week 1: Three Things I've Learned

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by Paul Copioli

Defense will be a bigger part of this game than most people realize. We saw hints of this at St. Louis. The eliminatio matches where we scored in the 70s was a combination of Hybrid defense and teleoperated ball defense.

I agree. While I wasn't at any events this weekend, I was glued to the Midwest regional webcast trying to get a feel for the game and possibly pick up some solid strategies. Defence was huge! Sometimes it took a few seconds for me to realize I was watching defence, but it was definitely there and it was definitely useful. Defencive play with the balls seems to be particularly effective (which is probably why it there seems to be little defence to the casual observer). In several matches, extraordinary shooters had their effectiveness drastically reduced by defence. I imagine that, as the weeks go on, defence will become even bigger as more teams get a feel for how to do it properly.