[barn34]

Team 2481 is very excited to be competing against the other amazing teams in Galileo!

To follow up on a point that a couple people just made, I've been a firm believer that the most efficient championship alliance can only ideally support 2 offensive powerhouses, but not just because of the disc cap. There's also only so much real estate to work with on the field and that may cause an increase in traffic jams and clutter up key areas of the field if they're not perfect in execution. To clarify, that's either pairing two deadly cycle shooters together or a deadly cycle shooter paired with a full court shooter. You can't support 2 full court shooters on the same alliance because of the nature in how they have to play the game to be most effective. You always want to play to the strengths and maximize the abilities of the robots on the field. In order to do that for these offensive powerhouses, the third alliance robot has to be a versatile defender with the mindset and ability to strategically slow those opposing powerhouses down, and preferably one with the ability to quickly climb for 30 pts (and possibly dump for more). In my oppinion, what makes 1114 so scary good is their ability to efficiently cover two roles simultaneously (deadly cycle shooter and 50 pt. climb/dumper) which gives them added versatility in how they build their alliance with that third pick after pairing up with the best 7 disc autonomous robot available.

For example, could a 118 (7DA, CS) + 1114 (CS, C&D) + 4334 (FCS) alliance really work on the field in the most efficient way to generate wins when going against the best of the best in competition? I'm actually not so sure. I definitely see the appeal, but I would think 118 + 1114 + 3284 would be much more effective because of 3284's defensive versatility to counter the proficient FCS's that populate the Galileo talent pool.

Regardless, I predict that when the dust settles after alliance selections, there will be several top tier cycle shooters who will be unfortunately left on the sidelines in favor of more specialized role players that compliment the backbone of the initial round of alliance pairings better. I can't wait to see how this all plays out as I can never recall another game that's been so strategically interesting.