[ChrisH]

I was at the last 1v1v1 competition and at the Kickoff for the following year.

At the Kickoff Woodie commented that something that something very unusual had happened during the previous year's Nationals. Of the top 10 seeds at the end of competition on Friday, not a single one was in the top 10 at the end of the seeding rounds. That year the game, "ladder logic", had a feature where to score points you had to have balls on the ladders or rails. While it was difficult to place the balls on the rails, it was fairly easy to remove them.

Woodie said that in reviewing the tapes later, it was obvious that what was happening was that every time a leading seed went into the arena, the other two teams would clear the rails of the top teams balls and keep them clear. He was very careful to point out that he was not saying that the other two teams co-operated on this. It could just be that in every case, both other teams decided that the best way to improve their score was to hurt somebody elses. He also commented that FIRST felt that such co-operation was outside the bounds of Gracious Professionalism, though not necessarily the rules of the game.

He went on to say that since such co-operation could not be prevented, it would henceforth be required. Then the 2 v 2 format was revealed. The only way that there would be a a 1v1v1 game or 2v2v2 is if there was some way of preventing two robots or teams from ganging up on the third. Extraplolate as you will, this applies to virtually every combination of more than two teams competing.

At least that's the gist as I remember it. That was in the bad old days before we had remote Kickoffs and I had arrived in NH at 2am that morning after having no fewer than three flights cancelled out from under me due to weather. A very stressful day to say the least, so my memory might not be all that good.

Any other old timers want to comment?