[Travis Hoffman]

48 will exist in Curie and expects with some simple upgrades to bring a more capable robot to the field than it has previously this season.

If we were tossing the spirit of competition out the window, the only X v Y strategy against 1114 and 469 that has a high probablility of keeping either team from #1 seed during qualifying is 84v2. A full out assault from all the relative peasants and lesser nobles on the castle where the King and Queen of Curie reside. Total lockdown of all four goals by opponents and partners in any match 1114 and/or 469 is in. 1114 is especially dangerous even by themselves and would weather most any form of traditional countermeasures to keep their scores low. They've faced strong resistance from other solid robots and still managed to win the seeding battle every time.

In the case of total, absolute collusion, however, 1114/469 (and the unfortunate spectators who must watch these borefests) bear the full brunt of the low seed scores from such debacles, while the rest of the field bears only a fraction of it...unless the Algorithm of Death were still around, but I digress.

Since that situation will never bear itself out in a FIRST competition setting, it will be exceedingly difficult to dethrone these two, save for the influence of fate/luck/karma/divine intervention, for I feel the lion's share of preparation and execution lies with these two teams. They've both done an excellent job of building up their castle walls such that even the best armies of the Curie kingdom would be hard-pressed to breach them.

[/figurative language overload]