[Jon Stratis]

In recapping our last regional, this was something I pointed out to our team. We only really played defense in the very last match (the cable controlling our elevator snapped during autonomous, so we were unable to score curing that match), so that was really the only match we could critique the driver's defensive ability on.

No one on our alliance (actually, no one on the field!) was using the feeder lanes at all in that match. As a result, one great defensive strategy we should have employed would have been to simply push tubes into the feeder lanes. Yes, when you get down to the end, the human players are great... but even great human players can't get it in the scoring zone every time. Sometimes the tubes fall short, or hit other robots, or take an odd bounce. As a starvation strategy, pushing tubes into your own feeder lanes prevents the other team from using them (without incurring a penalty). This would clear away any tubes near the opponents scoring zone, forcing them to travel farther to find useful tubes, giving your defensive robot more room to get in their way and slow them down.

I would say this is only viable for a defensive role... you don't want to take someone who is scoring points away to attempt this.