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Posted by Thomas A. Frank.

Engineer on team #121, The Islanders/Rhode Warrior, from Middletown (RI) High School and Naval Undersea Warfare Center.

Posted on 4/12/2000 3:07 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: Alliances in touble? posted by Elaine Anselm on 4/12/2000 9:13 AM MST:



Hello All;

Allow me to add my thoughts here - this is somewhat lengthy, but please read all the way through, because I offer suggestions at the bottom to fix what I perceive as the problems here.

The alliance system (which should really be called coalitions; check the dictionary) is a pretty neat concept, but having the winning coalition receiving 3x the losing sides points is utterly silly. I get the feeling that the folks who design this competition (are you listening Woody and Dean?) have completely lost sight of what they are trying to emulate, which is sports. Can anyone think of any sport, or for that matter any aspect of real life, where the losers results have any direct consequence to/on the winners?

Furthermore, in either real life (or sports), can anyone think of a situation where one's partner appear moments before things begin? If there is to be pairing, even if it is arbitrary, then there should be more than 2 minutes to work out the 'details'.

Both issues above create a situation where you are at the mercy of other people, in situation that are beyond your control. Which is not how sports works, and when life works this way, it is usually considered detrimental...

On a related note, how many of you noticed the large number of teams that had trouble making their practice sessions early in the day, and what a difficult time FIRST had in organizing the opening of each day, due to teams not being ready, or not being there on time?

All of this can be fixed...

Item 1 - the practice schedule should be published on the Internet at least a week before the event for all events. That way teams will know if they need to make an extra effort to get there early.

Item 2 - Rather than dropping the alliance (excuse me, coalition) teaming sheet on the teams tables during the night, provide them right at registration. That way, again, teams that need to be there early will know and can make sure they are there. Even better, publish that on the Interent a week early also.

Item 3 - Keeping the teaming 'secret' until 2 minutes before the match is counterproductive, to say the least. It should be shown on the teaming sheet that is handed out at registration (or put out on the 'Net) per item 2 above. This pays several dividends; a) you put the right color light lens on before going to field (no delays or lost covers), b) teams that are fully operational will be out scouting their partners, and helping those that need it to get operational. As an aside, while we already help out other teams to best of our ability, if we knew beforehand that we were going to have the teaming info available to us, I am sure we would make an extra effort to form troubleshooting teams to go out and help our planned partners. If we knew who our partners were a week beforehand, we would call them and ask what help they need, and bring it...you can't bring everything (goodness knows the overweight charge for our shipping crates proves we tried to), but if you KNOW that they need something, it can usually be arranged.

Item 4 - the winners of a match should be just that - the winners. Putting their fate in the hands of the opposition is simply wrong...in one of our qualifying matches, we tried to score for the other side, and they were trying to stop us! Now that's not very nice/fair/rational, is it?

Anyone agree/disagree with these ideas?

Tom Frank
Team 121