FIRST could learn from the NHL

[mwtidd]

For years I have been arguing that FIRST should make the games more accessible to the casual spectator, and I think this year's game has taken a turn for the worse. Don't get me wrong, I am all for the assist system, however I would argue that it shouldn't have been brought into the match scoring. I can't think of another sport where the assist counts for game points. However in many sports the assists are used to contribute to a player's points.

I personally like the hockey model where a player receives a point whether they provided an assist or a goal. The game scoring still stays the same, but the player's ranking benefits from the assist. I would argue that just as the player's ranking benefits from the assist, it would be nice if the alliance benefited from assists.

I would argue that most people also don't understand the way team points work in the NHL either, but that doesn't affect the casual spectator either. So following the NHL analogy, where each division game is worth 3 points, imagine if in each game there were 3 qualification points to be earned. 2 for the win, 1 each in a tie, and 1 for the alliance with the most assists.

In this model, there would be plenty of motivation to go for the assists, but the casual spectator wouldn't have to understand it.

Just my 2 cents...

Good luck this year to all the teams!

P.S. I love the goalie concept.

[Nathan Pell]

I agree!!

[themccannman]

Team's individual points are not counted in any way for ranking so if you gave robots individual points for getting an assist it wouldn't affect the ranking in any way which in turn means that no one would ever pass the ball because they have no reason to do so since their personal score doesn't matter, only alliance score matters.

[Darth Drew]

Team's individual points are not counted in any way for ranking so if you gave robots individual points for getting an assist it wouldn't affect the ranking in any way which in turn means that no one would ever pass the ball because they have no reason to do so since their personal score doesn't matter, only alliance score matters.
I personally don't mind what they did with the assists, but for theoretical purposes…
They could have awarded qualification points for the alliance with the most assists, much like Coopertition points for balancing the center bridge in 2012, this would encourage passing, but not make the scoring as confusing for the audience. Obviously, there would be teams that couldn't pass that benefited from an elite alliance partner, but in the end, the teams that do the passing would have the most coopertition points.