[Joe G.]

Here is how I think this one will play out, why I think it is here, and a couple more points:

Suppose that team A has a low end robot, with an amazing match draw. In their first match, they are partnered with 2 amazing robots, B and C, and in their next, with 2 fairly decent robots, D and E. They are carried to a dominant victory by their partners in the first match. Now, under the old system, if this happened enough, team A would seed fairly well, possibly even within the top 8. Justifiably, this can be argued as unfair, as team A was carried to this position more than anything else.

Teams B and C, meanwhile, proceed to win nearly every match they compete in. They are hampered slightly by their loss of empty cells, which happens in more matches than not. Team B has dominated the competition for years, and was fully expecting their robot to be one of the forces at the regional. Therefore, they wisely decided to not base their strategy on empty/super cells, and focus on other things. They place within the top 3 at the regional. Team C is a rookie sensation, and was not expecting to be doing so well. Their robot was designed more around empty cells, as they were not expecting to be hurt by <G14> much. They seed just outside of the top 8, and make a note to focus more on parts of the game not penalized by similar rules in the past. However, through good scouting and foresight, team B picks team C in the first round of picking. The eliminations are close enough that <G14> never affects a match, and team C is allowed to fully shine, and along with team B and their third partner, they win the regional.

Team A goes on to its second match carrying a heavy <G14> burden from its last match. Teams A, D, and E fight hard, but are unable to win their second match, arguably because they were short 2 empty cells. This same cycle occurs at least once more to team A, placing them out of the top 8. Scouts have noticed that most of their victories, such as those with team B and C, were not lead by team A, and they are not picked.

Teams D and E only are affected by <G14> occasionally, and when they are, it is usually due to another team. However, they are finding that, without team C's amazing combination of good robot, skilled payload specialist, and skilled driver, they rarely, if ever, score more than 2 super cells per match anyways. Not enough opportunities come for the payload specialists, and without exceptional robots, they are unable to both receive more than 2 empty cells without wasting a fair amount of time, not to mention time sitting still getting shot at, as well as receive more than 2 empty cells from the payload specialists, and score them all in 20 seconds.



So I guess I don't really think that losing 1-2 empty cells will hurt that much, and if it does, you must have a dynamite robot that will be taken in pretty quickly in the picking. If you really think that this is an unavoidable and harsh burden, then design around things other than empty cells.

I also don't think a score of zero will EVER occur. There will just be too many balls flying around to not have at least a couple score.


Finally, we all seem to forget the first bit of kickoff too quickly. Are we really going to be looking back, 20 years from now, and going "Gee, my life has been messed up. If only FIRST had let us win that match by letting us have another empty cell, then I would have learned so much more, been inspired to go into engineering, and come up with several things to make the world better."?