Quote:
Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday
Most of the time when this sort of thing (low seeds winning) happens, people immediately start crying about the seeding system.
I think it is quite the opposite.
The seeding system is quite good this year, it is simply that almost overnight, many regionals have gotten much deeper. Deeper by virtue that teams seeded 8th through 16th actually have a chance at winning the event. Where in many years, the first second and third seed are orders of magnitude better than "the pack" in the 20th seed and beyond, this year they are only slightly better.
I think a major factor of this change is Robot in 3 Days. It showed teams who might have made mediocre robots an easy way to make a simple and good robot. We can discuss if this is a good change (competition up, innovation down) but I think it was a major factor. It certainly made the events more fun to watch.
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Well, a big reason why people complained about it last year was because of the coopertition points. Not having the points in control when you're an elite team leads to a lot of them ending up as a little lower on the seeding scale. That's why this year, low seeds winning seems like a much bigger accomplishment.
To touch on what you said, I find it extremely admirable that teams are able to adapt to a regional so well in a couple days of an event, what with adjusting their robot from a 20th seed skill level to a top 5 seed skill level. That level of adaptability coagulates into a nice, interesting matchup when they get to the plate and win. The regionals get much more interesting, the low seeded teams' despair over a low seed vanishes (and feels
amazing at the same time; before our regional chairman's win this year, 781's 8th seed upset was the best moment of my FIRST career, passing even our world final appearance in 2011) and the higher seeds--most of which are elite teams winning at multiple regionals--get to put their skills to the test and actually enjoy a hard fought, fun match where losing is almost as entertaining as winning.