Their are alot of Excellent Teams in the curie division this year.

Most of you Regional Winners and Finalists. You got that position because you played fair. By not fixing Matches and helping your alliance partners repair their robots before there next match even though it just rolled around doing nothing. That My friends is sportsmanship. I guess that would be my definition of G.P. (Gracious Professionalism) Helping other teams repair their robots so that they may also enjoy the competition is GP.

But to ask Teams to not go after each others stacks or to simply be nice to your opponents points is unfair and makes the match boring. Spectators like to watch things being knocked over and the beating and banging for KOTH thats why this game is called Stack Attack. Whats there to watch if u take knocking the stacks away. 1 m 20s worth of fighting for KOTH?

I see that you guys want to help each other to seed with the Highest QP's and all but it takes away the competition.


May all the teams Travel safely to Houston TX and return home safely. And May all teams participating this year in the Nationals play FAIRLY by the RULES and play with GRACIOUS PROFESSIONALISM!

It is interesting, that it is difficult to find definitive proof, based on objective reason, as to why match fixing is either right or wrong. I can't provide any of these proofs.

All I can say, is that this debate also exists in the world of sports, and their take on it is quite relevant. I am certain that the officials in sport have contemplated this situation numerous times, and their decision is clear, it is wrong. Professional athletes often destroy their careers by believing that what they are doing (fixing matches) can either; not be proven, or is not wrong.

And if you still think you won't get caught, or you think that there is nothing wrong with it, try it, and you see what happens, because this topic makes it clear that the majority of FIRST has decided that such dealings are illegal.

Please comply with the wishes FIRST and remember that winning is nice, but not essential.

I would love to sign this, but I can't speak for my whole team. 818 has not been part of any collusion so far, and we've made sure that everyone on the team knows what the collusion entails. 818 will almost definitely not be part of any collusion at Nationals.

If the whole point of FIRST was to get into a dog-eat-dog competition, every man for themselves, getting to the top by any means possible, then sure, I'd say match fixing was fine.

If everyone did match fixing to get to the top the same way, that would be fine. But sadly, this is an attempt to circumvent the way that we SHOULD be playing the game.

I see this as a way to one-up HONEST teams who work hard to play the game as it was meant to be played.

The last time I checked, FIRST did not stand for "Fraudulently Improving Rankings by Staging a Truce", or "Flagrantly Inconsiderate Rigging of Score Tabulation". Perhaps you should re-examine what you're doing, and how it meshes with the FIRST mission.

If winning is the only thing you care about, then you need to reconsider why you're a part of FIRST.

If fixing matches is the only way you think you can win, then I personally believe that you need to work on developing your own self-confidence, as well as perhaps considering a more versatile design for future competition.

We're a rookie team this year. We attended only one regional, the J&J. Being one of only five rookie teams at the regional, and knowing a lot about team 25's bot, we were quite intimidated by what we were up against. We did our best to fit in with the big boys, though, and although we had our losses, we persevered and did well without any "scoring aides". We showed our stuff, and many were impressed.

The game is a lot more fun when everyone plays by the same rules. That's why J&J was SO great! As someone else said, 44 great teams, all playing the same game. It was a fantastic time, especially for our first regional!

But hey, if you want to play the game by your own rules, far be it from me to tell you otherwise... but what I personally feel is that instead of showing everyone that your team has a sense of gracious professionalism, you're showing them that you're more interested in just getting ahead of the others the easy way.

Well, as for me and Team Mercury, we would never "butt in the lunch line".

Excellent Excellent point. Now thats one of the many teams who understands the meaning of Gracious Professionalism & FIRST and honor the rules and regulations with respect and dignity.



Bravo!