I wasn’t thrilled about Destination Deep Space at Kickoff as I was about other games in the past. I heard it called “Destination Deep Sleep”.
As the season progressed and the game evolved, I started to see how ingenious the Game Design Committee (GDC) was in the various scoring aspects of the game.
This has become more apparent at the CMP’s.
Hatches only worth two points with cargo at three seemed paltry at first, but the fact that you needed the lower point one to score the higher point one…
Ranking points in qualifications accrued for activities during the match (Rocket) and the endgame created tradeoffs for trying to complete a Rocket vs. climbing to Hab 2 or Hab 3.
In Playoffs (yes, Playoffs, not Elims), the lack of the Ranking points was not as a significant issue as was the availability of cargo locations. Watching Robots prioritize hatching the rockets to create more cargo locations was great from a strategy standpoint.
Now, add the increased significance of defense in this year’s game and you have a game theory that has so many aspects (wheels, weight, maneuverability, visibility from the driver station, swerve, driver skill…)
I haven’t done an analysis of “norm” at Regionals this year, the number of teams at an event vs. winning alliance seeds, though I suspect that there may be a relationship with a deeper field that suggests that the more teams, the less chance there is of the #1 alliance being the winning alliance.
At the CMP’s, teams have experienced a whole season as the game developed and learned how to better play the game.
As far as the CMP’s. Winner/Finalist
Houston: 3/5 1/2 1/6 1/7 2/4 1/6. average1.5/5 Not so much.
Detroit: 5/6 2/1 4/2 3/1 2/4 6/8. average. 3.7/3.7. Yay!
So, yes, the distribution of the Einstein teams at Detroit is significant and wonderful.
IMO, this is one of the best game designs. Thank You GDC.