[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by simpsonboy77

My team was the 3rd pick for the 4th Carson alliance this year. We took home a blue banner for winning the division despite our robot never set its wheels down in eliminations. The vibe of my team was that we didn't earn the banner. Rather than being ecstatic about winning, the team was wondering why we weren't picked earlier and why our alliance captain didn't sub us in. I think our major flaws were not being able to shoot from the outerworks, our limited defense crossing, and we were easy to block as a low shooter. The team was happier seeding 8th, and losing in the quarter finals at MAR champs.

This thread has shown me that 4th pick bots do contribute, but I haven't read many accounts of a non-playing 4th pick bot that contributed on a similar scale. Some stated that they helped repair a broken alliance bot. I know I will get a lot of flak for this next comment, but I stand by it. No matter how hard you work to repair an alliance bot in say an hour or 2, it should not be given the same recognition that is given to a team who spent 6 weeks on their robot, and (at least) a whole other competition to qualify for champs. In our case, it sure feels like a participation award.

I think the contributions of a 4th bot vary wildly. Some are absolutely key to the alliance's strategy, while others are cheerleaders. I've like to see them removed, or forced to play. As stated earlier in this thread, forcing the bot that did not play in match 1 to play in match 2 would be the bests fix.

See my earlier post about how our 4th bots contributed in both 2014 and 2015 without ever playing. They had tremendous strategic value. Think of nuclear missiles--the US and USSR never used them but they were key to how the conflict played out.