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.
|
In 2005, I was team president, and drive team coach. So I went out for alliance selections. That's when it was 1-8 1-8 draft still. We were ranked 9th at champs on our field. We decided to decline an invite from the #4 team because we felt we could field a better alliance and thought we would move up past 8th seed. #1 picked #2 and the MC didn't move me forward so it looked like we weren't in picking position when I declined. It caused such an uproar in the stands because the MC said that there must be something wrong with our robot since we weren't accepting an invite. Then when it came time for #8 (us) to pick, they couldn't figure out what to do. We ended up losing, but put up a strong battle none the less.