[EricH]

If I was picking an alliance likely to go far (and I do mean far), I would pick the following:

1) Defense/climber/dumper, preferably with an autonomous shooting mode. I rank them first because they are the rarest of the rare--a fast 30+20 climb that can drive around and defend much of the match. I've seen just about one or two. (If none are available, take a #2 robot instead.)

2) Shooter with floor pickup. Human load, no problem. Floor pickup, even better--starve your opponents and get your first cycle in faster. However, an excellent automode is a MUST for this one. Fast speed for quick cycles, and a 10-point hang round out this one. Think 1114 and 1717 for this one--something on that order. (Also known as a "cycle runner".)

3) Either a second (third?) one of #2, or a dialed-in full-court shooter. I'll go with the FCS here; objective is to get the discs into the goals, draw defense, and if you can't get them in the goals to get them to where robot 2 can pick them up. Have robot 1 play some blocking on occasion. Ideally, able to run cycles instead of going long if they want to, 10-point hang. Oh, and good automode--no sense wasting discs.


I would say that there will be at least 1 alliance like this on Einstein; that is, one climb specialist, one cycle runner, one full-court shooter that can run cycles. I also see three good cycle runners on an alliance; that can go very deep. Two cycle runners and one climb or full-court specialist will also do well.


What I expect not to see is alliances with more than one climb specialist, or more than one full-court shooter. (Exception: FCS robots that can run cycles not counted in FCS counting.)