Quote:
Originally Posted by inkling16
Has a 9th seed ever declined? Did anyone ever have the guts/motivation to do so?
Here is my story.
At the Lake Superior Regional this year, we ended the quals seeded 9th. We were reasonably assured that we would be one of the first few picks. Since there were a few good robots in the top 8, and we didn't necessarily want to be with the number 1,2, or 3 seeds, I threw out the idea of declining. I immediately got shocked silence, then horrified stares, then threats on my life (I was going to be the team representative). I was told that if I declined, I would be walking the 100+ miles back home that night.
My question is, under what circumstances (if any) would you decline a pick as a 9/10 seed? Apparently, you still have a 96% chance of being a captain as a 9th seed.
Here is the alliance selection data from every competition this year. Thanks to team 2834 for providing their championship scouting database from which I made this.
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I think, as far as moves go, it's completely legitimate and something to talk about... but at the same time, the risk associated with declining while in 9th would be enough to make me accept.
If you're going to decline at any level, I think you need to do more work with your scouting and selection strategy than other teams. Think about it... most of the teams out there have a simple choice: Accept or don't play. Some teams have a harder decision to make: They have to rank all of the other teams in order to figure out who to pick (and every year at every regional you have at least one team that doesn't do this and needs about 5 minutes to make up their mind while everyone's waiting). If you're going to be declining as a 9th or 10th seed, you need to take it one step further - you need to create your own ranked list AND you need to figure out what other team's ranked lists will be, keeping in mind that everyone won't have the exact same desires in alliance partners as you will. Essentially, you need to be pretty sure you know exactly who will pick whom in order to know if you'll make it or not. It's a tough position to be in.