Where's the defense this year?

[Yan Wang]

Originally Posted by ToMMan b182

This probably isnt the best place to ask this, but is there a rul that says you cannot pick a team up off the bar and move them?

There is a rule that I am too lazy to go look up that says that your robot may not INTENTIONALLY go and pick up, flip, impale, burn other robots, etc. You get the gist of the rule.

[J Flex 188]

though you are allowed to try and knock robots off the bar with 5 pt ball shots.

Originally Posted by Yan Wang

There is a rule that I am too lazy to go look up that says that your robot may not INTENTIONALLY go and pick up, flip, impale, burn other robots, etc. You get the gist of the rule.

[OneAngryDaisy]

along this topic (although it may be a little off-track) I noticed more and more teams are modfiying their hook to make it more foolproof. At chesapeake very few teams had to really try to get their hook off, but at Philly many had to stick poles up to remove their hook. I know we, for one, had more trouble getting it off than on. It took a guy on a ladder 5 minutes to get it down, but if it took him that long I guess we aren't coming down anytime during competition

[KenWittlief]

I dont know if they were disqualifying teams for tipping bots over

I saw one match where a team was trying to cap a goal, and the other came over and rammed it in the side, knocking it right over

im not sure, but I think they were disqualified for that match - I thought they had more points but they lost

but I didnt hear any matches where the announcer said a team was disqualified for tipping a bot intentionally.

[David Bridge]

One more thing as far as defense goes... A lot of this years robots were built for finesse because they game called for them to be able to do so many different things. Without the great strategy and defense that 177 played keeping robots away from the bar (because we couldn't hang ourselves) we would never have been able to win. However, there was a big price to be paid for playing such violent defense. Anyone watching the philly finals knows that we had a lot of problems with breaking our basket among other things that were quickly repaired, but will need to be further tweaked at nationals to get back to 100%. We actually managed to break a weld on our conveyor, pull our kicker roller out of its bearing, AND sheer the tube on part of our basket TWICE all during finals. It would have been a lot less work for us if we could have just let our oppenents hang, and then also hung ourselves and won that way.

[Pat Roche]

Well i was at BAE. Out whole objective their was defense and and hanging...it was successful for us....but i looked around and not many other teams did this....alot of teams tried to score high......with this years game it seems that winning is more important than points....i think it was once said: Winning is winning...whether you win by a mile or an inch...its still winning.

-Pat

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by T134guy

...with this years game it seems that winning is more important than points....i think it was once said: Winning is winning...whether you win by a mile or an inch...its still winning.

-Pat

that wasnt the case at Buckeye - only one team was undefeated, 7:0, the next top 4 were 6:1

and the next 14 were 5:2 - so your points (the other teams points) decided who got to fill the bottom 3 teams of the top 8, and being the second seed is more desireable than being the 5th.

[Koko Ed]

The best defense I saw was when that little robot was chasing 67 all over the field and just wouldn't leave them alone and they lost the match because they kept getting crawled on.

[rourke]

Here's why I started the thread....I've always subscribed to the saying "The best defense is a good offense". BUT, when you know your offense isn't as good as the other team's offense, why aren't more teams switching to defense (if for no other reason than to give their alliance partner a chance to score)? In most professional team sports, all things being equal, a good defense generally beats a good offense in the long run.....

[KenWittlief]

the one that was bouncing around like its wheels were only held on by one remaining screw? that was funny to watch - the bot was like Daffy Duck gone berzerk on the field

Wooop woop wooop woop woop!

[rourke]

I also think it was a lot more obvious last year.....When you saw your opponent build a stack of 7, there was only one reaction - knock it down! (duh!) Even though the game is more diverse this year, the reaction should still be the same! When you see that your opponent can score big, STOP THEM!

[JVN]

Originally Posted by rourke

I also think it was a lot more obvious last year.....When you saw your opponent build a stack of 7, there was only one reaction - knock it down! (duh!) Even though the game is more diverse this year, the reaction should still be the same! When you see that your opponent can score big, STOP THEM!

We've been saying this since day 1.
As a few have seen... our robot was designed with strong defense as one of it's primary functions. We've also got some offensive moves, but it's always nice to be able to fall back on a strong, defensive strategy without worrying about damaging your robot.

See you in Atlanta...

John

[KenWittlief]

teams that are playing defensive in all their matches are going to have low match scores for all their matches

teams that are playing offensive are going to have high scores

the ones that can play their strategy consistantly will win most of their matches

but at noon on saturday, the ones that focused on scoring, and let their opponent also score, will be placed higher in the seeding list.

so where are the defensive teams this year? down around 15 or 20 on the results list :^)

[Zorkinian]

I wouldn't make the harsh generalization that defense-oriented teams place low on the seeding list - our team plays a lot of defense. Many of our rounds involve getting a few points, playing near-total defense, and then proceeding to hang. We seeded 1st at NYC. From what I've been seeing, the teams that could effectively stop the good herders and the good multipliers were the ones that got far.

[KenWittlief]

its not harsh, its statistics - if you lose one match then you fall from the 7:0 tier down into the 6:1 tier - and if you have been playing defensively (not letting your opponent score) you will fall all the way to the bottom of it.