[AllenGregoryIV]

This was a very good analysis but I will say that my team came to several different conclusions.

Through, not Around?
One thing I see is that you didn't mention your actual gearbox. You are planning on having power and speed but don't mention if you are planning on having a 6 motor 2-speed drive train or just 4 CIMs geared to a reasonable 10ft per sec (or something along those lines). The latter will not allow you push the most powerful robots and it also won't let you get back and forth across the field faster than the fastest robots.

I find it interesting that a lot of teams seem to be going for the go through not around strategy. It is still not clear how long a defender has to get them self out of your zone after they have been pushed in. What if they flip over while being pushed and now you can't score on that side the rest of the match? I also think you have to be cautious of getting pinning calls against you if you are trying to push through someone that happens to be touching a lane divider or a tower.

Every second is going to count when hanging tubes; going from 20sec a tube to 15sec a tube is 2 more tubes a match, not counting minibot time. So having to drive through someone that is slowing you down is going to take precious time away from actually scoring tubes.

For these reasons, I think teams that are building for the go around not through strategy will have success this year. (Teams that can do both, i.e. swerve drive, will fair even better). Even if you don't have a powerful drive train the field elements become your friend, running to them makes it so no other robot can touch you without starting a pinning count.

Floor Loading
I agree with the others about floor pickup. What if your feeder drops a tube right in front of the feeder station? Will your robot be able to get any more tubes? Not being able to pick up from the floor will make for a defenders dream because they can just push tubes (think about un-hung ubertubes) into your lane and it will be hard for you to remove them.

Defense
I agree with you about not designing for defense. Defense is going to be harder than people think this year. The longest any defender can be is 7 feet. The zone is 18 feet wide. If two offensive robots are trying to score one of them just has to set a pick for the other and you can easily both get into your zone and be safe. (Yes if three robots are all defending a zone it will be impossible to score, they better keep that up for the entire match including the MINIBOT race, because otherwise you have two robots who have had more time to setup for the race and one that is capping an ubertube for 6 more points)



I wish everyone the best of luck with their strategist and will see how they all play out; I think this going to be a really exciting game and one of the most intense for the strategist on every team.