[PhilBot]

Originally Posted by alphadog0309

I think recently the whole idea of ranking points has sort of been defeated by games which make it essentially impossible to score for your opponent.

There are two aspects of ranking points.....
1) Encouraging the concept of Coopertition
2) Evaluating how hard-fought a match was.

As for 1) It's interesting to note that FRC this year has abandoned ranking points as the second-tear Qualifying points tie-breaker. Coopertation has been made explicit in the Qualifying points (cooperating on the shared bridge is equal to winning the match) and scoring in Autonomous is used as the replacement for Ranking points.

So, if FIRST's goal is to stop teams ranking higher just by scoring in their opponents goals (not really cooperating) then they have done this in FTC by reducing a team's ability to score for the other alliance (as you point out).

So now 2) becomes more significant... that is, teams that win matches get beter ranking scores ONLY if they were up against a more formidable opponent.. which to me was what Ranking points were all about: win against a tough opponent... get a better reputation....

Phil.