This was exactly our strategy at St. Louis semifinals against a very strong alliance (1259, 4329, 1985) that easily achieved 4 rotors in their previous two matches. 1706 scored fuel the entire match, 537 played defense the entire match and 1732 scored the first two rotors in the first few seconds and then helped out with defense. I don’t believe the other alliance was close to getting the 4th rotor while we were typically waiting to starting climbs when the ropes were released at 30 seconds.
While this is true, it’s the entire premise of 3 and D. No one is trying to make up for the 4th rotor with fuel, that’s insanity. It is worth noting, though, that 2 rotors + 40 kpa will beat 3 rotors, assuming equal climbers/autos. As such, if you have one bot that can solo 40 kpa, you can have 2 bots on D for virtually the entire match. This makes it much easier to block the 4th rotor.
I there are many examples where alliances that could get 4 rotors early in the playoffs were unable to do so in the finals.
Yes:
4 rotors early in playoffs
overall