[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by JesseK

I don't think this is correct for 80-90% of teams at a typical event. In Quals, QF's and SF's you aren't directly competing with the opposing alliance, but also all of the other teams. Denying the RC's in one match is irrelevant unless their next opposing alliance can also deny the RC's. All that matters in Qual/QF/SF are individual scores - so Canburglaring is only effective if used as the means to that end. At a typical events, I seriously doubt they made a big difference before Finals.

At champs they matter even in Quals because there is a good chance that average teams are paired with elite teams who can use 4+ RC's.

You are correct-- I fell into the W/L mindset. The closer you get to finals (and when you are competing against the stronger/strongest team, it can still be sufficient to deny the cans to minimize the opponents score relative to yours if you are both near the 'cut line' of who gets to advance.