Robots Advantages

[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by waialua359

Those that can "control" the middle of the field will dominate, as it is the source of the balls that are recycled.

Why score from the near end if you can do it from the middle?
Get rid of the "middle man" and score.

Defense is being highly underestimated.
I played soccer for years. Its very different when its by yourself vs. an opposing team.

I agree with you entirely, especially since I play as a striker or a sweeper in soccer... though I think good defensive teams will have a very tough time getting recognized. My girlfriend put it perfectly: "it's not much fun watching you play when you play defense, because it only gets exciting if you screw up".

Our team is going to be more defensively minded I think, and I will be really disappointed if we get written off because we weren't as noticeable as a high-scoring team.

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by eagle33199

Very rarely do you see alliances picking generic "jack of all trade" robots in the first round - they pick robots that compliment them the best. If you have an offensive robot, you're going to pick someone that's really good in the middle or defense. It's only when you're getting down near the end that you see "jack of all trade" robots being picked - because at that point, there's no one left that specializes in the zone that team needs to cover.

I think that the top robots picked are actually 'jack of all trades' but excel at one facet of the game, and thus only do that one thing. So, it seems that they can only do one thing but in reality would be very good at other facets of the game. Last year, I think 67 would have made a great defensive/EC runner with their drivers and pickup. 1114 in 2008 would have been an amazing lap bot given their autonomous and drivers. 330 in 2007 would have been an excellent defensive ramp bot given their strong drivetrain and experienced drivers. Each of these teams, however, were better at scoring so they never really got the chance to showcase their other skills.

I think the top bots will be able to play in atleast 2 different zones. Say, for example, the top seed is a scoring powerhouse that only plays in the front zone. If they are the best team, I want to be on their alliance and in order to be on their alliance I would need to play in the far or middle zone. To increase my chances of being an attractive partner to compliment them, it is is my best interest to play more than one zone.