[jts]

As the mentor and coach of 909, the team that picked 1625 as well as 1451, I can understand the frustration on the part of Chris. There was a definite change in the play of the game during the final three rounds than either of our teams (909/1625) had experienced in the previous day and a half. During these matches our robot sustained more "dings" than during 12 qualifying rounds. I wish I had taken before and after pictures. Much of this was due to the structure of the opposing alliance. They were all short robots that did not shoot particularly well. Their only chance of winning was to harass 909 & 1625 and they did once heck of a job. Previously we had been able to spin off of one defending robot in order to free our robot up for a shot. While we were able to spin off a defender a couple of times we were only met by another. The third match between the two alliances proved this as the strategy was for 1451 to guard the right side and for 909 to guard the left to allow 1625 to get off their shots. It just didn't work. Hopefully in the next few days we will get these matches up on our website. After reviewing them I can't complain about the game play. It was rough, but every hit was consistent with what was being allowed.

1625: You all had an excellent scoring machine and I was very impressed with your robot.
1451: Your drivers did a great job of trying to get 909 & 1625 open.
939: Great defense and nice job of getting free to score points.
1208: Your autonomous scoring never let us play the game we wanted to.
650: You played us the closest of any team there. I'm surprised we won our previous two encounters. Your aggressiveness was hard to overcome and with your alliance partners it was just too much.