[David Brinza]

#1. Well, millions of people seem to be attracted to NASCAR. With the exception of the occasional crash, it seems as though it's just hours of driving in circles. Boring? Overdrive is light-years ahead of NASCAR in terms of complex strategy and teamwork. The excitement in this game is how alliances execute their strategy and how the opponent's counter.

#2. The rules are there for a reason. GDC spends a lot of time deciding what should and shouldn't constitute a penalty. Maybe the risk of collision damage to an oncoming robot is why reversing over a line you've already crossed is not allowed. If you don't like penalties, don't break the rules.

#3. Alliance selection: Serpentine selection makes it tough for the top few alliances to pick a third team. You cannot select solely based on a team's standing. At the MWR, Team 16 was in 18th place at the end of the qualifying round, but they were the top pick for 1625 and (so I was told) also 1114. Team 16 has been around for a long time, they have good scouts, they understand what kind of team/robot fits their strategy to win the regional. If you're perplexed at their selection, maybe you didn't understand the strategy they felt would work best.

I thought the MWR was an intense, well-played competition - in spite of being a Week 1 regional. The games, teams and robots will get better and this may be one of the more entertaining games FIRST has developed. I really like Overdrive!!