[Corey Balint]

Defense wins Championships.

I can not put it any better then that. Rough play is inevitable when you get into the playoffs. It also is very exciting, as long as the other robots dont get torn apart or the field(although i tore the field in half at B.E., thats another story). If the game gets slow again, i think we may lose more students and prospective teams. The past two years have been incredibly exciting and non stop action until the very end.

In my own experiences this year, we went through NJ, Annapolis, Nationals, and PARC playing an offensive minded game. Never made it past the quarterfinals. Then in the next four offseasons I changed my strategy to playing defense and hanging only if necessary. We won 3 of the 4 and got 2nd in the other. I also have watched 494 vs 469 in the final matches over and over on SOAP and this only supports my theory.

However, I knew the extent of how to play defense (changes for every years rules). You need to be able to shove and push around, but not RAM with intent to harm or Batter repetitively. Ramming should be ok in some situations though. When you have little time left to block an opponent, i personally think almost anything can go (just no intent to harm). Say a robot is pulling itself up on the other side of the field, you have to go full speed to prevent them from getting up, and instead of slowing down and possibly letting them latch on, you have to get them out of the way. I know this is not a very well liked strategy, but if its win or lose, then you have to.