Here we go...
From what I have seen over my past few years, every single game has had an aspect where defense can be played (within the rules at the time) and probably most teams aren't taking full advantage of the opportunities. Even games like last year where there were so many protected zones, several teams were able to significantly impact the score of the match (and in some cases completely shut out) teams.
Firstly, there are a few different approaches to defense:
Push em' around/T-Bone: This is perhaps one of the most dramatic and hyped up forms of defense. Also perhaps not very useful in most games cases. The idea is you push around the team on the field, or slow them down by causing a T-Bone where they can't break free. It was really interesting how much of a role this came into play in Lunacy, where the 2nd pick on an alliance would just ram/pin another stronger robot so that they would be scored on. Or in 2010 with the attempts to block 469's auton lock and load re director. Even last year with the pushing matches to clear the way for a full court shooter (Michigan teams were particular adept at this.)
This match is a good example of this kind of defense. The reason this method my not be as successful as others is that good drivers well... just avoid you.
Specific Defense Mechanisms: The classic "net" or "blockers" I can't find the video right now, but there was a team in 2011 that had drop down sides to block teams from getting into their done easily. Last year there were the "air bag" teams, ore extending walls to block FCS.
111 in 2003 with their ramps to stop other teams from coming up the ramp. Perhaps this year we will see an effective goalie mechanism?
Positional Defense: What IMHO is the most effective way to defend (especially this year) which I wish more teams would do (except when they play us
) Take a position perpendicular to the other robot, and keep them from getting to the position that they want to go. From experience this can be brutal. The best part is,
every team should be able to this. It's effective and it's rather annoying to the team on the other side of the glass. Unfortunately it didn't happen much last year at worlds. It was the
cycler's worst nightmare Albeit if you have a slower robot, it is significantly harder to play good defense, but
nonetheless is still annoying.
tl;dr There aren't many "Complete shutdown" matches, or "epic defense" simply because that is too hard. Yet there are a ton of examples of great defense from teams in any region. Just need to look for them.