[DougHogg]

Originally posted by Joel Glidden
I just want to point out that the info FIRST has on the St. Louis elims is incorrect. The blue alliance in SF2.2 was 525 and 356. And if we'd just driven off the ramp, we'd have advanced. I agree that +2(Losers score) can make some odd things happen. But it was our bad call that cost us the semi-finals, not the scoring rules. The plan all along was to lose big if we were going to lose. We just goofed in the last half second of the match.

-Joel

Thanks for clarifying what happened.

Actually that kind of sums up my objection to the existing scoring rules. Here we had a situation where a team had to purposefully "lose big if we were going to lose."

Question: What does the audience think when they see a robot deliberately drive off the ramp to lower their score? Are they going to understand that? Doubt it.

Question2: Where in life do we find a team winning by doing worse in a competition?

Originally posted by Richard

2) I strongly disagree with the suggestion that FIRST should change its scoring philosophy. The component of QP/EP score based on the opponents' raw point total is what gives the game most of its variety and challenge. If each alliance got points based only on its own score, the game would be too easy. In the St Louis SF2 example that DougHogg cited above, Red advanced and that is as it should be -- all teams knew the scoring rules beforehand, and should have planned and played accordingly. That is how life works.

I get your point on that. I think you are right when you say the scoring adds variety and challenge. Maybe there is another way to achieve that without a team having to deliberately reduce their own score to win (thus confusing anyone watching on the NASA channel among other problems). For example, maybe a team's final score could be linked to how well both robots on their team do? Anyway, I guess it is time for me to put my money where my mouth is and design a game, per FIRST's challenge.

Originally posted by Brandon Martus
Check out this from Redhead Jokes' signature. Thats all I could think of when I read your post.

Very cool! I hadn't seen Team 294's Gracious Professionalism Poster before. Good job, Team 294. See you in Phoenix!