Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay O'Donnell
And this is my problem with 4 team alliances, someone always gets left out...
1086 is just as much a world champion as any of their alliance partners and should be respected as such.
|
I'll second that. After seeing them up close at IRI, I can tell 1086 is a great team with a great robot. Let's not forget that they also played a few matches while 120 was out of commission. I'll admit, 1086 is an exception; the 4th bot of the 2014 and 2015 world champion alliances never touched the Einstein field except for field configuration, to my knowledge. However, even if they don't get time to play, these teams are always picked for a reason.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KosmicKhaos
Many people consider the 4th robot to be the "back-up" bot of the alliance, however this is not always the case. Yes often times the 4th robot is a "back-up" robot but a 4th robot also allows alliances to deploy different strategies in elimination matches and different strategies in choosing a third robot.
|
Exactly. It's up to the alliance whether they want their 4th bot to be there as a back-up or to promote strategic diversity in the alliance. Case-in-point: the 3rd seed alliance at IRI picked up 3683 and 5254. 3683 enabled the deadly "feed the batter-shooter" strategy with their fast d̶r̶i̶v̶e̶t̶r̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶c̶l̶i̶m̶b̶e̶r̶ everything, and 5254 was picked to balance out an alliance of otherwise very short-range shooters. That diversity allowed their alliance to take down two of the world champions after losing decisively in the first match. By the way, the QF4 series is a great watch, for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.
Since it's been poked at, I'll give a shoutout to 4587 for their IRI win this weekend. You have a great robot that should have definitely been picked up a lot earlier in the draft. I saw that 2-ball auto work
It always hurts me to see lower-seeded alliances unwilling to take even the smallest risks to try to pick up a win, and a 4587 pick was certainly a risk worth taking for any of the lower 4 alliances at IRI.