Quote:
Originally Posted by Kims Robot
I'm not sure I understand your #1 - The toughest part to deal with in the "Scorched Earth" strategy is in the initial 1-8 selection. I think if they allowed you to decline and be picked, and teams did that in the second round of selections (1-8 or 8-1 doesn't matter) a lot of teams would hurt themselves by wanting to be picked by a different team, and declining an alliance, and then possibly not being picked by the captain they wanted to be picked by. So the only time a decline and be picked really helps anyone is if you are in the top 8 and already guaranteed a spot, get picked by say #2, but want to work with #4.
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Nemo is saying that there is an added incentive to accept the number 1 selection from a less desirable partner in this case because in doing so, you also get the first choice for the second round of selection. In 2009, the Thunder Chickens rejected an early selection at Championships simply because they reasoned they could form a more potent alliance from a lower seed.
I believe scorched earth strategies are acceptable. That team earned their high rank, they should be able to select their alliance in a manner that maximizes their chance at winning the event. If other teams decide it is best to reject that team in favor of other partners or strategies, then so be it, they have that right too because they earned an alliance captain spot. Sure other teams may be more deserving, but we can't play an endless number of qualification matches to figure that out. If teams are employing a scorched earth strategy strictly aiming to maximize their chances of winning an event, then that is professionalism. It would be a disservice to their eventual partners not to employ this strategy. If teams are employing a scorched earth strategy with malicious intent, then it is unGP. I think this is extremely rare though.
At one of our events this year, we saw the 6th best team (according to our scouting; and based on subjective observation I agree) get rejected multiple times from the 3rd seed. As a member of the #1 seeded alliance, we were glad to see this from a competitive stand point because it broke up the best teams on the 3-8 alliances. However, I have to scratch my head looking back. The team's strategy was very compatible with all of the remaining robots, and they were a pleasure to work with in qualifications. I guess teams were either uninformed of this team's performance or they have different criterion for alliance selection aside from maximizing their chances of winning the event, such as playing with friends or teams they are used to. Or they may have made a judgement call that they could form a better alliance from a lower seed.