[mathking]

There is another important aspect to consider before you ask a team to "do nothing" or try to tell another team they must do something in qualification. Sometimes it doesn't make you look very good. And that reputation can be hard to shake if it takes hold. At the Championships in 2011 we played a match with a team whose mentor coach was incredibly bossy and condescending. Some toward us but even more toward our third alliance partner. We actually had very complimentary robots and easily won the match in which we partnered. A couple years earlier we had a similar experience with the same team (and same mentor) in qualifying. And the team members who were around in both years absolutely remembered. In 2011, based purely on a "pick the best robot to partner with" strategy we should clearly have picked them to be our allies in eliminations. We opted not to because of the ill will they had engendered because of their behavior toward alliance partners.

It wasn't even that what they were asking for was bad strategy or completely unreasonable. But they were demanding it and belittling or dismissing the suggestions of others. The really sad thing is that it was really just the behavior of their mentor and one of their drivers. The rest of their team had some great positive interaction with our team. Please be clear, I am not calling anyone in this thread out for bad behavior. This is a caution to think about what you are asking for and how you are asking it. Because ditching the reputation of being a jerk is a lot harder than winning a match.