[Karthik]

I have yet to see a regional in person this season, still I have a few thoughts on the topic fixing matches and collusion.

- Many people are making it seem as though agreements such as this have never occurred in FIRST before. Just thinking back to last year I remember at least three matches which were fixed. I'm not talking about collusion, the winners of these matches was clearly predetermined. Gadget referred an occurrence of this earlier in the thread. I was surprised that there wasn't more of an outcry when this happened.

- For those who say that collusion is not that big of a deal, consider this. A team who colludes their way into the first seed may not have the best robot, but now they have the opportunity to select the best robot with their first draft pick. As we have all seen in the past there are certain robots which can carry an alliance all the way to the top. So even if the number one seed is weak, they now have an excellent chance at winning.

- It is clear that the only way that colluding can be stopped is by the teams themselves. There is no practical setup by which FIRST can stop this behavior.

- That being said, I don't think it will stop completely. Just from monitoring the opinions given on this board, it seems that there are still many teams that are willing to engage in this type of behavior. At nationals, it would only take 10 of 80 teams in one division to partake in collusion for it to have a large effect.

- Please don't rush to judgment in the upcoming weeks. Just because you see large stacks survive, it doesn't mean that collusion occurred. There are many situations when not attacking the stacks is in an alliance's best interests. (Aside: I think way to many teams attack the stacks to early. Wait about a minute and see how the match plays out, it may turn out that you don't need to take them down. By waiting, you can drastically increase your score)

- Lastly, it's very important to remember that teams how do choose to collude are not bad teams or bad people. They have made a strategic call. Many may not agree with it (myself included), but they have not violated any written rules. By plotting revenge or blacklisting them you to are not acting very GP. IMHO, part of gracious professionalism is teaching rather punishing. By setting a good example, you may encourage these teams to follow you.