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Posted by Dale Boudreau, Engineer on team #191, X-Cats, from Joseph C. Wilson and Xerox.

Posted on 4/28/99 11:14 AM MST


In Reply to: Re: Scoring and Defense. posted by P.J. Baker on 4/27/99 10:06 AM 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.


I am with team 191, we seeded 13th. We went 5-1 in the seeding rounds. We scored a perfect game with TJ^2 immediately after losing a round with another team by scoring only 16. We had scores of 126, 108, and 126. We then scouted the top 60 teams heavily, not looking for the team with the best record, but the team that complimented our machine well. We were not as prepared for this task as we would have liked, but our take was that all the machines out there in the top 60 were very good and very close. Luck and strategy play as much a role in the playoffs as excellence in engineering. We picked some excellent partners in GRT and Quincy. We were, unfortunately eliminated in the first round by some great competitors, but, as they say...that's why they play the game.