Team 1 in 2000. They had a very simple and clean robot that year.
Their turret arm could be used to guard the lift pipe while they drove back and forth on the ramp.
It was a beast of a machine.
we had an idea this year of mounting a gym fan on top of our robot, and putting every motor allowed on it. parking by our mini-bot tower and locking on. this would have blown all the pieces to our side.
Team 8 in 08 was the only team that seemed to be able to play any defense in that game without incurring penalties.
The “One piece at a time” rules came into play in 2007. In 2006 and 2009, multiple were allowed.
The “harvester/hoarder” strategy was discussed in 2006, but I can’t think of a single team that implemented it. In 2005, multiple teams grabbed multiple tetras, but because of the large supply, it wasn’t an issue–I don’t think a single match ran out.
Typically, those rules are only when there is a “limited” supply of game pieces, so either it’s necessary to keep teams from hoarding right off the bat, or it’s to make sure that the supply doesn’t run out too fast.
I must admit that I’m somewhat disappointed to find that the rumored robot is just that. A rumor. I actually heard the rumor back when I started in 2006. I figured it must have happened a few years before that. At least now I finally know that its a rumor.
Thanks,
Jason
That “rumor” probably evolved out of the “A-Bomb” move pulled off by 195 and 968 multiple times on their trip to the Einstein finals together. While it was nowhere close to all the balls, 195 did spend large portions of matches running around the field collecting balls, only to feed them to 968 when the final period of the match started. 968 would then go score them.
I’ve found, almost without exception, that the truly elite defensive teams are the teams with elite drivers. A lot of teams can be an effective defender with an okay driver and robot, but the greatest defensive teams are the ones with the best drivers (almost regardless of robot design or quality).
With regards to the san jose regional, the refs were just letting way too much slide. They were playing illegal defense in the homezone, but it was just allowed to go.
So I guess you could say the referees are capable of being serious defenders 
If you get a chance, go back and watch some videos of 148 in the Galileo Eliminations and on Einstein. They often went unnoticed in many of those matches (It was hard to out shine 1114 and 217 that year) but they made some really good defensive moves.
I’ll second that! 148 saw a weakness in our robot and exploited it for all it was worth. The finals on Einstein may have gone differently if 148 was not on that “Super Alliance”.
I’ll give props to an under-rated team from this year. 3357 played some of the best defense I saw all season against us at West Michigan. It’s too bad they didn’t get a chance to play it at either MSC or St. Louis, they could have been a factor.
Even though Team 2185 didnt get to go on to the Champs, they were probably one of the best defensive robot this year (especially in Canada).
Check this video out of 2185 attempting and successfully blocking 1114 from shooting :ahh: 
::safety::
GO TO AROUND 1:40
Our team designed our entire robot this year around defensive play and the end game. I wouldn’t put us in the category of best defensive robots of all time but we did reference a lot of defensive teams in the past to formulate our strategy and driver approach. I have to say, sometimes playing defense is so much fun! Here’s a quick highlight video our kids put together if you guys are interested:
My personal favorite was 4226. we partnered with them in Minnesota. I’ve seen a lot of rookies play defense, but never this good. They were getting points for our alliance by playing defense, and they were completely overlooked by everyone else. I remember our strategy meeting on friday of that regional, and how we decided on our second pick (them) before we decided on our first pick, and then praying that they didn’t get picked by anyone else.
I’m hesitant to add yet another bump to an already year old thread, but the topic of the thread itself is fitting and I feel not a lot of people got a chance to see this because of the competitions that took place the same week of the Buckeye regional.
My vote for best defensive robot this year goes to 1551: The Grapes of Wrath for literally shooting a ball out of the air. :yikes:
It’s about 40 seconds in to this video that team 291 was so gracious to provide on their Ustream account.
Watch and be amazed.
That was a cool match. Shooting balls out of the air? I think yes.
Ummmm, where is team 16 , 2012?
They starved every other alliance of balls, feeding them to their alliance. They were also rugged enough to take hits. Lots of hits. Their catapult allowed them to score in hybrid and switch to offense if the need arouse, so they were not a “helpless” D-bot.
I have to say 16 is definitively, whether intentionally or not, one of the better D-Bots of all time.
If we’re going for the starvation strategy, then I must say that 2010 469 has got to be the most amazing intentional starvation robot of my time.
MSC Finals Match 1
What is even more crazy, and I got to see this in person in Atlanta, is that the Newton champs (67 294 177) simply outscored them. That is where history was made and to the victor goes the spoils.
Agreed. It was hard not to keel over in envy while watching 16 driving. Whoever their driver is, he/she definitely knows how to use that drive train. Someone give 'em a medal. What delightfully fantastic driving.
Their defense, especially on Einstein, was the best you’ll see in Rebound Rumble. You honestly can’t get much better than that.
I believe team 16 from the winning alliance had hands down best defense because of their ball starving system.
The best offensive robots will always be good teams with quality machines and well practiced drivers… the kind of teams that usually spend their time playing offense.
This year it’s 16. No one else is even close.
After our first match against their alliance on Galileo, I was absolutely shocked to see they had almost doubled our basket score. The sole reason was the speed at which 16 was able to pick up balls and shuttle them to the mid line and dump them. At the time, I had no idea why.
In the second match, we tripled and they did not, but I spent more time watching them. In the third match, with 1918 broken down, they had full swing of our offensive zone and we couldn’t triple. It was almost embarassing how quickly they removed the balls from our zone.
16 was not afraid to go anywhere - through the key, through our lane, next to our bridge. I can’t say I saw them pick up a single penalty. I suspect most folks weren’t watching them much… but they were the key to Galileo’s world championship.