[Ian Curtis]

I haven't seen many matches this year. I was at BAE on Saturday, and I've watched the elims of two FiM events. Typically they don't cover the whole field in one shot, so it's pretty hard to judge autonomous on a webcast.

However, 1519's autonomous definitely stole the show at BAE. Having 5-8 balls in their near zone and far away from their opponents goal was a huge momentum swing in their favor. When 78 tied it up, 1519's alliance skipped autonomous mode and lost. When they put their autonomous mode back in and took a deep breath, they overwhelmingly won their second match to seal the deal.

Despite the fact that this is year has a pretty low key autonomous, I think it might be my favorite. It doesn't have a point value associated with it so it isn't hugely obvious (see 2006, 2008) but it isn't undervalued in most matches either (2007, 2009).