week 1: Three Things I've Learned

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Jeremiah Johnson

1. The game is VERY boring and anti-climatic.
2. The matches are determined by penalties more often than not.
3. A team can get selected because of their reputation to build amazing robots in the past. (Someone from 16 or 1625, please explain to me why you selected us [648]? I'm grateful that you did, but it's perplexing.)

Any comments, concerns? Agree or disagree so far?

Well, regardless of what I think, #1 here is 100% matter of opinion. Some people will find this very fun and exciting, some may find it the most boring game ever...it happens every year.

#2..penalties are penalties. Unfortunately they have to exist, teams MUST get better at avoiding them. It is sad to see matches lost because of a stupid line violation that didn't give a team any advantage in a match, however the penalty must be applied so if teams can have a better idea of field presence, and when you are approaching one of those corners, make sure you don't need to go back even 1 inch before proceeding through. taking the extra 2 seconds to analyze the situation will be well worth not losing 10 points.

#3..This is the perk to being a team that can win, and has proven they can win time and time again. The elite teams are teams that have won the big matches, the clutch matches, and are elite for a reason. Honestly if you are picking, and you have the choice of 2 teams, both of whom appear to be equal in skill level, and one is 71 and one is XXXX, i'd be more likely to pick 71. They have put themselves in a place where winning is status quo for them, and I sure as heck would liek to be a part of that.