Teams breaking the game

[J_Miles]

Really, the only team to really "Break" a game has been 71 in 2002. Everyone pretty much agrees that Hammond broke that game. With that said, I think the GDC has done an extremely good job since then of ensuring that games can't be "broken." Yes, 469 in 2010 came as close to what you might call "breaking the game" as possible without doing so, but I would argue that their strategy - however difficult to defeat - was not unbeatable, and as such can't be accurately called a game breaking strategy.

What made 469's robot so special in 2010 was that they weren't a one-trick pony. Even if they had no balls cycling, their robot was so well designed that they could still outplay probably a vast majority of teams conventionally. No, they weren't in the same conversation as teams like 67 or 1114 in terms of pure ability, but they could certainly hold their own until they got their cycles going. And obviously given what happened on Einstein in 2010, they certainly weren't unbeatable - so, given all of that I don't know that any robot besides Beatty's 2002 machine can be called "game-breaking." And I'm sure that the GDC will see to it that it stays that way.

That said, I think that 469's strategy in 2010 was one of the most unique and powerful strategies I've ever seen employed in an FRC game, but certainly there have been more and will continue to be more. That's what makes FRC so amazing!