Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Streeter
As a case in point, the Granite State Regional was won this year by an alliance with three excellent ball-handling robots (1073, 1519, 1058), of which none could hang. In order to win the tournament, they defeated an alliance with two hanging robots in the semifinals (outscoring the opposition despite their two successful hangers) and the #1 seeded alliance in the finals (who had an awesome hanging robot that successfully hung in every match.) In short, if a robot can score more points through ball-handling (despite defense encountered in elims) than they can via hanging, the ball-handling robot will be a better pick. However, just because a "better pick" is out there doesn't ensure that alliance captains will make the right pick
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Ken's comments are very right. I was part of that semifinal alliance that got defeated by the champion alliance, and I was very surprised by the results. We thought defense and hanging would be critical in the elimination rounds, and made our second-round pick with that in mind. The #2 alliance rounded out their picks with a team we rated very highly, but didn't fit our perceived needs. Boy, were we surprised by the firepower they were able to bring out on us! I think what this proved, in my mind, is that hanging will be a great boost for teams to have, but in terms of scoring potential for the alliance, ball control and shooting is far more important. Put it this way: a robot that's a great shooter and can hang will be an invaluable member of an alliance, but from now on, I'll take a good shooter that can't hang over a mediocre shooter that can.