Problem's with 2015…

[Loose Screw]

Originally Posted by Racer26

In 2015, playing against an elite has no impact on your QA (unless you yourself are an elite, and they're stealing step RC's you need). Playing allied with an elite boosts your QA. In 2015, there is no such thing as a 'hard' schedule (like in prior years if each match you were put up against elites). Just one that doesn't ally you with as many elites, which you can combat by simply being a little better yourself.

I completely agree that there are no hard matches this year. I think as teams tune in their robots this year, it'll be a match against themselves rather than against another alliance. Teams will have a set limit of how many points they can earn.

This, I think, is a problem with this year though. Using finals at Michigan States as an example, I believe that it will be extremely predictable. Anyone paying attention to what each single robot can put out will be able to add together that alliance scores and predict who will win. The only variance upon this is teams that grab from the center 4 RCs.

To put that in contrast, 2011 Michigan States finals saw some of the most competitive strategies I have seen. The number 1 alliance was knocked out in the quarter finals by the 8th alliance from strategy alone. No team broke down, no minibots exploded, just pure strategy (sorry to bring this back up 217, 469, and 201).

The lack of defense this year is a double-edged sword. On one hand you aren't purposely trying to break your opponents so you can get points for it (looking at you, week one 2014), but on the other higher levels of play will lack any diverse strategy.