[BrendanB]

Even if you add more matches it will "help" but it won't solve the problem. That's if you would even call it a problem. Over the years we have been given more matches but even then there are still teams who slip into the top 8 who aren't the best and top teams who have rough matches.

Rankings is mainly determined by performance. I'll use our team as an example. Our team had the same record as team 2648 at the Pine Tree Regional (12-1) the difference came down to our autonomous points. Our team had two matches we missed all of our shots due to different reasons. One match we had an air tank pushing down on our plate causing all shots to go low. Another we had a driver station error that prevented us from selecting the proper speed before a match. In the one match we lost we had one partner who was struggling with shooter problems and another who lost all controls to their drivebase.

In the end we would have selected 2648 if we seeded higher but the story holds true in that it didn't matter who had the better robot, it mattered in who could pull it off every match. 2648's autonomous and teleop game were dead on the entire weekend which gave them the number 1 spot. Similarly 125 also had one of the best robots at the event but seeded #20 after a tough match schedule. 1114 was one of the best in the Archimedes division last year but they finished 66th after some issues and were the second pick.

If anything I wished we had less qualification matches. Friday we had 9 matches some with only a 4 match turnaround leaving no time to fix problems.

Unless you have a panel of judges who strictly make the rankings based on robot performance, you will never go into alliance selections with teams ranked where they "should" be.

I like the system the way it is. No 1-8, 1-8, no picking in the top 8, etc.