Thoughts on Overdrive

[M. Mellott]

Overall, it was an entertaining, fast-paced, enjoyable game. But, IMHO, there were still some issue:

• As one who likes a good blend of offense and defense, I thought this game had great potential for both...in the beginning. However, as defensive-minded teams became more innovative and developed creative defensive stratagies, high-powered offense-minded lobbyists definitely got their way as rule "clarifications" as the season went on were definitely skewed towards the offense.
• Penalties decided way too many matches.
• During a brainstorming session in January, I recall someone (I think it was me...) saying, "Catapulting a giant 10-pound ball 7-10 feet into the air from one end of the field to the other and having it land wherever can't be safe--FIRST will never allow that!"...Well, we know for next year that FIRST has reset the bar on limits.
• Qualification match pairings will not be completely impartial until the list of compeditors is randomized BEFORE entering the list into the algorithm.