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Competition

Match Strategy

Scouting, alliance selection, and choosing what not to do.

1 min readUpdated Jul 25, 2026

Strategy is deciding what your robot will not do. Teams that try to score everything usually score little of it well.

ScoutingLink to this section

  • Record objective data: cycles, autonomous success, penalties.
  • Separate robot capability from driver capability.
  • Note reliability — a broken high scorer is a low scorer.

Alliance selectionLink to this section

  • Pick complements, not clones.
  • A reliable partner beats a fast unreliable one in eliminations.
  • Discuss autonomous conflicts before the match, not on the field.
RoleValueRisk
CyclerConsistent pointsDefense-vulnerable
SpecialistHigh-value scoringNarrow usefulness
DefenderSuppresses opponentsPenalty exposure