[James Juncker]

For people that may have difficulty understanding the impact of more points, I am going to make this clear.

a team plays 8 matches and manages to win all 8 matches without gaining any RP this nets them 16 RP

A similar team manages to win 4 of its 8 matches and 4 matches scores a Breach and Capture and in the other 4 matches only manages to obtain the breach. this nets 20 points

this shows that the RP's are important to the game.

The defense agreement is importan because if teams are able to traverse defenses it will allow for 1 RP to be almost guarunteed and raise your ranking higher above teams that are unable to take part in this alliance.

as teams begin to accumulate more RP it throws off the balance of other teams that are unable to compete with the increase in RP

eventually as more and more RP are added on teams not able to be on board with the agreement would be unable to rank in a position for Alliance Captain. As the matches go on any wins added on top of the agreement would make it impossible for alliances not working together to manage to rank more highly and thus qualify for further events. wins only get you to 16 points after 8 matches, losses with both a breach and a capture are equivelent making it so that any losses would ruin your chances of being the captain of the number one alliance.

aside from all of this, its also strategically good for FIRST and for the scouters in the stands and for image. being able to see teamwork, as well as finding that teams are able to show off their robot and all of their work, allows visitors and other teams to really appreciate the effort and awesomeness that is these independant robots. its also much more fun watching your team do well and seeing everything fall into place. This may be a minor point for most teams, however I disliked last years game because it wasnt showy enough, it lacked interesting elements for the crowd and for visitors who had no idea what was going on. Here is to a good year!