[BJC]

I think that when it comes to defense this year teams don't want to play it because they feel their ability would be better used elsewhere.

As a result I have yet to see a robot who consistantly plays good defense in the far zone AND can clear balls to the other side of the field.

It seems that for the most part once a ball enters either the near or far zone it stays there until it is scored.

My suggested stratigy is to have the "best" robot in the far zone, the second "best" in the middle and the third in the home zone . Then in teleop the "best" robot clears all the balls out of the far zone across the field into their home zone (their goal here would not be to score but to do this as fast as possible). Meanwhile, the third robot would join the second "best" in the middle in an effort to control the flow of balls in the middle (the third pick does not have help kick balls but can instead harass the middle oppenent robot this way that great third pick defender robot on the other alliance doesn't have anyone to guard and is effectivly useless). After all the balls in the far zone have been kicked down and the middle has been secured the "best" robot will join the other two in the middle to further assist in kicking balls into the home zone (again just as fast as possible, not to score) Then with a minute to forty seconds left the "best" and second "best" robots will go into their home zone and push balls in by the bucketload (instead of one at a time over the course of the match). The third robot would stay in the middle and continue to harrass the opposition. Finally, any robot who could would hang for bonus points.

This would throw teams off balance because generally the best teams play offencivly in the close or middle zones.
My 2 cents