How do you scout Defense?

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by fuzzy1718

Oh and Lil Lavery, if you think defensive teams are a dime a dozen, then you obviously havn't been paying close enough attention. Picking the right defensive bot has made and broken many finals alliances. These teams were diamonds in the rough at the districts my team has been at, and we are kicking ourselves for not picking them.

Look, I've been doing this for years. I attended four regionals in person this year, competing in two of them. I know what I'm talking about.

There are always a couple standout defensive teams, but if you can't pick them out, you've got some serious scouting issues. They're the teams who wreak havoc on even the best scorers, and it's pretty easy to figure out who they are.

Past them, it becomes a very hairy and the field has tons of parity. It doesn't take a lot of unique devices to fill the "typical" physical defensive role. Any team with good/experienced drives, a robust drivetrain, and some basic intuition of how to play defense can fill this role. Yes, some will be better than others, but differences between these will often be minute.

However, you need reasonable expectations and good instruction for these teams. There are styles of defense for fast and nimble bots and there are styles of defense for powerful and forceful bots. Don't try and make one play the other style. And don't expect any of these "pack members" to shut down elite scoring machines.

Most importantly, look at the strategy involved here. Many of the best alliances aren't just sticking their 3rd pick in the defensive zone and leaving them alone. The best alliances know what roles each of their bots can fill, and build the best alliance strategy around all three robots (even if it's not an individual team's preferred role).