[petek]

I mostly agree with George on this one. Far too many of the matches were decided by one minute into the teleoperated period or by penalties. By Saturday morning things did improve somewhat with more heads-up play at the overpass (placing and removing balls) brought in some end-game excitement.

It would have been even better if fewer matches were decided by penalties. So many times a team would spend a quarter of the match getting around the field and hurdling, only to waste that effort in the next quadrant with a line incursion while trying to recapture the ball or get around a traffic jam.

One thing I really like about this year's game is the variety of scoring methods in play: IMHO the matches that had racebots (102's Orion proved that just doing laps can be very exciting), arm hurdlers and catapults mixing it up were a blast to watch. The only ones I found tedious were those with just lapping going on. I was surprised that so few made a consistent effort to herd balls while lapping. Many threw away easy scoring opportunities by dodging around their own ball on their home stretch instead of giving it a punt across the line. I hope we see much more heads-up play in the coming weeks.