[Jaine Perotti]

Great job teams 121, 126, and 350!!
I had the opportunity to watch BAE today, and it was very exciting, especially those last few matches. Excellent job!

I think there was a new record high score today for this regional... of 79 points. Unfortunately, the alliance teams' names/numbers are escaping me.

The highest amount of penalties given that I saw today was 40 points... I believe it was for pushing a robot in the loading zone, among other things. The magnitude of the penalties really seemed to be the downfall of many well performing teams... but that is how the game goes. It is very different from previous years (at least recent ones).

It seems like an even balance between offense and defense was the key to success. Offense without defense was not very effective if other robots were trying to harass the offensive ones. Also, without some defense, you are leaving the opposing alliance completely unharassed and are allowing them to score easily. But then again, pure defense simply could not score enough points to win the game. A nice combination of the two seemed to be very effective... team 501, the Power Knights (very effective defense), and their alliance (very effective offense), comes to mind.

Here, as it has also been reported at other regionals, there were very few teams with autonomous modes that were effective, and I did not see any team cap the vision tetra in autonomous mode once. It seems like the majority of teams with an autonomous mode are going for the hanging tetras, which in my opinion, is smart because it gives you the beginning of a row, and is relatively low risk in terms of interference from other robots.

One thing I noticed that teams need to work on, is realizing the best strategical place to cap next. I found myself screaming, "No! CAP OVER THERE... NOT THERE!" Teams often wouldn't recognize where the best place was to cap... and I understand this, as there is so much going on on the field at once... but if you are looking to improve your strategy, try to focus on recognizing where the most advantageous place is to put your next tetra.

Great job everyone...it was an enjoyable event to watch.

-- Jaine