I’l try to only add things that I didn’t see mentioned yet in this thread.
Seeding rounds were being really boring because no one was playing defense, but I saw a lot of teams playing in ways that were just completely wrong. There was one team in San Diego who failed to balance on the coopertition bridge, so they went over, touched the opposing alliance’s bridge (a nine-point technical foul), and then drove away and ended the match. I don’t know if it hasn’t sunk in yet, but your opponent’s score this year DOES NOT MATTER. Especially if you have robots in your alliance that can’t score, it is in your interest to win matches in qualifiers by playing defense! A lot of teams have some really weird ideas about seeding this year…
Two teams in San Diego had my favorite idea of the week–the 2v2 Qualification Match. At the beginning of the match, they sent one team from each alliance, neither of whom looked like they could score, to the coopertition bridge to lock down the bonus points. That’s a terrific idea. The coopertition bridge is hard, and you need a lot of time to get on it… what is a robot that can’t score going to do that’s worth more than 2 QP?