[BHS_STopping]

Well, our winning alliance at the Sacramento/Davis competition had one very constant autonomous winner (which was a low goal bot, or "bottom-feeder", as our coach likes to say) which was also a good defensive bot, a high goal shooter which would help break a tie in autonomous by scoring 1 or 2 balls in the center goal, and one high shooter which would play spectacular defense during the whole match, while also being able to score if both other bots were blocked. Also, all robots were easily capable of getting up the ramp, as well as helping a disabled robot get onto the ramp with a push (Thanks 852!).

Any way it works, there are different alliances for different situations. It all depends what your opponents are capable of and what you know about the competition. In other words, it's almost impossible to build a winning team without decent scouting reports. You basically have to know the in and outs of each bot there, and then you can start building a top-nothch alliance that is capable of many things, not just scoring high.

The scouting strategy is quite possibly one of the most overlooked aspects of this competition. Next year, it would be wise of many teams to take a look at other teams individually, not by their seeds. I guess our experience just goes to show that picking the 16th and 36th seeded teams can pave the way to victory.

(Basically a longer explanation of squirrel's ideas.)