Where's the defense this year?

[Eric Bareiss]

I agree with John that you have to know when you are beat offensively. Sometimes you just go against teams that can score more points than you. I do not agree that you shouldn't play defense in qualification. I think it comes down to picking your battles well.

Too many teams are going out onto the field just expecting to score as many points as they can and win. Well when you are playing against an alliance who can score 200+ points and your alliance can barely break 150, it's time to play some defense. Most teams score FAR less points if you just get in their way a little.

In AZ team 60 was scoring 100+ points per match on their own. Team 1011 had a simple swerve drive robot. 1011 stuck on 60 the whole match, they kept them from hearding, they kept them from capping and they kept them hanging. Could 1011 have outscored 60? NO WAY! but they stopped them from scoring a ton of points, and showed other teams that they had the ability to stop big scorers (they got picked by the second alliance).