen this year is probably a tie between team 1155 and team 177.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

247, hands down.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

At the Finger Lakes Regional, I would have to say that team 145 (T-RX), team 191 (X-Cats), and team 1559 (Devil-Tech) all played excellent defense.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

247, 703, 123,...

three amazing robots, in defense as well as in other aspects.

Francois.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

1189, those guys put up some of the best defense I've ever seen, phenominal job!

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

247. Period.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Team 694 was a moving wall as well. I was honestly scared for the life of our drivers as they inadvertantly rammed into the alliance station wall. Though they got a bit aggressive later on, they were a force to be reckoned with at NYC, showing incredible teamwork with 375 and 56 all the way to the last match
(in they were defeated).

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Agreed.

:)

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

The best defensive robot at the Chesapeake regional was 1784. They were able to shut my team (1727) down completely in the semi-finals.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I'd say 1189.

Boilermaker gave away fun awards that were voted on by the teams and 1189 won the defensive one.

It felt good to have the best defensive robot on our alliance in the elimination rounds.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

122 at VCU. Those guys were ridiculous

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

You guys played great!

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I'm going to add a vote for 247 Da Bears. They are an excellent defensive machine. Also 48 had some great defense and they've been the only machine so far to stop us in a head-on pushing match. Watch out for 48 as I suspect they will only get better after they solve some track issues.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Yeah, 1189 played some of their best defense as a moving base. Their turret came off in one match and they just drove around and created total and complete havoc, mostly on the other side of the rack where their vision was obstructed. My hat's off to them.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

177, 558

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

qft...

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

AT FLR I thought 250 had a great D bot, they just pushed whomever they wanted. At least in the matches we played with them or watched.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I have been to 3 regional and I have to say that 1625 is by far the best at playing defense that I have seen. No they cannot push the most powerful robots, but defense is about preventing teams from scoring, not just pushing them around. With their multi-speed crab drive and smart drivers, they were able to get in front of anyone trying to score a tube. They also played some smart defense to prevent robots from getting on a ramp.

Raul

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I agree.
250 is a New England team mis-located to the West.
They love their D.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I personally love 250's The Dynamos drive train - they probably had the strongest one at FLR but form the past years I also like 25's as well - it's just a beast!:)

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Ya know...for the first time ever, I'm going to make the following bold statement...

2007 is the year of the Great Old Fashioned New England.....Offense?!?!?

There have been two New England regionals so far...in both regionals, the high score of 316 points was reached. The sheer quality of offensive New England Robots has been through the roof.

The boldest statement yet? This WILL be the year a New England team is in the winning alliance at Championships! You heard it here first folks!

New England Offense to watch...

1124
121
126
175
501
195
236
716

Just to name a few!

Oh...and as for the defense...

558 was outstanding. Probably the smartest defensive team out there last weekend. Also dont forget about 177. And yes...spoilers count as defense too...so you have to add in, "team spoiler", 236 The Technoticks!

Cant wait to see what develops in Beantown!

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Even though they got eliminated in the QF i saw 1660 doing some nice defense. In every match i saw of theirs as soon as the driver saw what was going on around him and evaluated his scoring oppertunity he went right to defense if it was needed. Unlike most teams at NYC who tried for too long to pick up a ringer, they new what to do and when.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Idea.

Can we start making a list and adding on to it with each post? The best defensive bots as per CD members. in no particular order, to start things off.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

alright,
so we have;
177
558
1155
637

i would like to add 637 to the list because they're tall ramp allowed them to get in the way, but they could also psuh people around like no tomorrow

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I'd like to throw in 1816. They dominated in defense at the Wisconsin Regional, before coming back home to deploy the ramps.

So we have:
177
558
1155
637
1816

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I'm going to add 1189. They were voted by the teams as the best defensive robot. They shut down GLR regional champion, 573, and one of the quickest scorers at BMR, 868, in the quarterfinals. They made it quite easy for 931 and us to score.

So we have:
177
558
1155
637
1816
1189

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

177
558
1155
637
1816
1189
247

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Technically they didn't shut us down, we got stuck on a spider and tipped ourselves.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

there must be more than 6!

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Taking from raul's post and my personal experience, I'd like to add our robot to the list. I've been to 3 regionals as well and from what I've seen, we are one of if not the best defender I've seen. (as unbiased as possible)

So we have:
177
558
1155
637
1816
1189
247
1625

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I'll reorganize the list so it'll be easier to add numbers later on. I'll also add us (694), for two reasons: 1. we've already been mentioned on this thread (hey, it's fair! :D ) and 2. I built our drive train this year and I'll be the first to say how strong it is. Here's a video of what Lucretius was talking about

http://staff.funnygarbage.com/colin/closeup.html

The above video shows our autonomous mode wigging out in slomo during the first finals match of NY: I have three gears in my drivetrain--gear 1 is 4ft/s, gear 3 is 14ft/s. For some reason we started in third gear and not first, and thank goodness we didn't slam into another robot or injure anybody! Needless to say, we got disqualified for causing the field to jump half a foot and lost the match, but the remarkable thing is that our robot came away completely unscathed. In fact, we spent the entire regional shoving, and I didn't have to fix a single thing on my drivetrain between matches.

