Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick TYler
How does Blue2 feel if its partners won't help them maximize QPs? Would it be wrong for Blue2 to score for red by placing goals on the overpass?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cory
Yes, because they would receive a 10 point penalty against their alliance for every red ball they possessed.
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Blue2 may be willing to "eat" the penalty (as long as they still win the match) in order to raise the QP's. They'd have to weigh that against the loss of goodwill they would generate among the other teams, and whether any additional penalties (yellow card or even a DQ) could be assessed.
To the original question: In past games, scoring for your opponent was allowed. Last year it was expressly forbidden. This year it is allowed, within constraints (e.g. no possession of their trackball). In some cases, it is better for you to score 2 points for your opponents by knocking their ball across their finish line, than it would be to allow them to grab the ball to hurdle.
A general strategy is to get your own trackballs down (so you can use them to score) and leave the other alliance's trackballs up (so they can't use them to score). A secondary strategy is that if your alliance cannot hurdle, then you leave your trackballs up. (Interesting aside: most of the rookies at Kettering figured this out by Saturday, but some veteran teams at regionals never got it.)
Given that, the proper strategy for this match would be to leave the red trackballs on the overpass as long as possible. During the last quarter of the match, the alliance can decide whether it is better for them to leave the red balls up, or to encourage Blue3 to show their stuff and knock them off. If the 24 points wouldn't cause you to lose the match (and you'd have to have a pretty good margin of points to be sure of that), then leave the balls up to get the QP's. This is one strategy that I saw very few teams recognize. It's not anti-GP, it's good strategy.