I’ve been thinking about the rules changes that will pretty certainly be implemented next year- 2 team alliances and Best of One matches in elimination rounds. Can anyone offer some changes in strategy or planning I can share with my MS Teams? In the past it’s been “build the robot you think you can win with” and “if you are an alliance captain, pick the best team that is available”.
One thing that we will probably see is a lot more teams just building the meta. In the past, you could be (just for example) a wallbot, and be a great 2nd pick since you’ll be partnered with high scoring robots that will compliment you. Now, there is a lot less room for the non-meta robot that’s a complimentary 2nd pick.
I don’t see why this part would change
Also, may be more important for driver practice, with BO1 in elims, there is no room for error.
One. I think it might promote teams entering in more events in order to best gauge the ability of their robot.
Two, I think it will push teams to focus a bit more one build quality and reliability.
Three, I agree with @Easton, that driving practice becomes MUCH more important.
Four, the building to a meta design will really depend on the game. In NBN, you had the long range shooters versus the mid-field robots and a combination of the two was going to be hard to beat. In Skyrise, a great pin-stacker paired with a good cube stacker was the pairing. In Starstruck, a reverse dumper and a front dumper that could also block was a formidable pair. However, in ITZ, the reverse double 4 (or 6) bar seems to be the meta. So a non-meta robot may or may not be a great choice depending on what the game is.
I think the biggest strategy change will be to make sure that you and your alliance partner have the same match strategy and are going to execute it. I’ve seen short conversations at the start of the first match, have the match not go well because the two teams were not aligned.
I can see that teams will have to scout more, or at least have longer conversations. They will need to make sure that the teams they pick are definitely the right teams for them, as the stakes are way higher in BO1.