Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence
On the field, you are not directly competing against 3 other teams. However with the way the ranking system is set up, each time you play a match you are indirectly playing against the high scores of every single robot at the competition. I would argue that this makes this year even more competitive than previous years, and anything that a team has that could set them apart from the rest is likely going to be held in high secrecy, because this year each point you make that the other teams don't make matters.
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This is what a lot of people are missing. reducing your opponent's score puts one more robot below you in average score, this effectively bumps you up by one spot in the rankings (in both quals and elims). You don't have to be 1 of the 4 best alliances to make it through quarterfinals, you only have to be better than 4 other alliances. Same goes for semifinals, if you reduce your opponent's score, you effectively only have to outscore one other alliance to make the finals; and in finals your opponent's score directly affects your ability to win.
This is the case in almost every competitive sport, you don't have to be the best at anything, you just have to be better than whoever you're playing. This has been a lot more straightforward in past years, but it's still very much the case this year, you're just playing 8, and 4 team free-for-alls instead of 2 team free-for-alls (aka a 1v1).