[hayakuneko]

realistically, the best alliance at atlanta will consist of one hybrid, one awesome scoring machine, and a bot that can score with experienced drivers to play mostly defense.

i feel somewhat bad for saying this, but the winning alliance at atlanta won't have a defensive/ramp bot as the #1 or #2 bot in the alliance. Don't bag on me for this, it's just my opinion based on what i've seen from the two regionals i've been to this year.

for example: 1070 was a great defensive/ramp bot at LA and they seeded #1; however they lost in I think it was semis or quarters? I don't know, but they lost and their first pick was 968. 330 on the other hand (a hybrid) was chosen by 254 who is an awesome scoring machine. Right from that moment, they were destined to win LA cuz there was no other alliance that could match them in pure scoring power.

on to what i was going to say. either the #1 bot in the winning alliance will be a hybrid bot (such as 330), then the #2 bot will be the pure scorer or it will be the other way around. The reason I put down defensive bots is because defense cannot win a game. Not, at least, without scoring going on in the background. I had a qualifying against 330 in SD where the coach decided to have us play with a defensive strategy. We were lucky to hold them to 16 pts and if we had another scoring robot on our alliance we could have won that match.

And the #3 bot on the winning alliance will have an experienced driver with a robot that can score, but not necessarily score well.

so there, defense can't really win on its own and I figure defense requires an experienced driver as opposed to "designing" a robot around a defensive strategy. Sure you can design the drivetrain around it, but a lot of the robots i've seen have shifting trannys anyways with a low-defensive-gear and a high-speed-gear. I think someone else out there can agree with me, or at least I hope so.

ok recap:
The seeded bot - a) scoring hybrid or b) pure scorer
First pick - a) pure scorer or b) scoring hybrid
Second pick - scoring bot w/ experienced drivers