[archiver]

Posted by P.J. Baker, Engineer on team #177, Bobcat Robotics, from South Windsor High School and International Fuel Cells.

Posted on 4/27/99 10:06 AM MST


In Reply to: Scoring and Defense. posted by Sean Kim on 4/26/99 11:00 PM MST:



It was my feeling before Nationals, that we would have to have 2 300+ pt.
Rounds to make the top 16 teams. I was only partially right. We did get
the two big rounds (thanks SPAM (432 pts.) and Rip Tide (378 pts.)). In
addition to those two big wins, we had three wins with 13, 54, and
(I think) 36 points, and one loss with 36 points. Along with our partners,
we fought hard to win those low scoring matches. At the time, I sort of
counted them as losses. After our 432 point round Thursday night, I was
always waiting for the second big score. It turned out though, that
winning those squeakers was very important for cracking into the top 16.
The teams were all so close, that had the 13, 54, and 36 point wins been
losses with the same point total, I think we might have ended up in the
20’s instead of at 14th. I don’t have complete information, and probably
never will, but I would bet that almost all of the top 16 were 6-0, 5-1,
or 4-2. Not 2-4 teams that had 'lucky' pairings. If you are out there
and were in the top 16, please respond to this post with your record to
prove me right or wrong.

To sum it up, I understand that it sucks to have gone 6-0 and not been drafted (you are not alone Walled Lake, I know of at least one other team), but I think that the system ended up rewarding teams that could both win close matches and win with big scores. Although there were certainly more than 16 teams with that capability, I felt that the system did a great job of getting most of the best teams into the elimination tournament.