Originally Posted by dan 322

Boy, I'm confused here. I would think that team 176 earning first place (no matter how) entitled them to ask any team they thought was best to win with, how would that be "not very graciously professional". I think teams that denie after being picked would fall into the "un-gracious" category myself. Honestly they should remove that rule in my opinion just to avoid it. This isn't "let's get all the favorite teams together and win", it's called FIRST robotics guys :(

It was great playing with all the awesome bots this year in Newton, congrats to all. :)

Originally Posted by Paul Copioli

BTW - I'm glad 217 was not in Newton :)

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

I'm not.

Originally Posted by Paul Copioli

I'm with Cory on this one. If you are the number 1 seed, you have the right to pick anyone you want. If you want to break up potential power alliances by asking for certain teams, you have that right. It is the smart thing to do.

However, if you are in the top 8, you have also earned the right to pick your own alliance. Declining an offer from a team you think you don't mate up with nicely is also O.K. and the smart thing to do.

Bottom line: Asking top seeded teams to be your partner even though you know they will say no is O.K. Declining a selection from a team is also O.K.

-Paul

BTW - I'm glad 217 was not in Newton :)

Originally Posted by Wayne C.

One thing we learned over the years is that there is no such thing as a sure thing.

We AGONIZED over who we wanted to pair with for the elims. Aces High one time picked us in the past and it was hard to turn them down, but our rationale was that they kept getting tipped over and we didnt want that.

As a team we were leaning towards both Wild Stang and High Rollers. We know the Rollers as our friends and alliance partners from LV and we knew they would get the job done. They also had the pushing power we wanted. But we also knew Stang from the 2003 season and lots of friendly interraction since then. Their dart in and shoot play also had great appeal. Both (actually a number of) teams had great robots that easily could have been a great partner.

Imagine the dilemma of having to face 11 on Sat morning undefeated at the time. If we won they fell back into the mix. If they won and we dropped out of the top few spots and possibly couldn't pick them as partner. We talked about this Friday and both teams agreed that GP warranted we both do our best and play it as it fell.
As it turned out they won (our first loss ever) and the result lowered our rank to where we were succeeded by Aces High, setting up this whole situation.
My compliments to Aces High for playing the game like a pro. I'm not sorry about the outcome of the division but they sure made the game a greater challenge for us.
Overall Newton was the toughest group of robots we played all year. How about a Newton Reunion on November 4 at our place for Brunswick Eruption 5?

It was a great division and great FIRST year.

WC :cool:

Originally Posted by Cory

For starters, I don't think what they did was ungracious, or unprofessional, but it was pretty obvious that they were trying to keep the top 4 from allying with each other. I know we told them we'd like to pick our own alliance, before the choosing started, and I'm pretty sure other teams did as well. It was a very smart move on their part, to weaken the entire division while still being able to take the team they wanted #1 all along, and I'm sure many of us would have done it had we been in 176's position.

Originally Posted by Cory

For starters, I don't think what they did was ungracious, or unprofessional, but it was pretty obvious that they were trying to keep the top 4 from allying with each other. I know we told them we'd like to pick our own alliance, before the choosing started, and I'm pretty sure other teams did as well. It was a very smart move on their part, to weaken the entire division while still being able to take the team they wanted #1 all along, and I'm sure many of us would have done it had we been in 176's position.

Originally Posted by Chris Sturrock

I personally had an amazing time this past weekend. the semi's in newton were definitely some very exciting matches. I don't think i saw another 2 triple digit score all season.

I would like to thank the scouts on 987 for being able to see our full potential, even tho we had a very tough schedule and lost 3 of our matches.

I would also like to thank 1718 for making up the last third of our alliance. you guys played some good defence, and to make it as far as you did as a rookie team. give yourselves a pat on the back.

I would also like to thank the #3 alliance 25, 968, and 195 for putting up a great fight in the semi's. you were all superb teams and you definitely deserved the win. It was a tough couple of matches, but in the end you guys came out on top. Congratulations again guys.

And then I would like to thank all of my mentors for making this an amazing season for 1503. 3 regional wins, and championship newton division semi-finalist is way more than i could have asked for at the beginning of the season.

and Congratulations Everyone on surviving another season in FIRST!

Originally Posted by PBurrell

I think it would be interesting to change the selection process. FIRST goes to a lot of effort tracking ranking points. Why not just have the top 24 teams in the selection pool. The top 8 teams that pick have to work with the teams that have good scores and have earned their place.

In Newton, I think there was 1 7-0, 6 6-1, and lots of 5-2 teams. The ranking points decided the number 8 position and their ability to pick. Personally, ranking points do not tell much of anything in a real match because of the way the are setup. I believe the a team with a 7-0 record with 0 ranking points (depending upon the teams) is much better than a 7-0 with 50 ranking points. Many times, teams are too worried about how to add to the opponents score. Personally, I don't know which is worse, getting beat badly, or getting beat badly and then the other team scoring point for me knowing that I didn't score them. I'm pretty sure everyone doesn't feel the same way, but it is just an opinion.

The only thing I think that comes out of the ranking point is to try and keep the damage to a minimum. When it comes to the finals though, I would think all bets are off.