Do we want another game without defense?

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by Brandon Zalinsky

I promised in January to hold my judgement until I saw this game played. What I saw was incredibly creative and awesome machines playing an atrocious and boring game.

On to 2016.

+1

Originally Posted by Brad Hanel

On contrary to "Teams can't upset or make comebacks," at the two regionals I went to, the winning alliances were the #6 and #7. Prior to this year I had never been to one where an alliance outside the top 3 won.

I loved Recycle Rush, and I feel the awesomely creative robot designs are more fun to watch than a game with defence. What other game would have harpoons and multiple robots?

If there's an issue I have with this game, it's the average points ranking system, not the lack of defense.

But by the poll it seems I'm in the minority on this one.

The difference is that in previous years, upsets could occur because of smart gameplay and well-placed defense. This year, upsets happened when the favorite to win accidentally toppled a stack over or broke entirely.

These upsets were often because the favorite alliance had one bad match in quarters or semis that was impossible to make up, due to advancement by average score, not because the lower seeded alliance figured out a smart way to stop the opponents from scoring or other cool strategy. Strategy at the highest level of play was "Win autonomous can battles, make stacks on your own."