Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Copioli
I really like Pat's suggestion. It is a compromise between "don't have to play" and "you must play". If the alliance decides to use their back-up, then the back-up is part of the alliance. If they chose not to use them, then the back-up is not part of the alliance.
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Ah but playing Devil's Advocate, what would keep an alliance from picking a team with no intention of playing them at all, only to keep that team's robot abilities and strategic flexibility from falling into the hands of an alliance that would be more likely to actually use such flexibility? I think at the very least, you'd have to retain serpentine picking of the backup bot (8 - 1) to keep higher-seeded alliances (who are more likely to have 3 robots who are effective enough to go it alone) from stashing away effective backups from the lower-seeded alliances in order for Paul's/Pat's suggestion to be viable.
Regardless, though, the use of any "Let me stash your team out of the way where you can't contribute to the success of another alliance, and oh, by the way, we don't even have to share the victory with you officially, nyah nyah nyah" methods doesn't sound like much fun for the backup team stuck in such a situation. Other than the IRI planners having to pay for the extra trophies, I don't see the downside of positively recognizing a team for serving as the backup role in an alliance, regardless of the reason they were put there. I agree completely with Rick Oliver - even the seldom (if ever)-used 12th man on the basketball team or the once every 10 games pinch hitting specialist gets to celebrate the victory equally with teammates who have much more active role on the team. Let's be careful not to treat these 4th teams as pieces of meat or pawns in a game implied to be both played and won by superior personnel.
Has anyone bothered to quantify the overall sentiment of the IRI alliance teams who actually participated in the "pick your own backup" plan last year? Are people suggesting that the planning committee should modify the rules to cater to a minority few who did not prefer them? Just a-wonderin' if anyone's considered the big picture.