[petek]

I saw two very distinctly different kinds of competition at NJ and Pittsburgh. That difference I think can be attributed to the robot types and capabilities.

In NJ we had a number of very effective ball shooters and a few good ball dumpers. Many of these had quite manuverable and/or powerful drive systems and good balance. These qualities made it more difficult for defenders to effectively counter them. Granted, it was an alliance of some of the best, but the offense-oriented winning alliance was able to keep their more defense-oriented opponents running throughout their matches. 25's great drive system made it difficult for a defender to prevent them from getting balls from their human player or push them off target when shooting. 103's accuracy at long range and agile chassis let them avoid or roll off defenders, and while the defenders were focusing on those two high-profile teams, 1279 would slip in and fire off 5 balls into the goal up close. Besides that alliance, the number of effective scoring robots present in NJ probably tilted the balance away from brutal defense.

The story was quite the opposite in Pittsburgh. There, it seemed like 1038 and 365 were the most effective 3 pt shooters, and there were a few others which could score sometimes. 393 & 395 were very effective in the corner goals. Both 1038 & 365 were prone to tipping, which made them more easily defended. Since a larger percentage of teams there were trying to score in the corner goals, there was a lot more robot interaction. Also, several teams in Pittsburgh were purely defensive, and a few were warned or penalized for over-aggressiveness. One robot (393?) managed to move the end of the field back over an inch going for the corner goal at high-speed (I was impressed), and several crashed loudly into the side rails during autonomous. All in all, it was a very defense-oriented event.

I'm looking forward to Chesapeake and Philly to see what happens when some of the best offensive robots meet some of the best defensive ones. A shame 25 won't be at either event; I'd like to see what would happen when they meet a really good defender.