[Chief Hedgehog]

This is where I have a struggle. MRI was a great showing by some upper level teams in MN. MRI had 33 robots and elims were between 4 alliances. My team (4607) was in the running for a captain's spot until the 7th round (when the opposing ball got lodged in between our catapult and our frame). We lost that match 12? to 97 I believe. But that is inconsequential as we ended up as the #7 seed.

However, at the time the scout team wanted to draft 4536 (correct me if I am wrong inkling) because their robot had a double intake witch mated well with our game play. We are very good at in-bounding and then truss passing to the human player. We could then load 4536 with the human player and 4536 could kiss-pass the ball to 2530 (who was on fire in the later rounds). If we would have finished in the top 4, we would have chosen 4536 and then most likely 2530. No matter where they ended up in the field, it gave our team the best possible alliance. Why should any team be relegated to choose from a select group of teams when the teams that make us better sit as a top 4 or 8?

I truly believe that when you look at off-season events, you need to allow your newbies to develop in a real-game situation. I have coached many sports for many years and I am following what I know is best to create the best situation for my team to develop. In the case of MRI, I wanted to either be with 2175, 2052, 1816, 3883, etc. or face them in the elims. I don't want to have my scout team do all their work just to pick from the least to play against an average alliance each round of elims. It makes no sense. I want my team to play with the best and then face off against the best 16 or 32 teams.

Otherwise, why not just random draw the quals and call it quits at the end? I am still not getting it I guess.