[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Guy Davidson

I actually think the laps won't matter too much. After autonomous is over, you have two choices (as a third robot, as there are only two balls): run laps or play defense. If you can run eight or ten laps, you earn 16-20 points. On the other hand, if you can slow down an opposite hurdler enough to cost them 2 or 3 hurdles, not only you are worth about the same point differential to your alliance, but also you throw the opposing alliance off their game plan. And that could be worth even more.

I agree. Your team showed how defense was worth more than just trying to do laps. As great as it is to see fast robots avoid traffic and spin around the track, they simply are not worth that much points once hybrid is over.
Wasting 20 seconds and preventing a team from a hurdle is much more effective.
Our team was able to always get 2 hurdles or more per match in Hawaii, even though defense was played on us and even if we had trouble at times, grabbing the ball. With the laps included, that's a minimum of 20++ points always. That's equivalent to a fast lap bot alway doing 10 laps. Hurdles are just worth so much more and teams that can prevent/delay hurdles is a much bigger play, IMO, than anything else. Ive seen many matches where teams get 5+ hurdles in a match, but if you watch, almost no defense is played on them at all.