[Kevin Sevcik]

I couldn't imagine going back to the free-for-all format. I can see no advantage to it, except that it does, in fact, guarantee that the best robot and only the best robot wins pretty much all the time. Nice for the best robots and for those people who want seeding ranks to directly correlate with where a robot finishes after elims.... But it's pretty darn boring and annoying for most all of the other robots out there. I know for a fact that 57 isn't capable at the moment of building a robot that could take out, say, 1114, 71, 111, etc. in a one-on-one free for all match. We'd get creamed every time. 75% of the teams at most regionals aren't going to have a chance against the top 3 teams at that regional. Knowing that the ultimate winner is probably a foregone conclusion by the end of Friday isn't fun.

More to the point, FIRST is about promoting GP, teamwork, etc. Why on earth would we want to move away from that? I, too, was annoyed this year at the quals alliance pairings, but that doesn't mean I want to toss the baby out with the bathwater. The alliance system brings far too much good to the table. Teams work with teams. Teams are encouraged to do whatever they can to help out other teams, because you're likely to be working with them at some point or paired with them in the elims. Rookie teams and teams lower on the capability scale have a chance at doing well and getting picked for elims if thy can make a simpler robot to support other teams. The alliance system encourages broader strategy and more creative problem solving, while leaving room for teams working out of a garage to play with the big boys and still have success.

A (not so) brief story from LSR: 1772, the brazillian team, had next to no school support. The worked in a small spare room the school reluctantly gave them. They borrowed tools from parents to work with, not knowing when the parents would need them back. Instead of asking for money from businesses around town, they had to ask for wood, aluminum, etc so they'd have something to make a robot with. Despite all this, they came to LSR with a decent robot. All it could do was score on the lower rung reasonably well.* All they had for tools to work on the robot was a few hand tools. They borrowed a drill, bits, a laptop and everything else they needed from 57. We were happy to help another team. We had no matches paired with them. In fact, we were against them twice and split the two games with them. We knew that helping them was the right thing to do and that the more working robots there were, the better our chances of getting picked for the elims and doing well. And 1772 did do well. They ended up seeded 5th and picking. Anyone at LSR can tell you the rest. The 4th seed, 57, 364, and 1772, blew through quarters and semis because we were a good team and a good mix of robots. We won the first finals match against 118, 476, and 1745. We lost the last two matches only because was 1772 disabled twice in a row. I think that 1772, coming from where they came from, did incredibly well at LSR.

Now what would have happened if we'd been playing in a free-for-all? You see that * up there? Cut everything after that and replace it with:

Team 57 helped them as best they could, but had tons of work to do on their own robot to try to compete with the likes of 118 and 148. Sadly, neither 1772 nor 57 could truly compete with these massive scoring teams and dropped out of the tournament after the second round.

I, personally, think the later story is a heck of a lot more boring and less interesting. If some of those massive scoring teams don't like that they can be hamstrung by poor alliance choices or not working with other teams... Well then they have a bit to learn about teamwork. I like working with other teams. It makes us a stronger, better team and makes me feel good about what I'm doing.