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Originally Posted by Andy Baker
I gotta say that the stretcher in 2001 made the biggest impact in FIRST, over everything else.
OK, seriously, I agree that the onset of alliances in '99 was huge. The concept of competing with a random partner and then picking alliances for the finals forced teams to work together. Teams developed better marketing and salesmanship skills and had to be accountable to other teams for the way they played the game. This raised the level of GP dramatically.
Andy B. |
According to Woodie, alliances were introduced as a result of events at the 1998 competition. Back then we competed 1 v 1 v 1 and there were no divisions.
An interesting result of the 1998 competition was that NONE of the top ten seeds on Friday were in the Elimination phase of the competition. Thinking this strange, FIRST went back and looked at the tapes. In almost every match where there was a top seeded robot, the other two would gang up on it and ensure that it scored few or no points. Woodie was reluctant to say there had been collusion between the lower ranked teams because what they were doing was an obvious strategic move. But it certainly looked that way. Then he uttered those words that are seared into my memory, "Since collusion cannot be prevented, henceforth it will be required". As we all went to work trying to find the jaws we had dropped on the floor, Woodie went on to explain the alliance system we all know and love.
Thus the alliance system was a result of an earlier event. I would suggest that the critical event in the development of FIRST was not the introduction of alliances, but the realization that they were needed. While I was only around for that last year of single combat, even I could tell that there was a different spirit the next year. It also changed the way we as a team did business. Before alliances, we didn't even think about marketing, now we consider it a key team function. Of course, the best marketing at a competition is still a high seed.
