[pmangels17]

The Long Vs Wide Debate basically comes down to what you want your robot to do. Using this year as an example, a long bot had a better ability to put mechanisms in front of and behind the ball, so if the shooter/launcher you had in mind needed such spaces, then a long bot might be the better option. If you wanted space left and right of the ball for an intake or other mechanisms, then a wide bot was your best bet.

Up until the last two years, frame perimeter rules made it less than advantageous to build a square or almost square robot, but now more and more teams are taking advantage of the more flexible rules to facilitate mechanisms all around the game pieces.

Obviously this year was special with the game pieces as big as they are, finding real estate around them was tricky. Sometimes, it is simply preference, I know some teams that have always and will always build one style of base, and if that works for them because they have a design style that they have perfected, then props to them.

Personally, I tend to favor long and square bases over wide bases because in all the matches I've seen, the long and square bots have done better at pushing other robots, and not being pushed around, but that is not to say that all wide bots cannot push, it is just a trend I've noticed.