Quote:
Originally Posted by Magnechu
Has your team ever denied one of the top seeds picking you? Have you ever witnessed another team denying a selection? If so, I imagine these teams were in the top 8 as well, right? Why do you deny in that case?
Just wondering, because I've never seen a team deny, and it seems like it would be very ungracious.
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If declining, and the team is outside the Top 8....
- A team might decline an invitation because they know their robot is badly damaged and would not serve the alliance well in the elimination rounds. An example of this gracious action was set in motion by Team 703 at GTR this past weekend.
- A team may be ignorant of the alliance selection rules and by declining a pick, remove themselves from competing in the eliminations - this has happened at least once before, but I do not recall when and where. Regional announcers/MC's have made it a point to explain the picking rules to teams in MUCH more detail in recent seasons after this had happened a few times back in the day. No one wants to see this example happen again.
If declining, and the team is inside the Top 8:
- By making into the Top 8 seeds, a team has earned the right to choose their own alliance partners and serve as an alliance captain. They have also earned the right to decline the invitation to form an alliance with a higher-seeded opponent who may choose them. This is well within their rights as granted by the rules and is not in any way an ungracous act. If the team declines an invitation from a higher-seeded alliance captain, they can then not accept an invitation from any other alliance captain - they may only choose their own alliance.
And a related side-venture......
If picking, and the team is a top seed:
- You will see this happen from time to time, and you might even see it in Atlanta - a top seeded team proceeds to choose teams in the Top 8 below them who most people feel are superior performers to the top seed. It is quite natural for the top seed to desire to ally with such great teams and robots, and it is certainly an intelligent and logical course of action to try and ally with such teams by visibly choosing them in public (even if those teams come up to them and tell them beforehand they won't agree to the selection - the virtues vs. evils of such an action are left for a debate for another day). So when the choice is made, the chosen teams will decline this invite and wish to form their own alliance (as is their right). Now, the top seed team might then repeat this process 2, 3, 4, or more times as they proceed to pick down through the top 8, trying to identify a strong partner who wishes to ally with them. Several other top teams may decline a partnership before one finally agrees to ally with the top seed.
- A side effect of this action is to prevent most of the Top 8 seeds from picking each other - they must each form an alliance composed of themselves and teams outside the top 8. This has the effect of greatly leveling the playing field and spreading out the best talent among the alliances. This generally leads to less certainty of who the regional/division winner will be and generally creates a more exciting elimination atmosphere filled with closer matches. Some who enjoy watching total domination by the few at the expense of the many feel that such a picking strategy interferes with top performers' destiny to join forces and dominate the competition on the way to a regional victory or Einstein. One counters that if teams are truly "destined" to be together on their way to the gold, these top robots would have seeded #1 to begin with in order to have complete control over who they can ally with. But I digress.
