Key Factor In This Year's Game

[hayakuneko]

It seems as though every year, we miss one of the main factors in the game. Last year, after watching the telecast, we thought "hmm the center goal seems to be the key factor to winning" so we built a two jointed arm that could stack 5-6 tetras on the center goal; however, the downside of this was that our arm was very slow! what we found out was that the main factor in the 05 game was speed, basically quantity of tetras over how high you could stack.

This year, I think we got it wrong again. Although there were many ways a robot could be built to win. One way would be using the dumping technique. A few teams were incredibly good at this, specifically 1006 (Fast Eddie) and 1138. It seemed as though dumpers were important in a winning alliance, for example 1006 won Arizona and 1138 won LA. Another way was to have a high shooter, pickup device, and large basket (like 968 or the cheesy poofs). with such a device like this, they were able to get on the ramp and unload their balls within a short amount of time.

I was just wondering if any other teams felt this way too. I just don't understand how such a straightforward telecast and description of the game could lead some teams to success due to knowing the "key factor" while other teams just can't seem to figure it out until later on after ship or during competitions. We've never really built a field, but would you say that building at least 1/2 a field is advantageous?