FIRST records

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Francis-134

While it was rather bang-bust, I would have to say that the bang was pretty well worth the occasional bust.

2004 had a special class of robots: the bar-blockers. Teams 64, 237, 330, 868, and 1266 (2004 rookie) were sliders; 190 simply got up and put out a pair of lexan arms atop the bar. 868 made it to Einstein that year. If one of those robots made it to the bar against you, you were 50 points in the hole with a chance of being 100 points in the hole. I believe all of them were picked for eliminations at at least one event just because of that. To make matters worse (or better), a couple of them could remove the doubler balls from their opponent's stationary goal, putting said opponent even further in the hole points-wise. Definitely worth the occasional bust, just for the points advantage (and the excitement of seing how the opponents would try to get up this time ). As for which one was best, nobody really figured that one out at the time. 190 gets most effective, though, for the ball-stealing ability they had.

It was always exciting if two bar-blockers faced off. See the linked video for a prime example (190 vs 237). I know 330 and 190 met once in Arizona; 330 and 237 met once or twice in Atlanta; 330 and 1266 met a couple times at an offseason, but I don't think they met during the season. Not sure if 64 played against 330 or 190 at all that year; same for 868 playing any of the others.

The strategy was easy to beat, though, especially if there were ever two bar-blockers on the same alliance. You just had to use the mobile goals and double those. Fortunately, the small-ball/doubler ball robots were the usual partners for the bar-blockers and canceled out the other alliance's score. Or you just kept the blockers off the bar, though with them going out and partway up in auto, that was kind of tricky.