[JosephC]

Scouting isn't just important in Alliance selections; when your looking for the best robot to fit into your alliance, and not necessarily the best overall robot, but also in Match play.

Teams that do not scout will be going into matches blind, with no idea of what to do. Those who have collected data on robots can say, "Robot A is a really good shooter, we need to play defense on them; hey alliance partner B, since our data says your not the very best shooter would you mind playing defense on Robot A for us?"

Now for luck. Personally I believe that luck has very little to do with FRC. I've heard 5-6 teams say after a match, "Team A won because they got lucky." Unless there was a penalty that should of been called and it wasn't; then Team A used something called "Strategy". Strategy is this little thing that weaker teams use to beat stronger teams; and it isn't "Luck"

As for Quals; Teams can get lucky 2 or 3 matches and have some really good match ups; But I've never seen a bad robot be in the Top 8 after 12 matches. They may not be the best scorer, but they might be a great defensive robot.

Everything boils down to this:
FRC is 1% Luck; 40% skill and 90% Strategy.