[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by EricH

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.)


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.

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.

I don't think you're getting what I'm saying. Individual teams can't make the decision at these events on how they select alliances that will best promote the goals of FIRST. It's the prerogative of FIRST, regional directors and event organizers who work with FIRST. It's as though you're saying that each NFL team should get to choose what rules they want to play by.

My point about the alliance is that they paired bots from the same team instead of mixing it up. (I wasn't bothering to be precise--I was making a general observation which you confirmed.)

Finally, you're also not getting my point about this thread (and ignoring my earlier post): I'm only using the Fall Classic as an example of a larger issue about how I think many off season event might be organized to better encourage STEM programs. (Note that I didn't use "Fall Classic" in the title, on purpose.) I'm not going to go through one by one contacting each event to ask them to change. CD is the best way to reach a broad audience.

In my three decades of public policy work I've generally found that when someone says that a message is better delivered privately to individuals one by one, they really mean the message may get out of their control, influence events and lead to an outcome that they won't like. I'll keep posting publicly on CD...