[JackN]

My Feelings after attending Four Regionals and watching a fifth

1. The match system is to janky to work on any consistent basis. The idea that low numbered teams are inherently better than higher number teams is bogus. With the ways teams are mentoring rookie teams now, rookies and second year teams are better than they were in the past. I don't think Exploding Bacon needs any help winning matches.

2. For me, the game has gone from really boring in week one (VCU Webcast), really exciting week two (GLR), To defensive Week three (DET), Boring again week four (BUCK), and amazingly awesome week Five (WMR).

3. This has been debated to death, but Ramps are vital to every alliance. At every regional I have seen, the winning alliance had ramps and used them to win. The bonus points are higher and more important than Aim High and Triple Play. These points swung matches to the point that if you had no ramps, say goodnight because you aren't winning. The other thing is that they are very hard to adequately defend against.

4. The other thing I have noticed is that defense is a vital part. Stopping opposing hangers puts you in good position to win a match. Two defensive robots and one scorer would not have won last year or the year before that, but this year defense is an integral part of each alliance.