[Karthik]

There's been a lot of talk about the start of alliances. ChrisH brings up a great story with the collusion during the 1v1v1 matches. Some great robots really got the short end of the stick in that situation, especially the team that hosts this fine website.

I agree that the advent of alliances has had the greatest impact on FIRST, but the specific event I'm thinking has to do with the perfection of the alliance system. When alliances were introduced at the 1999 kickoff, the elimination round alliances consisted of only two teams. Teams were not allowed to pick within the top 8. To further complicate things you were allowed to decline ANY pick.

At the 1999 Great Lakes regional, (the last weekend of the regional season) FIRST called for a vote on whether a third team should be added to alliances. This vote was a result of robots breaking down during the elimination rounds at other regionals, creating a lot of 2 on 1 situations. The results of the vote were overwhelmingly in favour of the three team alliances.

Combining the free decline situation, not being able to pick within the top 8 and third team added to the alliances, created some unfortunate situations at GLR. There were allegations of teams throwing matches to drop out of the top 8. There were allegations of premade alliances. Teams declining everyone in the first round, so they could go in the second round. It was a big mess. Definitely a low point of GP.

So when we went to nationals at EPCOT, Woodie informed us of a new rule change, if you declined, you were done. This basically eliminated premade alliances. It was this improvement that made alliances the great GP promoting system that they've become.