[2789_B_Garcia]

Originally Posted by Thunder910

I agree with tkell. A team that builds a support-based or defense based robot that is still phenomenal in what it is built to do (i.e. 4334 last year and 2789 this year) shouldn't be penalized for pursuing a different strategy than the powerhouse offensive teams. Third picks often make or break alliances, especially at deeper events.

Thanks! It's so hard to get love for defensive play...because of our limitations (personnel, funding, etc.) and sponsor issues, it's hard for us to crank out the robots we design and want. We're forced to compensate with scouting and strategy. I've been concerned about district discussions down here in Texas because of how formulas rate defensive teams, in particular because of how the dynamics for eliminations matches are very different than dynamics for quals matches, and our strategy definitely makes a bigger impact in elims. It's my hope that at the end of the month we'll be able to make the point that a creative and smart team can still make a strong impact on the outcome of matches even if you don't have the fanciest robot on the field...but needless to say, we are working on a few surprises for champs that will help us put points on the board