2014: the year of the underdog

[Team3266Spencer]

Originally Posted by tStano

I entirely agree. I think this year, it will be very interesting to see how teams with limited resources keep up. I think this game will have everything to do with how fast you can get the ball down the field, and I think teams who throw it all over the place will lose track of the ball very easily (especially considering its relative lightness and bounciness(and varying levels of bounciness due to inflation)) and I think recovery from that is going to take a long time. Therefore, your 'A' and 'B' robots who theoretically have very controlled strategies could indeed do very well. However, I think its harder than we think to bulldoze around a ball due to its lightness and bounciness.

I also can't get myself to ever think of defense when I think of this game being played. That is a criticism of myself; I'm not saying that defense seems unlikely. This game has so many complex strategies, its hard to wrap my head around it.

I think not being capable of good defense could lead to some missed opportunities. Consider that since there will be only one ball in "the cycle of assists" once you've completed your third of the exchange you'll likely have some dead time to fill before the next ball comes, especially when working with a slower alliance. That dead time seems like a great defensive opportunity to me.