Is Defense key to this game?

[jgannon]

I had previously been confident that defense would be the key to this game, but it turns out that you need a little more. I crunched a few numbers to develop some power rankings, and I noticed something something interesting. The two best defensive bots this weekend, based solely on points allowed, were 1748 at VCU and 869 at NJ. 1748 allowed 2.5 points on average in 8 matches, and 869 allowed 3.1 points on average in 7 matches. Despite what appears statistically to be very stingy defense, both of these teams finished near the middle of the pack, and neither was picked for eliminations. Conversely, team 272 gave up an average of 35 in 16 matches at PNW, nearly putting them in the bottom 10% of my defensive rankings. Nonetheless, they won the regional. As always, good defense is a very powerful tool. However, it definitely doesn't guarantee anything. (Duh.)