This match was a great match to show all three of those elements that you requested. Since the only robot that we found we struggled to push was Titanium, we were able to hold (or push) robots away from a dropped cube.
We managed to play strong defense against 1796 (RoboTigers), especially at Hudson Valley, because we were full weight and had a large buddy bar. We also had colson wheels that prevented us from sliding when pushing/blocking them. The key to good defense is being aware of the penalties and staying consistent on the robot you are defending.
An example: https://www.thebluealliance.com/match/2018nysu_qm9
We couldn’t have managed it without 254 and 148 being behind us and giving us constant advice on how to improve
Honestly, I would have to argue that the defense played in that match was weak. Strong defense should have kept 1796 to have far fewer cubes output into switches and scales.
As for the rest of your post, you are correct. Heavy bots with high friction wheels are an important factor in defense. To expand on that I would also say that a low center of gravity is essential, as is a strong drivetrain*. Another thing that we found to be very important was when we got into a war of attrition was to regulate high current draws to prevent brownouts and ramp your speed instead of having an instant application of power to the motors. This saved both the battery and motors by lowering the total heat generated in the match, allowing for less resistance. Perhaps sometime when I don’t have finals coming up I will write a report on this and post it on Chief Delphi.
*Drivetrain includes the amount and type of motors, gear reduction, and chain/belt output.
I have to throw in of team 3374 against 2468 in the first quarterfinals as an example of great defense. 2468 was coming to take our switch and 3374 stopped them from playing even 1 cube in the match!
Team 6377 in the Newton Finals, Match 2. They put a 60 second (from about 112-52 seconds remaining) clinic on one of the best scoring robots in the world this year, Team 1619.
You folks caused us to “defend” our switch while doing the vault where we had to score 13 cubes (IIRC) just to stay 1-2 ahead.
Did I mention that our primary job that match was to score on the scale?
You folks played great on the other side of the field. You were on the top of our 3rd alliance member selection list. At the last second of alliance selection, you can see us yelling at our captain on the field to change our pick to another scale bot.
I guess that was a good thing for you folks. 
Haha thank you!
We’re most definitely not complaining about our pick slot 
Literally the entire match Quals 42 of Rocket City. Hats off to 3966. Best defense I faced in 3 years of driving.
4944 on Carver. They were able to beat 16 and 1690 in no small part because of their excellent defense on both robots. Thanks to that, they were able to keep both away from the scale to give 341 and 175 enough time to fill it up.
I was waiting for the match video to appear on TBA to give them a shout out, but that really stood out watching live. Even more impressive when you consider that was the first match they appeared in that day.
Their last second driving on 1533’s forks were equally impressive. Took me a few matches of thinking “what is 2655 doing?! Go climb!” before I stopped freaking out.
If you want to see some amazing defense I recommend checking out 4499 in the Houston Einstein Round Robin Matches.
They effectively block the shortest path from the opponents portal to the opponents side of the scale. They trap opponent scale bots running to the portal and and never take any pinning or null zone fowls.
4499’s amazing defense was key to us(2910) and 4911 keeping ahead of some of the best scale bots in the world.
1817’s defense was crucial for the seventh alliance for playoffs on Galileo. They helped limit the scale abilities of each alliance we faced, and we would not have been able to advance as far as we did without their strong gameplay.
Team 980 had another robot with great defensive capability this year thanks to our powerful drivetrain and robust design. At the Los Angeles Regional, we had a match against 5818 (the number #1 seed at the time and finalists with us). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUCqxnOivdw at around the 1:20 mark in this match, 5818 came over to our side to grab cubes from our switch, so we followed behind them and kept them on our side for about a minute, shutting them down and winning us the match.
Thanks for the shout out! We had an amazing alliance and a great strategy. You and 4911 were an amazing scale pair.
Yep. This kind of driving was what bumped your team up our pick list. It was great to play with you.
Look at Carver on Einstein:
4499 was the primary defensive bot, but the key to that alliance winning was a combined effort. Every robot contributed constantly, that is the reason they beat world class alliances.
4499 stops the blue alliance bot for 40 seconds. Start at 1:20 to see them set up their defense. 4911 also pesters the robot trying to fill the switch.
4499 absolutely shuts down 1323’s scoring capability. 1323 scores a few cubes, but their speed was way slower leaving most of the scale work to 3476. 1323 had no uncontested scores during the match. Also watch midway through that 4911 is about to grab a cube, but they see an opportunity to trap 1323, they immediately back up and pin them making them drive the long way around. This also speaks to playing from a slight lead so you can afford to play defense the whole match.
The whole alliance pesters 1319 the whole match. Also note that as Red feels they may lose their switch, all three robots come back to maintain control.
I think the best defense is being situational. Being able to slow down the other alliance just a little bit makes a big difference in the long run.
At the Minnesota North Star Regional 2491 had a good defense strategy, they body blocked bots who come on their side. They prevented bots from scoring on their switch and parked between the switch and wall, so they couldn’t get out.
Here’s an example. Timestamp at roughly 1:36 http://www.thebluealliance.com/match/2018mnmi2_qf1m1
hope this helps
At the ventura regional our collector broke so we defaulted to defense against 968. This was also possibly the last and final match our drive base driver would ever play since he graduates this year, so he went hard on the defense. Solid and well played match by all teams though.
We(5484) did pretty good in this match if I do say so myself.