[nickpaterni]

Originally Posted by Anupam Goli

Death by Serpentine doesn't just occur in small events. In some of the weakest events, death by serpentine is a common occurrence. In each of the last three peachtree regionals, the #1 seed has lost in quarters or semis, and twice now the #6 seeded alliance has won the finals.

Finding an inbounder at our regional this year was like trying to mine for gold. It's so hard to find someone who can hold onto the ball, release it, and play good defense. There were teams that were great at possessing the ball, but were way too top heavy and could fall over on their own. having these teams play defense would've spelled disaster. There were teams that could play defense very effectively, but couldn't manipulate the ball. Those that could do both seemed to be in the very small minority. In fact, if I erased all of the teams that could truss and were on our first pick list as well, I had a grand total of 4 teams that I would like as our 2nd pick. i had to pull some of those non-ideal partners onto our list because the depth of the event was not good at all, despite 64 teams being in attendance.

This was likely one of the reasons why some of the #1-#4 alliances lost in quarters at peachtree. (Other reasons include ref's discretion, which has been beaten to the ground already, and mechanical problems popping up). Even with a mediocre trusser and shot, if that third robot can inbound and play defense more effectively than the other alliance can, cycle times are shortened and the other alliance has to face heavier defense.

I would argue that a winning strategy this year is for a good shooting / scoring robot in 1-2 seed place picking the BEST inbound/truss/defense bot available, NOT the second best shooter / scorer first.