[waialua359]

We should take a page out of 2006 and 07.
In 06, you could lose a match if you got blown out during autonomous. When matches were 40+ to 0 after autonomous, how could you possibly win (very little chance). It was not consistent because opponents could try and block you, messing things up. However, this year, no opponent is even in your area to try and block you. Thus, good autonomous bots will be more consistent, especially with the aid of the IR.
In 07, only 1 ringer at a time, and many teams claimed in practice, they could do 7-10 in a match by themselves and I saw it during the practice day (with no traffic and defense). Then during competition, no one got remotely close to averaging that by themselves and you seldom saw it done by an average alliance, because of...............defense and traffic.
This year, 08, you have lots of points potential from autonomous and lots of chance for defense and traffic because only 2 balls will be available per alliance.
Conclusion: Autonomous is important. Defense is important. We will see lots of traffic, tipped-over bots, broken pieces on the field, and frustrated teams. **exagerating a bit**