[CTbiker105]

First off, congratulations on winning Rookie All-Star. That's a great indication of your team's potential to be exceptional in the coming years.

In regards to defense in St. Louis, a good idea might be to identify the main strategies used by the strongest teams in your division. Once divisions are released, you could pick out the top 10 or so strongest teams, and watch as many videos of them from previous competitions as you can.

Find out what they do, and when they normally do it. Do they breach right after auto? Do they start shooting immediately? Where do they shoot from? Where do they get boulders from? What paths do they normally take/through what defenses? Try to get a rough idea of how these teams like to play the game.

Then start formulating your own strategies on how to prevent them from doing what they do best. If you're constantly disrupting strong teams from performing as best they can, they'll take notice of that.

With any luck, they'll realize they don't want to have to play counter-defense against you in the playoffs, and move you up on their pick list. I know a lot of the time at our strategy meetings is spent discussing teams' abilities to play defense, so definitely don't let your ability to do so get overlooked.

And when it comes down to it, no one is gonna think you're a laughing stock based on how well you play defense. Very few teams effectively and consistently play defense, so don't get down on yourself if you don't completely shut down a powerhouse in one match.