[Boltman]

Coming from being a pure defensive bot two years ago... my observations on 2016.

Actual blocking of shots is hard when you are having to defend multiple goals. As in 2014 and 2016. (Low and High)

Of course in that game we had much higher than 54" extension height since at 76" but could not be as wide since it had to be in that cylinder so it was thin.

But very similar with needing to defend high and low goals.

We had great drivers and we were very effective at low goal blocking and to an extent high goal and got completely hammered in the process (scars) , we were among the most durable bots at the worlds that year, even with that parts got bent and broken.... I fear for this year low bots that are low goal scorers only against a dedicated durable defensive bot. I have a feeling many low bots are nearly as durable" like we were and will get hammered coming out of batter with hardly any vision to drive on that far side of field. I can see bots that do low goal getting beaten up by a defender legitimately and without getting fouls.

In 2014, we were not as effective as blocking was the high goal. When faced with three offensive bots there was no possible way to fully defend the high goals we were maybe blocking average of 1 shot a game., even with help from other two bots sometimes harassing the other alliance. Most shots of on our alliance of course scored high. I think we were exactly a 54" high metal rectangle with a high goal extension and side arms to block low goal. So similar in design to a defensive bot this year using 15" extensions...we were rookies and our bot was kitbot slow. Especially at worlds every single bot was faster it seemed we got killed. We did well ended up 23/60 in regional and killed in the worlds.

Which brings me to my point, most defensive bots this year IMO will be slower bots that a rookie team entered, they like us made the calculated decision to be different. I only saw one high end defensive bot in St Louis in 2014 that was marginally more effective than us and still ended up lower ranked.

I think this year we may see some defense but as long as teams divide up the offensive attack that bot cannot defend all three. I also suspect in the heat of defending there will be a very high chance of fouling as that bot is defending not 4 feet away but most likely 12-13 feet away and its hard to judge robots when their bumper clear the outer works. A couple fouls and the defensive strategy goes down the tubes as fouls are killer, forcing for most less aggressive play and allowing high shots from just past outer works.

So in summary I think defense will be played sparingly and also be somewhat ineffective like in 2014, I see a lot of similarities when it comes to defense. Its a very similar each year to defend low and high only or try to score t...most teams will pick not so true (non-scoring) defenders will be rare.

Plus the fact you can only have one bot defend so no help also is a difficult decision for an alliance to commit to that strategy of trying to prevent RP/points rather than earn RP/points and winning the game for another.

Going to be interesting to say the least...I'll be looking for defensive bots to see how they do this year.

I think the real defense issues for most teams will be simply lack of vision/automation. Its hard to score with all those defenses obscuring the drivers view of primary goals, unless you have a highly accurate semi/fully automated shooter