[beiju]

Speaking purely from anecdotal evidence, Coopertition Points had a huge impact on our rating. We had a pretty average win-loss-tie record, but only once did we ever get a coopertition balance (a combination of us not being able to balance well and our alliances not being able to live up to their promises). As a result, we were ranked really low.

Regardless, I think Coopertition Points are a great element of the game, and I hope FIRST keeps them as important (or nearly as important) as they are now. I think the reason so many teams suffered because of them is that in past years, the endgame has been such a long shot that teams didn't concentrate on it. That was our mistake, at least. Now that we've had the opportunity to learn from that mistake, I hope FIRST will keep a similar system around and teams will give it more credit during the design phase than we did this year.