[EricH]

Originally Posted by Citrus Dad

I'm not quite following your argument, but I think that I'm getting from you that if picking your own robot to win the competition is the best strategy we should be able to do it. And I am generally disagreeing. That off season competition was not at the level of IRI or Chezy Champs in prestige, and having 2 separate days of competition clearly diluted it even further.

What I'm saying, and I'll be quite clear about this is: If you, as an alliance captain, think that picking your own B robot is the best way to win the event, that is your choice, if it is allowed by the competition. In this case, it was allowed. Therefore, it is the team's prerogative to pick whoever they want to.

In regards to the prestige, I'm well aware of that. Consider this: Prior to last year, Fall Classic didn't even fill up. Last year, it filled up for the first time. This year, the organizers had a decision: One-day event with more teams or two-day event--but most of the teams in L.A. aren't ready for a 2-day offseason. So they opted for two one-day events, back-to-back, with the option to attend both. Teams that wanted to do both could, teams that only wanted to do one could. The robot cap was set per day. Incidentally, it seems that most teams around here prefer Saturday for their one-day events.

I wouldn't say that the competition was diluted--if anything, the matches were more intense on Sunday. You weren't there, so I suggest watching the archived webcasts. (They aren't linked on TBA; you'll have to find the thread for the event.)

At the Fall Classic, two alliances on Sunday had dual team robots. Why couldn't they have swapped in some manner? Teams are missing the entire point of the FRC alliance structure if they think that all of the benefits need to accrue within a single team playing among "good friends." Why can't you have "good friends" on other teams? We most certainly would rather play with other teams than with ourselves.

For one thing, ya can't count. All four alliances had one pair of twins, even if they were fraternal, and the fifth twin was split between #1 and #4. Anyways, back to the statement I would rather make: True, there are a lot more benefits to playing with other teams. But here's the thing: Maybe those teams either didn't see those, or just wanted to have some fun. It's not your team's place to tell my team that they're doing X wrong, unless they are actually, in point of actual fact (NOT opinion), doing it wrong. You can tell them that that's not the way you'd do it, but they've got to make the final decision on whether they see things the same way.

Regardless of the shortage of teams, it could have been managed better.

So, rather than commenting on CD, are you going to contact SCRRF and tell them that? Not many of them are on CD, or at least I'm not aware that more than one or two are. Just remember, before you contact them, that 1678 has not been to a single Fall Classic, I'm sure for good reasons including travel distance.