[Abra Cadabra IV]

Yeah, autonomous is huge. If an alliance scores a rack during auto, they pretty much win. But if they're blocked, and waste their rack, then things get much more interesting. Depending on whether or not you have the element of surprise, it's possible to make the opposing team waste 1-2 racks during autonomous.

Ease of getting pucks out of racks is also a pretty big factor. Teams that have to do a lot of driving back and forth to line up do much worse than teams that can just align themselves by running into the wall.

Robots also tend to be horrible at getting stuff off the floor. Many teams use Lego claws to do the job (which usually end the match as several pieces scattered across the field) and very few of them are actually good or fast at picking up pucks. As mentioned, a team that loads well from the floor will have a huge advantage, especially if they're paired with a team that loads well from racks.