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Re: Picking Teams in Elimination Rounds
Personally, I like the serpentine draft -- I think it still has a significant advantage for the #1 seed, but it forces the teams with the top few robots to work hard in scouting, too!
In some cases this year, the #1 seeds have not done as well as one might expect, often due to a much weaker third robot on the alliance. However, in general, it seems to me that the cause of this is that the choice for a third robot was poor, not that there wasn't a decent pick remaining!
Last year, the teams that were last to pick the third robot for their alliance (the 7th or 8th seeds, or maybe even a #12 seed that suddenly found themselves as captain of the #8 alliance) were often poorly prepared for having to make a first pick, much less a second pick, as they didn't have the "scouting depth" to make a good choice. Last year, I heard a fair bit of ridicule directed to alliances #7 or #8 when they were unable to make a decent second pick.
One would expect that the top seeds would be able to scout sufficiently effectively in order to make a good choice for a third robot to round out their alliance. However, in general, I haven't found this to be the case. By the time the last pick comes back around to the #1 seed, it is necessary for them to possibly be looking all the way down to the 23rd team on their "pick list"! If they didn't have 24 teams on their list, they're in trouble when they need to choose a third robot.
I found this to be exactly the case at yesterday's Boston Regional. (I was there to watch; our team wasn't competing.) Even though the #1 seeded alliance won, most of the top few seeds had real trouble making the choice of a third team to round out their alliance. With one exception, the top few seeds didn't have sufficiently deep scouting to make a 2nd pick -- they invited teams that were already on (or captaining!) another alliance, invited teams that weren't even at the regional, and eventually resorted to inviting teams that shouted out to them from the crowd. When a #1 seed doesn't have the scouting info to make a good 2nd pick for their team, is it any surprise that they end up with a third robot that doesn't contribute much to the alliance?
I agree that a fair number of lower-seeded alliances are upsetting higher-seeded alliances due to a weak third robot on the higher-seeded alliance. However, I think the cause of this isn't inherent in the serpentine draft, but is due to the higher-seeded alliances having made *poor choices* due to insufficient scouting depth. At yesterday's Boston Regional, the top seeds overlooked a few decent robots that were still available to be chosen.
I think it's only fair that the #1 seed should have to work not just on their robot, but on scouting, too, in order to come up with a winning alliance. If a lower seed has the scouting depth to make a much better choice for a third robot on their alliance, I think they've earned the possibility of upsetting the #1 alliance! Even if the #1 alliance has the two best robots in the tournament, another alliance with three decent bots stands a fighting chance of pulling off an upset. If the #1 alliance "did their homework" so that they could make a good 2nd pick, they're going to be extremely hard to beat.
Just my two cents...
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Ken Streeter - Team 1519 - Mechanical Mayhem (Milford Area Youth Homeschoolers Enriching Minds)
2015 NE District Winners with 195 & 2067, 125 & 1786, 230 & 4908, and 95 & 1307
2013 World Finalists & Archimedes Division Winners with 33 & 469
2013 & 2012 North Carolina Regional Winners with teams 435 & 4828 and 1311 & 2642
2011, 2010, 2006 Granite State Regional Winners with teams 175 & 176, 1073 & 1058, and 1276 & 133
Team 1519 Video Gallery - including Chairman's Video, and the infamous "Speed Racer!"
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