50 Pt. Climbs

[EricH]

I can think of a few reasons.
1) Lineup time. Depending on your climb start point, it could take a while just to line up.
2) Defense. As long as you didn't get called for interfering with a climb or contact with the pyramid, opponents that had to line up precisely had to go around you as a defender. If you played some physical defense, guides to help line up could be damaged (and in fact I saw that happen--the team who was trying the climb and dump couldn't line up the second time they tried it, despite the defender backing off).
3) Difficulty of climb. Take the number of 30-point climbers--reliable, consistent ones--out of the number of climbs attempted at any level. Not too terribly many, by comparison.
4) Now carry discs while seeing #3. And #2 due to defense being played as soon as color was spotted in your dumper. How many discs will make it?


When you factor in the rest of the game, say with a cycler (no floor pickup, automode shooting only preload with 100% accuracy, 10-point hang), that 50 points becomes only 40 (hang), then 22 (automode), or two cycles of 4 discs each. That's a moderate robot, one that would inhabit most regionals somewhere around the bottom of the alliance selections, maybe late first-round.

Essentially, a 50-point climb-and-dump with nothing else onboard to score is at about the same level as a robot that just does cycles with a good automode.

That said, when a 50-point climb-and-dump has something for, say automode, THAT's when it becomes difficult to beat. 3309 comes to mind--they shot during auto, and didn't show the C&D device until sometime around semis in L.A.--at which point they became the biggest target for their opponents' defender.