Do you agree?

[Jeff Beckett]

one thing you can forget is if there is another robot that can score lots of points. you can't block both at the same time. this is where i would say scoring the points is better just for the fact of keeping it close. just my two cents.

[akshar]

Originally Posted by Jeff Beckett

one thing you can forget is if there is another robot that can score lots of points. you can't block both at the same time. this is where i would say scoring the points is better just for the fact of keeping it close. just my two cents.

lets say the opposing alliance has a defensive bot, and two offensive. One of the offensive and defensive can play defense on these two bots and the other can score...this is what happened throughout eliminations in Boston with 1568 (defense) 233 (offense) 121(offense), by taking turns playing offense and shooting, 233 and 121 provided the points, while 1568 blocked any bot trying to shoot in the center goal.

[KenWittlief]

This is a trick question and my brain already hurts!

Each alliance has 40 balls to start, right? So to block 80 points that means your alliance must have put at least 40 balls into your own goals, giving you 40 points or 120 points already.

but if you block the 80 points does that mean 80 balls, or 26.6666 balls are now on the play field, or are they still in the opponents robot that could not get off any shots?

If they are on the field then it depends whether your robot can snarf them back up off the floor. If your alliance cant do that you may be better off letting them score in the side goals, so you can (maybe) reload your robot and score them in your center goal?

My answer: insufficent input - please specify all required parameters necessary to determine a meaningfull answer! :^)

[MasonMM]

I think it is what you consider "good".

It's more impressive and crowd pleasing to see a robot score 80 points in a match by itself.

But as far as scoring and winning a match it can go both ways. As 418 already stated they used the "Stop the other guys from scoring at all cost" strategy and without it they wouldn't have won the regional. So in that sense is is quite as good to stop a team from scoring, especially if it means winning a regional.

[StephLee]

From my experience as coach and strategizer for our team at two regionals, it always DEPENDS. One strategy will very very rarely work for all matches in this game; you have to take each match as it falls out and go from there. Our robot can play multiple roles on an alliance: if we have a good shooter on our alliance, we can play defense and dump a bit, but if we're the top shooter on the alliance, we can shoot quite well. We're an all-around robot, basically. So for our strategy...

Say we're with two dumper/defenders. We'd be the primary offense, ask the others to play defense for us while we shoot, then go for the ramp. But what if we're with two good shooters? We'd play defense with the better pusher of the other two, and we'd block for them so they can shoot effectively.

What about the opponents? If you're against two or three shooters, you concentrate your defense on the center of the field. If you're against three dumpers, though, you sit in front of the corner goals. If your opponents can't push well, defending your scorer isn't as crucial; but if you're up against a minitank, you keep them away from that shooter at all costs.

My point is, it depends on your alliance partners' capabilities, as well as those of your opponents, as to whether it's better to stop the scoring of 80 points or to score those 80 points yourself. Due to all the headaches trying to strategize before the competitions, I've decided "Case-by-case basis" is a great motto for this game.

[George A.]

Commenting on the pick and screen method.

From what I hear (I've yet to see video) In Palmetto, 11 was able to shoot 10 for 10 through the center hoop in autonomous. Then in later matches other teams wised up and knocked into them throwing off their alignment. In the eliminations 11 had one of their partners set up a screen to block the defender so they could score...I guess that strategy worked since 11 and their allaince won the event.


Then at Philly 306 was able to shut down 84 and 365 (two of the powerhouse scorers) to win the event. So I'd go out on a limb, that if you get a robot that can score a few points in autonomous then play defense you're golden.

[StephLee]

Originally Posted by M.O.R.T.

Commenting on the pick and screen method.

From what I hear (I've yet to see video) In Palmetto, 11 was able to shoot 10 for 10 through the center hoop in autonomous. Then in later matches other teams wised up and knocked into them throwing off their alignment. In the eliminations 11 had one of their partners set up a screen to block the defender so they could score...I guess that strategy worked since 11 and their allaince won the event.

Our alliance at Pittsburgh did the same thing; 393 dumped in the corner for a solid, reliable 10, we (1629) shot in the center and generally made at least 3 or 4, and 1370 blocked for us.

[George A.]

You can find my predictions for the winning allaince

here


here

and

here

notice my third one (on the list, actually the first one chronologically speaking) is from February BEFORE the start of regionals...so it's not like I just jumped on the bandwagon. I've been preaching it for a while...and now it's coming to fruition.