[waialua359]

Originally Posted by JABot67

What I've noticed is this: In the past couple seasons, two good robots could hold up an alliance and win a match. The third one could play some very effective D (and some finals matches have been decided by how good the third robot is at playing defense) but especially in the quarters and semis the overall firepower of the top two robots in the top two alliances is too much for the others.

This perhaps is a side effect of FIRST's decision to design really offense-oriented games since 2007. That year was crazy: an alliance could score 256 points in one match and 0 the next, all depending on how much defense was played against them. Rack 'n Roll was, in my opinion, the only game where three good robots could beat two great robots and one not so great robot, which resulted in a lot of 8 over 1 upsets. This phenomenon was augmented by the fact that since defense could shut down many offensive teams, the best teams often would not seed first. Even when they did, they often lost if the regional or division was stacked enough to provide power to the #8 alliance.

Look at the TBA results for GLR and West Michigan... more wins for blue than red in the elims. Oh look... 1114 and 67 lost in the semis due to amazing defense and the fact that 57's robot could not provide the defense necessary to stop the opponents from scoring. In 2007, none of the #1 alliances at Champs escaped the divisions and reached Einstein. The #8 alliance of 190, 987, and 177 won in the finals. This could be interpreted as proving my point that 2007 was the only recent year where the #8 alliance could be the best alliance at an event.

However, back then there was this huge discussion about how overpowered defense was in FIRST and how boring it was to watch robots bump into each other instead of score. There were also instances where teams played defense that was too rough and complaints about how the serpentine draft gives an advantage to the #8 alliance and should be done away with. Perhaps as a result, FIRST has designed games in recent years to be based on offense, so the good teams can seed high in qualifications and be less hindered by defense in the elims. These offense-powered games in recent years have given the #1 alliance more of a chance to dominate a competition.

This analysis is quite interesting about 2007.
I made a similar one back after that season, but for different reasons.
In 2007, I noticed that a lot of the lower seeds were winning due in large part that they had 1st pickings of the "ramp" bots that gave a relatively large bonus for winning matches. With proper defense and pinpoint scoring to block the multiplier on certain pegs of the rack, they could come back and beat you on the bonus.
The bonus back then was much more difficult than this year.
This season, your bonus is independent of an alliance partner and could be done entirely by yourself. Everyone can technically have the same type of 1 to 1.x sec minibot. The formula to creating one is out there and can be done independently of your robot between regionals. You would not (nearly impossible for most) be able to go from a non-bonus bot to one all of a sudden in your next tournament.

IMO, that game gave every alliance the best chance to win a regional. You had to be very, very careful on who you picked in trying to beat out the other alliances.