[EricH]

Originally Posted by fuzzy1718

The reason for my post way back on page 6 is, I'm tired of seeing and hearing about the same teams in Atlanta, year after year, when I know for a fact that they didn't win a regional. I'm tired of the same teams getting to the playoffs at most regionals. Above all elese I'm tired of veteran powerhouses picking one another at regionals and not letting the teams not already qualified to get a chance at going. Why pick one another when all arealready going, pick the people that have never gone or don't "buy their way in every year.

Originally Posted by lilstogi11

However, if you had the opportunity to pick a vet team that you scouted and knew had a better chance of alliancing with and winning the regional, would you not pick them over any other team (be they rookie or not)? How and which teams choose to select other teams is what I believe to be a privilege that they earn by competing their very best. Personally I don't think anyone has a right to judge why a team picks another certain team: its their shot to call if they earned that top 8 seed.

For one thing, you don't have to win a regional to go the championships. You can win Chairman's, EI, or Rookie All-Star. Or you can be a defending champion, a "legacy team" (as in, in FIRST since 1992 continuously), or a Championship Chairman's Award winner.

For another, I'm with lilstogi. It's not your fault if you aren't the best team for a given top-8 team! They might be the best robot for you, and you might not be the best robot for them. It happens. Or they might be there due to an "easy" match schedule and not know what they're doing. It happens.

There are no rules governing how picks are made, save the order and the "if you decline, you can't be picked again" rule. Even more, there are no rules that #x alliance will win. Even if an alliance is formed with three teams who need to win to qualify for Atlanta, there is no guarantee that they will win even one match! You're asking for teams to hurt themselves and others for a gain to some teams that will cost them, too. Tell me this: is it "fair" to pick a team that barely got the money together to enter, built a decent defender from the KOP, and then win the competition with them, thus qualifying them for Atlanta and costing them another $5000 plus travel?