We are curious as to whether a bot that acted as a left tackle in football may be more valuable than a defender. Our thought is if we have the faster cycler between the two alliances, wouldn’t it be more advantageous to keep the other team’s defender off the back of our scorer? If we don’t have the fastest cycler playing defense makes more sense. How would pinning rules affect the blocker? Also you wouldn’t necessarily have to stay in frame perimeter depending on where you wantti block from.
We are a 2nd year team and defensive strategy is something we really haven’t explored.
The way I see it, if you’ve employed one of your bots as a “left tackle” to deal with a defender, the defender has already won—they’ve successfully distracted one of your robots that could be running scoring cycles or defending on the other side.
I think the biggest factor when it comes to the defense vs counter-defense (what you’re calling a “left tackle”) debate is space on the field. The more room your top cyclers have to operate the better. If you end up with 4 robots on your half of the field I think you’ll be in some trouble when it comes to cycling efficiency. If you have a “left tackle” robot that can successfully keep the defender on the opponent’s side of the field, that will be both effective counter-defense and defense at the same time. If your left tackle is anything like the Vikings’ offensive line this year you’re better off countering their defense with defense of your own.
In other words, minimize the number of robots that are near your alliance’s top cyclers.