[GaryVoshol]

Oooo, I want a black card!

This is somewhat different than a 6v0 match. In 6v0 you are looking to gain qualifying points and overall increase your ranking. Playing to lose to get an "easier" opponent specifically goes against their rules.

In soccer there have been several wacky rule sets that allowed shenanigans like this to go on. In one Caribbean match years ago, the tournament rules somehow specified that if a particular team couldn't win, they'd be better off losing by more than 2 goals. Their opponent stood to gain if they won by fewer than 2 goals. For the last minutes of the match, both teams ended up trying to score in their own nets! FIFA (the international soccer body) has taken steps to curb such abuses - for instance, better balancing of groups for round-robin play and having the last matches in the group played at the same time so one result isn't known before the other game starts.

Back to FRC, I think this year's ranking scheme made it advantageous for your team to win, as compared to the 6v0 scenario. (OK, discount the coopertition bridge, because that skews things.) Maybe FRC also wanted to try to eliminate potential abuses of the system.