[Andrew Blair]

Originally Posted by T. Hoffman

I am more than mildly amused by alliances that ramp and score 60, daring the other non-ramp alliance to get a row of 7.....

Or even score 30 early, and send the other robot to harass the 3 offenders.

Seen it a few times.

Definently. It seems to be very effective- at least during qualifiers.

Originally Posted by BBnum3

I'm a huge soccer fan as well (see the sig) and I understand what you're saying. One of the most exciting matches I've ever seen was a 0-0 draw. There's a difference between two extremely evenly matched alliances duking it out and two struggling alliances failing to score...

And see, this is the problem I see. I play soccer, and when there is a great player, you know when he's making a great play. You can tell when an awesome rip comes inches from the goal post, and you can tell when a striker and stopper go down together in the mud.

In Rack&Roll, from the web-casts anyways, you can't really tell. It looks like a lot of fumbling around much of the time- not an offense vs. defense struggle. On the field, I'm sure it's a different matter, but from the viewers perspective, it's pretty bad. In 2006, you could tell that teams were jockeying for position to shoot, and spectators were rewarded when a defensive robot pushed a team around, causing a volley of balls to fly overhead.

Much of this apparent fumbling comes from what appears to be indecision. Last year, teams would be scoring or defending. The last twenty seconds, teams would either make a ramp attempt, or continue to score. Maybe there would be a commited, last second try to get up the ramp. This year, teams seem to be just kinda driving around the field at times, and at the end of matches, teams often don't seem to have a good idea whether or not they're going to climb a ramp. Sometimes they make a half hearted attempt, then drive back onto the field to push around a few tubes. It looks clumsy.

I also think that it will get better with time, but right now, it's not real good.