My final reason for adding us is that we were pushing around 522, the Robowizards, who always have the most solid defensive bot at regionals (which is why I'm adding them to this list as well).

So we have:
177
247
522
558
637
694
1155
1189
1625
1816

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

While a primarily offensive robot this year, MORT showed us some wicked defense in the 2007 New Jersey Regional.....I'll take the liberty of adding them.

Two more teams with wicked awesome defenses are teams 48 and 1743 who were at the Pittsburgh regional and will be competing this weekend in Cleveland at the Buckeye regional.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

First off.. that was scary. Do you know how much industrial velcro is holding down that player station? Not to mention the fact that its really heavy..

Also, I second votes for 522, 1743, 48 and 11. All are great teams.

(note: one of my favorite matches was in NYC 11 vs. 522. 11 had awsome manuvering skills to get around the unmovable 522 in order to score a ringer)

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Shameless plug: i felt 766 played great D at SVR. we did a pretty good job playing D on the incrediably fast 254 and we shut down 114 in the first match of the SF (they had drivetrian issues that inhibited them from having full power to their wheels) and we stopped 100 from scoring crazy amounts of tubes like they did earlier (also drivetrain problems, their wheels were messed uo because a robot with a wdge like front tipped them). We also stopped 1070 from deploying their ramps in the last match of the QF. and we almost stopped 190 from deploying thier ramps in the last match of the Finals. it took both 1280 and 1516 ( a fantastic D bot) to stop us a 190 got past us. end shameless plug.

1516 was a great d bot at SVR and was the number 2 alliance captain and SVR and they shut down the high scorers effectively. they are smaller than the lowest spider leg so they can maneuer around the rack with ease.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I'm going to add two of the best defensive bots from Detroit. 1286 was the smallest one there, but with their treads and (I'm assuming) tons of weight concentrated low, no one could push them around. And 703 was just beastly, they could push ANYONE anywhere they wanted to. I would add 247 too but they're already on there.

11
48
177
247
522
558
637
694
703
1155
1189
1625
1743
1816
1286

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I'd just like everyone to keep in mind one of the few requests of the creator of this thread; no glorifying your own robots. Everyone can make a case for their own robot but if you really deserve to be put on the list then someone else will add you. Sorry if this sounded mean but there's no point in making a list when people add their own teams.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

wow someone could shut down 25 .... im in awe

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

thank you!!,

and yes, it is possible to shut down 25, i'll admit, it was hard because they have a good driver, and it really took me (the base driver) alot of focus to shut them down... good job to all the teams at UTC and NJ...next stop; Nationals!!!

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I am biased but someone said this. . .

So I added 86 and 744.

11
48
86
177
247
522
558
637
694
703
744
1155
1189
1625
1743
1816
1286


-Josh S.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Definitely 190 at SVR. I remember when we were talking about the best bots and 190 came up a lot and our drive commented that she was terrified of their bot b/c it looked like it could squish ours in a second. Hands down, 190 is one of the best defense bots.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

From what I noticed, 467 had the strongest defense at Boston. It earned them a 4th pick, and they even beat the 5th alliance in a match (which had much stronger scorers). They ended up falling victim to a very effective screen in the other two matches, however, by team 2103. Still, to say that one robot was the most effective defensive robot in Boston, a regional known for defense, is high praise indeed.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

i agree w/ dainel above me...

467 was a dominate force on defense. They were consistantly taking out 2 scoring robots at a time. The drivers were amazing and the machine was great to boot.

If these guys fix their ramps for nationals *if they are going* they WILL be a force to reckon with down in ATL.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

1685 could push anyone sideways across the field at UTC and Boston.

11
48
86
177
247
522
558
637
694
703
744
1155
1189
1625
1685
1743
1816
1286

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Thanks for all the defensive compliments!!!
Unfourtunatly, we are not going to Nationals at this point in time. (not that I'm not begging and pleading with our coaches!!)

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Add 812, 1266, and 294 to the lists. All three have great drivers and play very smart defense, and 294 has a great drive train as well.

11
48
86
177
247
294
522
558
637
694
703
744
812
1155
1189
1266
1286
1625
1685
1743
1816

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I'd like to add team 348....probably one of the best defensive robots in the Boston reigonal.

