Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

This is kind of like a variation on Fantasy FIRST where speculation precedes reality. The teams listed in the top 25 are the usual suspects who have always been heard from year in and year out just like when they do the top 25 in college football. During the season surprising upstarts will rise to prominence while disappointing underachievers will fall.
Personally I'm going to approach this like the ultimate Fantasy FIRST draft and I get the frist 25 picks from all the regionals. But to be honest there are deserving teams that are going to be left behind. When drafts for places I don't know so well like Oklahoma, Kansas City or the Minnesota regionals I actually go with the randomize at those events so obviously this is strictly for speculative fun because it certainly won't be truly accurate or fair.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Except no team that hasn't played yet is listed, so this can't happen.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

After week 1 you will see only big name teams... You may have the rare one or two odd balls... Just looking at week one regionals, there are 25 top teams completing and im 95% sure we will see them in the top 25 all reguardless if they win or not..

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

When they do a top 25 in college football no one has played yet but they still put out a list.
Fantasy FIRST is even worse. We're picking in December before we even have a game but it's the only time we can draft. No one has time to do this during build season. It's the ultimate exercise in speculation.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Teams that were good Week 1 and 2 that were not "Big Name Teams" became "Big Name Teams" very quickly. People talked a lot about 1676, 525, 230, 1732, etc. all season


I'm just saying you shouldn't criticize an idea based on a valid criticism that the OP already fixed.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Going back to the privacy of voters (if you were to do the private top 25), privacy for those people would be important because teams that would be left out from that person's top 25 would be upset with that person. Also, voters that are team members or mentors on other teams don't want to bring any opinions upon their team that shed a negative light on the team purely because they didn't include X team on their list. Also, people could question voters polls if they don't recognize the username from around Delphi. There are obvious people on delphi (cocoEd, chris.is.me, dave lavery respectfully) that are obvious experts on the many teams in FRC but there are definitely many people on Delphi who don't often comment due to either their team rules, or because they don't want to bring any opinions of them onto their team. These people still surf Delphi on a daily basis and are familiar with the many teams, especially the ones that post on delphi. Also, often times the people that surf delphi daily are also the ones who weed through bluealliance when the regionals start. I guess all I'm trying to say is that there are many experts out there, but people just don't know that they're experts. You probably also don't want to pick all experts from veteran teams, because they might lean towards other teams, even if it is subconciously.

This is just stuff to keep in mind if you were to do a private poll for T25; privacy is important to protect those users and their teams, and variety of experts (veteran-to young teams, active users-"sleepers": readers only).

Either way I think a top 25 is a cool idea and should be fun. And I think it also might force more teams that want to be involved to be a little more detailed and thorough with their scouting. Should be good as long as St. Louis doesn't turn into the BCS! :rolleyes:

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

But you just supported my case? These teams that you listed are those odd ball teams that are having a great year... The TCU's and Boise State's of college football.. Then you have the normals that will always be there year after year... The Texas's, Alabama's and Ohio State's... Teams like 71,67,111,1114,217... From the first week they appear, they will not fall from the top 25...

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

I'm saying that the odd ball teams that actually did well got just as noticed as the perennials.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Justin and I are super stoked about this idea. Justin has been putting so much work into this. You all have so many great ideas and it is really cool to see how excited you all are to be a part of this! We are in the final stages of planning. Final decisions of how we're going to go about this will be made in the next day or two.

Justin and I were talking about having all ranking decisions for the Week 1 Regionals be made by Tuesday March 8th. On Wednesday March 9th, the next stage of "FRCTop25" will be revealed....(dates are tentative and may change as Justin and I's schedules conflict- we'll let you all know the final dates/times ASAP.)

"Mike and Justin In the Morning" will be airing Wednesday night(ironic?) lol. On our video webcast, we will reveal the Top 25 teams in FRC. and talk about each robot. We'll go through the list starting with the 25th team and work our way up to number one... talking about each robot with supporting points made from our voters. Maybe we'll show some videos/pictures of the robots making good plays, etc. We'll take emails/AIM messages and Skype calls from our viewers who have comments that they would like to share on the air. We are extremely excited about this phase, because we think that a webcast/podcast would be a great addition to the FIRST Community.

Thanks for all your support! PM Justin or myself with any questions/comments/concerns! :)

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

So the good teams are ranked higher, and the "up and comers" work their way to the top? Seems like it works exactly how it should.

I think that given the number of people that hopefully participate, it solves 2 problems. First, one or two people voting random team 9999 just because they happen to know them from their regional won't get enough votes to make the list. Second, If say 217 doesn't win Finger Lakes week 1 then I highly doubt that people will rank them higher then teams that did win just because they are 217.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

I agree with your points, but we have seen just as in elimation selections from the past , that names do carry a lot of weight... If I'm seeded first and I know 217 is out there, the idea of them always knowing how to win, plays a huge role into my mind when picking as it would when im voting...

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

That's another benefit, you can vote exactly how you want. If you feel 217 is better then the team that did win, perhaps a penalty that wasn't 217's fault cost them the regional then maybe they do deserve to be higher. Each voter will carry his or her own criteria and hopefully, through the votes of many, a halfway accurate but definitely fun list will emerge.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

Yeah, so what you're saying is that there's an advantage to teams that are consistently good, instead of good by "chance".

The good teams should be ranked high - makes perfect sense to me. How many times do "random" teams do dramatically better than perennial powerhouses anyway? Ever?

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

My suggestions:

You need a third ranking poll, one for combined weeks. Each week, there comes out a top 25 poll for teams that played THAT WEEK and that week only. Each week has a public and private poll for THAT WEEK. However the third poll on the side will be the combined public and private polling for EACH WEEK played so far. Public polling points are added with the private polling points and put on one total poll. This way, the public will actually be able to speak louder than the few special voters. Teams that are as good as both public and private voters say they are will be rewarded with much higher stats in the total season poll, and teams that are really good but the private voters snub will be given the chance to shine because the public will outweigh the private when it comes to how many points the teams receive.

Also, let us not forget, ranking teams based on their ability to play the game isn't as FIRST as FIRST really is. This poll is all about competition, and competition is suposed to be second to the real mission of FIRST. What this poll was started as was about the fun of it. It doesn't need to be taken so seriously that we have bitter arguements. Teams that are powerhouse each year will have their days and everyone will always comment on how they are the best and be magically ranked in people's heads as to who is first or second.

In most regionals, the three teams that win a regional are usually two well known good teams and one "who are they, where are they from" team. Usually speaking. I think if anything, this poll will point out teams that achieve a victory yet arn't well known week by week. If we bring a handfull of new team numbers to light, this will be a major success.

Re: FRCTop25.com Going Live Soon! Get Involved.
 

This.

Some say if you tune your radio to 87.3 FM, you can hear his thoughts, and that he's terrified of ducks.

All we know is, he's called The Stig!