[archiver]

Posted by Andrew Trax, Coach on team #180, S.P.A.M., from Southfork,Martin Co. High and UTC.

Posted on 5/5/99 3:47 AM MST


In Reply to: Crazy Idea, looking for comments posted by Joe Johnson on 5/4/99 7:58 PM MST:



Three team alliances in which one team sits the bench? Nope, I don't like
it - strongly. Some teams would never get a chance to even try. I'd almost
rather go to Reionals as eliminations for a National to weed out weaker
robots than to have teams shut out entirely. Or even repeat this year's format.
And it's bad enough that some teams wouldn't play because they built a barely
functional machine. The bigger tragedy would be the teams with great robots
that sit out because they're rookies, don't have the name recognition of some
of the veteran teams, end up paired with two others from the same city or
corporation... We like to think that it's all about ability. But there is
a 'political undercurrent' that would banish some good teams to the bench.
With 200+ teams competing it's almost impossible to scope out every machine, see
everyone play, before making alliance decisions. So some choices would have
to be based on something other than pure ability.
Let's add a day to Nationals and go back to double eliminations. Put as many
robots on the field as you want. But let each win or lose on their own merit.

Opinionatedly,
Mrs. Trax