Quote:
Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery
My team was put in the position of being a fourth member who never took the field, and it was not a lot of fun watching our destiny be decided on the field by other teams. And we're not a perennial powerhouse who's used to playing in the eliminations all the time at any level, especially not IRI (this was as close to the IRI eliminations as we've ever been). I suggest having it so each alliance would have to play all four teams at least once during the elimination matches. That would mean if you lost your first match during the QFs, you would have to play whichever team sat out during the next match, as your alliance may be eliminated. If you won/tied your first QF match, you could opt to stay with the same 3-team alliance until you're threatened to be eliminated in a later round (or you're threatening to win the competition and you still haven't played the fourth team). This is very similar to what FRC did with elimination alliances from 2000-2004, and was FTC still does.
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As an alliance captain, I wouldn't want to be mandated to play anything other than the game I intend to play. If that means playing the same alliance partners in 1, 2, or 3 matches, that should be my prerogative as an alliance captain. If I feel my 4th partner would be more beneficial in a given match, it's my choice to play them. In all honesty, I'd feel less in control of my alliance's destiny if I were forced to play all robots, especially if we come up with a working strategy with just 3 of us.
In fact, my team was an alliance captain in 2002 at the UTC Regional. If I remember right, we were the 7th seeded alliance captain. Playing our first choice alliance partner, we beat the number 2 seed in our first match. This being the pre-serpentine draft era, our second alliance partner wasn't as strong of a robot as the number 2 seed's second alliance partner, so being mandated to play them, we lost our second match. Third match we were in a winning position holding on to 2 goals in our zone, when our first pick alliance partner blew a fuse and got dragged accross the field like dead weight, goals in tow and all. Had we played our first pick again for the second match, even if they blew the fuse at that point, the third match could have potentially gone either way. In any case, being mandated to play our second pick put us at a huge disadvantage in our second match given the drafting style at the time. That felt more like we were out of control of our own destiny more than having to sit on the bench and cheer our partners on.