Quote:
Originally Posted by petek
I believe that if the GDC had wanted this to be an offensive-only game, they would have put six trackballs on the overpass.
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I also think that the GDC wouldn't have written a definition of Hurdle that required the original robot to lose possession of the ball if they intended this game to be offense only. This Pinning a trackball is completely legal, as long as the trackball is on the floor (not supported) and not moving with the robot (not captured). It is a challenge to the driver and designers of the offensive robot to get the ball out of the pin quickly. This thread/strategy has been around since 1/6/08, so it was something to consider during build.
I have always thought the third robot is usually best served as a defense bot, since they can likely prevent more points in (high scoring) opponents hurdles then they can score (without one of their own trackballs) by simply doing laps (prevent 3 hurdles > 11 laps). Pretty much every alliance at I saw Philly tried trackball defense including pinning trackballs at some point with various degrees of success. Alliance 7 even tried using 2 robots to pin 2 trackballs. They succeeded in pinning one for the majority of the match. I was totally surprised how little defense there was in the qualification matches, considering Philly's rep in previous years.
At both regionals my team competed in, FLR and Philly, the alliance with the best trackball defender IMHO won. At FLR it was 2053 (with 20 & 191 & later 174) and at Philly it was 84. They can't win it without the offensive robots but they certainly play a key role in the "alliance" winning.