[Kevin Ray]

While competing in two regionals this season my opinion of the game constantly changed from horrible to okay, though never great. I did, however, solidify my belief that ANY team can contribute-especially in this game. A potato bot only has to push a ball a foot or so to get the assist. Even if they don't do another thing, each cycle they're contributing to the final 30 points in the assist portion of the cycle. In no other game has so simple an act contributed so many points!

What makes me go apoplectic, however, is when teams agree on a strategy--which is all so important in this year's game, then go out and do "what ever tickles their fancy" during the match. Because you are dependent upon your entire alliance for a "full" cycle, you need everyone's cooperation. It makes no difference whether you are veteran, rookie, elite team, under-funded or deep pocketed, you NEED to cooperate and stick to the strategy. We lost most of our matches this season because of this. In fact, some of the best matches we had were with poorly built bots driven by kids who still wanted to win so they stuck to the plan and we did win.

I'm hoping that the CMP is chock full of teams ready to "stick to the script".