The first day in Quals this season has already seen some pretty intense development so far. It seems as though some of the pre-regional predictions were very correct. Autonomous has been shown to be very influential to the outcome, and minibots have definitely been a key to winning any matches. It was predicted almost across the board that minibots would be critical to winning matches but that their influence would decrease over time, and we have seen this already (almost a 10-12% decrease after lunch). Scoring on the top row has been pretty influential a to the outcomes of matches as well. Tubes have been flooding the field, as was another pre-regional prediction. However, it still is to be seen manipulator design is this years golden ticket, which was of some debate over the course of the build season.
Comments, further predictions, corrections to the above (I'm not perfect)
, and discussion are encouraged!