[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Aidan H.

I don't know if you already plann on taking about it, but I find the inclusion of a 3rd pick (4th robot) on elimination alliances at championships to be a POSSIBLE complication/change/addition to the strategies that may be employed in eliminations.

Some points I have thought of about it/are relevant:
- Will they only act as a backup in case a "main" robot breaks?
- What aspects (inbounder, defense, truss-er, scorer) will alliance pickers be looking for in a 3rd pick?
- Will they be used as an augment to two other robots in order to substantially change the strategy of the alliance to through the other alliance off? (strategy may be the determining factor at such a high level of play)
- Will they just go completely unused (unless a breakdown) and just be along for the ride? (The other robots may be substantially better performing and the 3rd pick was just picked because they were a preferable backup compared to the usual "highest seed left".)

I think that there is a big unknown in what a 3rd pick could mean for strategy. It has never really (recently) been used at such a high level event in a game that depends so much on strategy (when most of the robots are very capable of all aspects of the game).

In 2013, having a 4th robot would have made the world of difference. i.e. Blocking full court shooters.

This year, I see the backup robot as being the "backup" who plays- if either 1 of the 3 robots break down, or if 1 of the 3 robots is just not panning out against the opposition with the planned strategy.