[tindleroot]

I've been noticing similar trends about defense (and maybe Karthik has too?).

As far as I've seen low, ranged shooting robots are going to be extremely common since those designs can easily cross the low bar and shoot in the high goal. However, there is an inherent flaw in that design in that given how long it takes vision (or manual alignment) to line up a shot, those robots can easily be blocked by a tall robot or by a pool noodle blocker. And, if a robot has a decent drivetrain but a poor scoring mechanism, they can play this role in a match and be extremely effective.

Winning in quals is more important than the other ranking points since winning is worth 2 RP, plus you deny the opponent 2 ranking points, which helps you advance farther than the competition. I can guarantee that any smart alliance will do their best to shut down a high-potential scoring robot if it is easy to stop them, as is the case with the low-shooting robots. This will happen in both quals and elims, and it will definitely happen if the team in question is high-ranked.