Triple Cyclers or Defense?

[Keefe2471]

Originally Posted by Zebra_Fact_Man

Honestly, only play defense if you are noticeably the scoring underdog. Here's why:

4) The third robot is your security blanket. We were able to limit 67 and 2834 to a combined 6 boulders in each of their matches (which when less defended the two scored 8 and 12 high in the finals), yet they were easily able to capture thanks to the 4 boulders scored by their 3rd robot. 51 was the difference between capture and no capture in all QF and SF matches. Whether they are just transferring boulders across the Outerworks for the other 2 robots, or scoring them in the low/high goals themself, against the best drivers, the 3rd robot is adding more worth to their alliance by adding 2 high boulders or 4 low boulders to their side than subtracting 1 or 2 boulders from the other side. (Against lesser drivers, a good defender can completely shut down an entire alliance's tower scoring. This will not be done at Regional Championships or Champs.)


So... yes defense is an option, but after playing it, if you have the high goal firepower to keep up, Offense-Only is the way to go.

As stated before by someone else in an earlier post, it's easier for your 3rd cycler to play defense when needed than for a defense robot to score boulders.

Wow, this ended up being a longer post than I wanted it to be.

I appreciate the effort and thought put into this thread by you and others. Your personal experiance is a great addition, but I think I draw a different conclusion. While your other bullet points have merit, I think they are greatly overshadowed by #4. As a third robot, you held two robots that scored a combined high of 12 high goals to only 6, in two matches! Instead of saying defense is only an option if you can't stay with them, I think defense is the way to go if you can stay with them. You say in the same bullet point that their third pick put in 2 high balls, you prevented 6. Assuming the capture is a given and your other 2 bots offense is equal or better, you're coming out ahead.

Not even factoring in the other points brought up pro defense; like congestion from 4 bots, preventing a short circuit of balls being inbounded, availability of shooters as a top 3 seed alliance, etc. The PNW has seen defense consistently change the game at the highest levels seen thus far, we'll see how DCMP goes this weekend.