[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

From watching many different high level regionals, I think the game will become more like 2014 if anything. Basically what Chris is talking about where robots that currently don't have a ball or where a ball isn't available to be contested, will be productive by playing neutral zone defense until a ball becomes reasonably available to be contested. I think just having a pure defensive robot wastes a lot of time whereas a 3 cycler alliance has the flexibility to take turns playing defense and offense when it's convenient for them. Even if an alliance can't get a third good high goal scorer, a robot that feeds balls is almost as good and may even be a better approach because they will spend less time in the courtyard and more time ready to steal balls or play neutral zone defense. If an alliance does decide to play 2 scorers and one pure defender, I think they better be sure they are the fastest at collecting and scoring balls that they will be able to keep up with 3 shooters if defense isn't as effective as they hoped it would be. Even so, I think alliances that are in the situation where they are the two best scorers would be playing it a lot safer to just pick another scorer to extend their lead. Of course with 4 robots per alliance, captains can pick both a third scorer and a pure defensive robot depending on the situation.