Re: Offence vs. Defence.
 

I think it comes down to how you want to play the game. Do you want a robot that rocks in qualifications but not in elims? remember that win/loss doesn't matter this year until the elims.

So I like to take the strategy of Beatty (71) back in 2002. We don't care where we rank after quals, we know that we will get picked and will win with the strategy we picked to play.

In elims defense is going to be a huge part of the game, letting the other team score doesn't matter anymore just winning. So if you have the best defensive robot and can shut anyone down, you will get noticed and you will get picked, or even with the seeding points this year you could still have a chance to be a picker.

Re: Offence vs. Defence.
 

If two alliances are equal in skill and ability, then there isn't a chokehold strategy this year. It's too dynamic of a game to guarantee victory for one side. There are things you can do to put it in your favor, yet it with the good strategists it simply turns into a game of cat and mouse at that point.

Re: Offence vs. Defence.
 

Yes i realize there is no choke-hold strategy this year, however if you always take the approach to try and design a robot that is incapable of being beaten in elims, you will be a step ahead of everyone else.

Re: Offence vs. Defence.
 

I think whether on offense or defense pushing power will be big this year, it should be a very physical game, much like Rack and Roll was. If you can outpush your opponents you can score and keep them from scoring. A lot of teams are talking about mechanum wheels - we used them in 2008, they are great for manuverability but you can get pushed around very easily.

Re: Offence vs. Defence.
 

IMO, Defense is something you play - not something that you necessarily design a robot for.

Arguably, any robot with a robust and powerful drive train can play effective defense this year. I'd say if you were going to build a robot with the intentions of playing defense, I'd at least incorporate some sort of basic, even primitive scoring mechanism so that should the need arise, you can score.

This opinion is based on my experiences in 2009, when we built a very very capable offensive robot, just ask anyone who saw it in action, but we were know to play devastating defense at times.