11
48
86
177
247
294
348
522
558
637
694
703
744
812
1155
1189
1266
1286
1625
1685
1743
1816

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

4
11
48
86
177
247
294
348
522
558
637
694
703
744
812
830
1155
1189
1241
1266
1286
1334
1625
1685
1743
1816

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

1824 did its job very well as a ramp/defense bot and was a huge help in our win at BAE systems GSR.

11
48
86
177
247
294
348
522
558
637
694
703
744
812
1155
1189
1266
1286
1625
1685
1743
1816
1824

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I second that nomination of 294... They were allied with us in the elims in SD and when they lost their arm they became a strictly defensive robot and performed superbly... They gritted it out against 330 and 696, two great ring placers, and really deserve acknowledgement for playing a major defensive role in the wins we got. Thanks guys.

11
48
86
177
247
294
348
522
558
637
694
703
744
812
1155
1189
1266
1286
1625
1685
1743
1816
1824

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I definitely agree that 558 was incredible and consistent with their defense at the UTC CT Regional (thank you guys). (Not to mention a great ramp!)

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

A belated thank you to all those who advocated for team 558 as a powerhouse defender and on the other thread as well as a ramp bot. Our strategy got us to Atlanta for the first time, where we finished as a 15th seed in our division and got selected in the first round to participate in the quarterfinals. Much thanks to our alliance partners, 2054 and 358 for a great national!:)

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I'm going to say Swamp Thing, they totally shut down BeachBots in the semi finals at nationals

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

48.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I got to the say the best defensive powerhouse of 2007 and 2006 too is 177. They prove it's not all about the drive system, but how you drive.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

703's drivetrain scared me... our first match in Galileo we were against them 2 on 3. They pushed our bot completely across the field... sideways. By skill alone we were able to get ringers onto the rack and win the match. We knew they were going to be a keeper once alliance selection started. Luckily they were still around for our second round pick, so we grabbed them up. Their strong defense and amazing ramp system helped our alliance of 1712, 2056, and 703 make it all the way to a third match of the semi-finals. They played really intense.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I would like to throw in 842. Any comments from anyone who played with us or against us?

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I'd have to (not-so-modestly) say 675. Only one team pushed us... 1662.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I totally agree with you. When I first saw their robot, I thought it had a really nice grabber and ramps, but I had no idea how good their defense was until I saw them play in the matches on Einstein. Seems like 179 had it all.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Defense isn't about always about pushing.

You can play great defense with a robot that has less pushing ability and less speed than the one you are defending; it is almost entirely based on the driver.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I thought that the best defensive team in Curie were 48. At Boilermaker, 1189 was probably the best there. but 1500 (I think that was it) as also pretty good.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I think 179 has written themselves into the pages of the best defensive robots history book.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Found this on YouTube, thought I'd share:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgC9o0s4HoU
(And no I didn't post it and yes we picked Daisy about after this match)
:yikes:

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

So much for modesty..

Umm.."Nobody pushes Truck Town" sound familiar?

The 'bot was the best of any of ours that I've seen as a defensive tool.

Although I have seen crab bots be a great defensive pest. You are right when you say it is up to the driver.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I'm happy I dont have to be the first one to say 179 is definitely a defensive powerhouse. Most people only noticed this after they were chosen for their championship alliance, because they had one of the finest bottom row scorers out there. But when they were put on defense, their driver can shut down just about every robot, even ones that could out-push him. For defense, power helps, but theres nothing better than a driver who is quick and can predict another robot and put his robot between theirs and the objective.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

Definitely Da Bears and Phoenix
Possibly Delphi ELITE

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

I DO have to say that if you went to the Philadelphia Regional you would agree that 84 should be on that list, yes i might be biased but ask anyone that went to Philly. ^_^

Although, I am NOT saying we were the BEST. ^_^

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

00:47 - Newton - Semifinals 1 Match 1

And refering to what you said about crab bots, they can be used well if the drivers are well trained and are good at positioning them. Being able to get in between another robot and the rack defensively like that constantly takes some serious skill.

Re: Defensive Powerhouses of 2007
 

My vote has to go to 1824 baby!!! they played amazing defense at GSR and for a 2nd year team to go so far with no money or sponsors its mind boggling!! When we won GSR they didnt know if they were going to go to nationals but they finally ended up having the money and was it worth it. they placed 5th in curie and picked alliances!

They did not have the most powerful drivetrain on the field but there driving skill was amazing and there wide frame made them very well suited! I am so glad we got to be partners this year because there robot did its job immaculately. Defense... Deploy Ramp. thats all they did and they won every round they did that