Plays of the Year

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by SteveO

It was actually 987 that did that as 190 waited with the ramp ready to go. As both teams seemed very ramp cautious with ramps deployed well in advance of the 15 second end, 987 put the tube they had on the ramp without penalty. I don't know if they had planned that beforehand, or came up with it on the spot, but it looked really cool on the webcast. Wish I could have been there to see it in person.

If last year's "A-Bomb" was loading balls from your robot into an alliance's robot, then this year's A-Bomb is certaily what 987 did in the waning seconds of this year's championship. They placed the blue ringer in their claw on top of Team 71's deployed ramp, then dashed back to their own home zone to join Team 177 on top of Team 190's platforms. The play was brilliantly executed and extremely effective.

In the last fifteen seconds of the match, everyone in the audience knew that the only thing that mattered was if Swamp Thing could get on top of Beatty. The blue tube bounced them down the ramp once, and then it seemed as though they had gotten it out of the way and were going to make it up, but they apparently high-centered and got stuck for the last ten seconds. It was amazingly intense, and with the final score differing by only 5 points between the two alliances, it was what made all the difference.

Congratulations to all six teams duking it out in the finals on Einstein, but that is, in my opinion, the most ingenious play all year.