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Originally Posted by lovelj
Ed, thanks for posting this. This is some of the best advice I've seen on CD, especially in terms of marketing your team. What is your opinion on the rate of low ranked teams being picked so high this year? I've seen this before, but don't recall it at such extremes in each division. Am I wrong or was there something about this year's game that amplified this effect.
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Before I say anything else, I want to say the GDC did a great job. I really like this game.
Ranking is usually not a good indicator of robot ability especially with 10 matches and 75 teams. It is not enough to bubble up the best robots. On top of that the ranking point system is not just based on wins and losses. I really don't mind it too much. It is just a different objective function to try to maximize. It makes the strategy more interesting. However the RP rewards teams for things other than just robot ability.
This year the main reason for the ranking system to fail in bubbling up the best robots is because of the game. In many games, one exceptional robot or two good robots can carry the whole alliance regardless of who their partners are. This year that is not the case. That makes the match schedule the primary determining factor of the outcome. Teams that have a "lucky" draw will rank higher than if they had an average draw. There are many teams who can contribute to the scoring and very few robots can completely dominate the game on their own.