[XaulZan11]

Already a lot of good advice, but one thing that should be stressed is: watch as many matches as possible.

Even watching matches this summer of past seasons will help get an understanding of what robots are generally possible to do and will provide some insight to some strategies/tactics that are found nearly every year (strafing vs t-boning defense).

Once the year starts, watch teams who you will later compete against. Watch events that are comparable to your event (if you are going to a tough week 6 50 team event, try to watch other large tough events opposed to the 30 team brand new regional). Watch what type of alliances get formed (and win). Watch the teams that seed high and see how they played. Watch successful robots that are similar to you. All the strategy planning during the first few days/weeks of buildseason is important to design your robot, but when it comes to actually playing matches, nearly all of my strategy decisions stem from watching matches and seeing how the game is actually played out.

Also, don't be afraid to ask questions or ask for advice. If you are confused why a team picked a certain team or why they did a certain strategy in a specific match, ask them. Unless you are asking them for their CAD files a week into build season, I'm sure they will answer your questions or at least help.