[jwfoss]

I may be a bit biased, but 2006 was my favorite year of FIRST as a student.

The value of autonomous can not be understated, but you didn't have to score in the high goal. Running across the field and throwing your opponents off target and stopping them from scoring was just as effective as scoring yourself. Auto-mode was sometimes won by the "guaranteed" dumper robots who scored in the low goals.

This game, as well as 2004 for those of you who remember, made diversification in design the best way to put together an alliance.

Out here on the East Coast at the CT Regional, defensive play won most of the matches. With a lot of designs having high CGs, pushing your opponents up the ramps while they were attempting to shoot often resulted in robots flipped over. Also designs that maximized a robots height allowed you to park in front of shooting robots to block them.

2006 was the year that pushed me to look into always designing for a way to ensure that you will be able to score. For Aim High, these designs include dumping in the corner goals or parking up on the ramp to shoot, which became known as “Ramp Camping”.