[EricH]

Originally Posted by Billfred

The challenge has seven quality metrics they're trying to minimize (with each metric carrying its own definable weight):

-Difference in average team age on each alliance between the two alliances
-Difference in average rank of a team (defined from 1 to 10 in the challenge, where 1 is rookie and 10 is reigning champion) between the two alliances

TLDR: This could evolve into a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what weight you put on the factors.

I'd go with ditching the age entirely. Remember the Algorithm of Doom in 2007, where you might end up against 1114 AND 2056 (a rookie that year) AND 71 at the same time, and all of them multiple times (assuming that the age breakup worked out that way), and very rarely with one or the other?

Yeah. Age has very little to do with anything around here--I'm somewhat scared of what Dr. Joe is starting up in Boston...or any team 1114 mentors.

The rank part, OTOH, I can live with, if it's done right. If you're careful about the implementation, and use the available data about record/seeding/result, then I think it could work very well. If you're arbitrary about it, like the Algorithm of Doom was with age, it'll go down as a lousy idea.