[mrnoble]

Oscar, I agree with many of your points. GDC is making a game more like a traditional sport: simple and deep. A lot of the problems relate to that attempt being within the one year turnover time period instead of fifty years of development and nuance.

In light of that, it might help to view many of the qual matches as developmental league- level play. Coaching peewee soccer for a number of years, I saw a lot of weird things that were perfectly fine for the age group. No offense intended to any team, but FRC is a mix of pros, up-and-comers and perpetual rookies (in the sport sense and in the amount of student and knowledge turnover). Boring (to watch) play comes with the territory; some of us are in peewee league, and are experiencing the game for the first time when we play match #8 on Friday.

It might also help to remember that qual play has always been spotty, every year.