week 1: Three Things I've Learned

[Koko Ed]

Every FIRST game will suffer when you have inferior team s on the floor struggling to accomplish simple tasks (like say moving or driving in a straight line). The game right now is in it; very straightforward stage and will start to gain elements of complexity when the "veterans" start taking what they learned in the early regionals and star applying things like defensive strategies so shooters and capable arm bots cannot simply run free and dominate.
The penalty situation reminds me of 2005 whenn a quarter of the field was off limits basically. I remember our team winning a match simply because a very veteran team lost thier heads and blatantly whacked us while we were getting loaded and getting ruined by the 30 point penalty. Fortunately 10 points are not quite as devastating. Teams who smartened up and avoided the penalties did well in 2005 (like us) and teams who continued to make th e same boneheaded mistakes struggled. It'll be the same this year. The rules are there folks, learn them adjust to them, live with them.
As for the level of play it's obvious a good autonomous can make or break a team and make "inferior" arm bot actually useful (I think 1024 is actually an arm bot but they made 1114's job infinitely easier by lapping the field and giving them a nice big fat cushion to do their thing). When you have a pair of good alliances duking it out this game is pretty exciting. Mismatches not so much but tha's wit any game.
I wanna see how it plays when I am at a regional full time (not just for the late elims due to travel issues) but it does seem like this game has an awful lot of potential to be a great one that's for sure.