[mrnoble]

I have a 10-ish year history with FIRST, and can't recall there ever being a robot in competition that was intentionally immobile on the floor. This may be the year, as it seems a very viable approach to the game to simply hang for 30.

I agree with the previous poster who said that teams usually overestimate how many points will win a match in a regional. Yes, there are always teams that have elegant, simple, effective machines that do almost everything well, and they will show up this year. Their matches will be blowouts. But since, at most regionals, they comprise about 2-5 teams, most of the other matches will be low scoring, and will be decided by robots that perform consistently. I like the idea that a robot with a backhoe bucket and no shooter could score 15 points in zone one by scooping up all the missed shots and dumping them. I like that a 10 or 30 point hang could mean a win, from a bot that does little else.

This could be a great year, in my opinion.