[EricH]

Originally Posted by rawrxp

And coopertition points I believe are worth 2 wins in qualifying score.

I strongly believe that you should read the rules on this...

5.3.3 Qualification Score (QS)
Qualification Points are awarded to each team at the completion of each Qualification Match and are dependant on the final score:
Each team on the winning Alliance will receive two (2) Qualification Points.
Each team on the losing Alliance will receive zero (0) Qualification Points.
In the event of a tied score, all six teams will receive one (1) Qualification Point.
Additional Qualification Points will be awarded to each team on an Alliance equal to any Coopertition Points earned.

The maximum amount of Coopertition points earnable in any given match is 2 points for each alliance per [G41]. Therefore, Coopertition points are worth at most 1 win per match.

Coopertition points can double your effective win total. However, the Coopertition points themselves are worth only one win each time you get them.


Back to the matter at hand:
I've seen some of the rankings changing. The coopertition score really boosted some teams quickly--if a team got a run of coop balances and wins at the same time, they could go from low to high in a few matches. I've seen that when monitoring Fantasy FIRST points live. However, I have no hard data.

I think that the coopertition bridge is the single biggest contributing factor to the relatively high number of elimination upsets this year. Teams that weren't doing so well could balance and score and seed high--and then get taken down by teams that were doing well. But in the process, they could sure split up powerhouses. OTOH, the powerhouses realized very quickly that the Coop bridge was extremely important, and someone on their alliance would go for it every match. This shot them to the top of the rankings at many events--but the triple balance could take them out of competition.

The coopertition bridge, IMO, is one of the best strategic elements the GDC has ever put into an FRC game. It forces you to think about ranking strategy, strategy for relating to other teams, and split-second decisions without good communication with the person you're working with (a real-world challenge). And they got it just about right. Could they have minorly tweaked the point values for either coopertition or winning? Probably. Would it have been nearly as effective? No.