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Unread 05-04-2015, 21:51
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Re: A Recycle Rush Reflection

Quote:
Originally Posted by Caleb Sykes View Post
I have never seen a case of the highest seed picking a team just to let them "tag along" for the ride to champs. My guess is that you have seen a case where the one seed picks a team they are familiar with because they trust the team to be useful contributors to their alliance. For example, there are generally a couple of teams at each event that I don't trust, primarily based on past experiences with them. Even if one of those teams had a slightly better robot than a team I am familiar with, I would want to partner with the team I am familiar with because I know that we will work well with them.
I'll contribute to this as well. I don't know that FIRST wants the "best" robots at Worlds. They seem to want a good cross-section that can also make for exciting and meaningful world championship matches. Does it take luck to make participate in that as a 2nd picks? Some, and 2nd picks are likely less consistent with Saturday afternoon appearances, particularly when including Worlds. But 1640's current high school seniors have won back-to-back MAR Championships in 2012/3 and back-to-back Worlds divisions in 2013/4 as second pick.* I don't know anyone who argues that you can go along for the ride in district or division championships, but if that was just luck of the draw, it was about 4.7 million to one. I'd be interested to know how common similar repeats are.

As for doing that in this game, I'm sure 2nd picks are still valuable. I think the root of most draft complaints this year isn't that there aren't 2nd pick niches that teams can make themselves valuable for, it's that the niches themselves are upsetting to people. The most divisive example being a "boat anchor" to teams' ramps, but other cheesecake is also controversial this year.

*We didn't personally know our alliance teams beforehand (we knew the MAR guys of course, but so did everyone else there). It was our first time picked by all of them except 341 in 2012, who had picked us second to win Horsham a few weeks prior. EDIT: Actually, we won Philly 2011 (and then Newton 2013) with 303, but in 2011 we were the AC and they were the second pick. Also, this makes me feel old in that all the strategists on both teams were too young to remember it.
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