Defense in Ultimate Ascent

[PayneTrain]

One thing people are going to need to be very aware of in building an Einstein worthy alliance is the possibility that you will run out of game pieces before the match ends. We have seen matches where no discs were left behind the walls, but do not discount the possibility that two really good cycling robots and a floor pickup could score every single disc on their side, in addition to a few on the other side. At that point, you're going to either regret not having any big point climbers or the 8+ points you threw away by not giving discs all of their potential value (3 for white, 5 for red).

An interesting defensive strategy could actually be forcing robots to go to the 2 point goals or abandon pyramid goal disc scoring and actually make a team play itself out of contention for the match.

Scouting at championships is going to be quite the saga, because not only are there going to be a lot of great robots, the "middle class" of robots have had a better year and the Wild Card system makes the event more competitive as well. There are going to be 20 or so robots in every division that will look second-pick worthy on paper but finding the best one for each alliance is going to be interesting.

I think an ideal second pick search begins by establishing a "floor" based on the abilities of the other two partners. The third robot needs to be able to contribute to a perfect autonomous routine by never missing its 3 discs and maybe can pickup the center discs or sit on top of them to keep them away from the other alliance. It would have to "cover" cycles the other robots can't complete every match, and 10 point hang. After that, I can imagine a lot of evaluation on a team's ability to play defense while transitioning between cycles, how well the team could commit to load-zone/blocking defense, man-to-man defense, lane-to-center (what I call "contact zone") defense, and zone pyramid defense (those are the four types of defense to play that I can see, feel free to add or subtract). Driver communication with the coach and coach communication with alliance partners for evolving the strategy in qualifications is also a quality that will be looked at.

(If you would like to see me shamelessly and subtly plug the Team 422's machine qualities as a robot specifically designed to be an ideal second pick at Championships, feel free to PM or just watch my posts all week.)