[FUN] Karthik Joins Recap w/FRC Top 25 Tuesday 8:30PM EST!

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by BotDesigner

Here is my question for Karthik: How do you think defense will be played on Einstein (if at all)? Will it be the strategy we have been mostly seeing so far, blocker bot in the courtyard? Or will defensive play move into the neutral zone with boulder starvation strategys similar to the one 610, 1421, and 3560 played at Waterloo?

(Not Karthik)
I believe that defense more akin to what 3560 played will be more likely on Einstein. It's been clear from Week 1 of build season that the top tier teams would take advantage of G43 and protected shooting zones. Even then, many of the teams (best demonstrated by 118 in their reveal video) set up their release to be above the 4' 6" limitation. Because of these two factors, it's pretty clear that courtyard defense will be a fairly moot point. There are, however, certain robots that can be disrupted during their shooting process (16, 2771, 1806, etc) by application of force at the correct moment.

On the other side of the equation, 3560 showed at Waterloo that properly applied defense adding the slightest time to a cycle to the secret passage is nearly crippling to the opposition. However, this kind of defense requires a strong drivetrain and a savy driver. Additionally, with a defensive robot preventing access to the secret passage, a strategy such as that of 148 at Waterloo can be applied, where you apply a "soft lock" to the opponent where you score a boulder, they're forced to re-enter the boulder, you steal the boulder out of the secret passage, rescore said boulder, and repeat. Note: This strategy is risky and only works if you manage to get at least 7 boulders into the opposing castle.