Contested Containers

[asid61]

Originally Posted by JesseK

I've had to re-iterate this to the veteran mentors on my team, since they're so used to the frame of mind that a low-scoring 'win' can be successful this year. That mindset won't even make it out of QF's.

10 Quals, 2 QF's, 3SF's, 2-3 Finals = 18 matches potentially at the average event.
The competitiveness of the containers isn't what matters for 15 / 18 matches, only the raw score of our own alliance. If the "opponents" want to get those containers to just keep them away from us, let them waste their time. We'll just stack our 3 RC's on a bigger stack with a less cluttered field.

It should really be emphasized that an entire robot should not focus on a strategy that only plays out 16% of the time for only (on average 6 / 50) 12% of teams. The strategy only works before finals if the alliance uses those containers. Given some of the discussions I've seen/heard, there is so little emphasis on what to do after the RC's are acquired, or even where to put them so they're out of the way of stacking.

Getting to the containers on the step in a controlled manner and getting a single container from the step in a controlled manner is much more valuable long-term than something that "wrangles" 4 at a time back to the alliance all willy-nilly.

But you don't need the most points to win; you need only be picked by a high-seeded alliance. If you design both mechanisms, you can swap them out if other teams are better at grabbing the cans than you, and stack normally.
Denying points is important, as ultimately, it comes down to elims.