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Originally Posted by BRAVESaj25bd8
I think what Rich was saying is that we can only police ourselves. If other people will do any "sandbagging" as you called it, then they will. He was just saying that all we can control is ourselves and that by doing so in a graciously professional manner, perhaps others will try to emulate us.
As far as the reason for the rule, it seems to me the same reason why we switched to a serpentine style alliance selection process. It will bring some added excitement to the games by making them more even. I was in FIRST for 1 non serpentine draft and the elimination matches did not compare to the ones we get to watch now. #1 Alliance used to win a lot more than they do now. FIRST went out on a limb back then by trying to even the field a little and IMHO, it worked out incredibly well. The people running FIRST are pretty smart, let's give them a chance to show us that a rule like this is a good thing.
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This isn't introducing any real excitement, though. It's just fake excitement, where the scores will seem close but the match will have been a blowout. Team members and non-affiliated spectators will both be able to tell when an alliance is far superior and simply not trying to win, and it won't make the match any more "exciting", it'll just make the end look like a joke.
It's a lot like NASCAR, which I used to enjoy a lot. In the last few years, though, they have gotten into the habit of throwing yellow flags (which bunch up the field) constantly and for no real reason, especially near the end of the race. The result? The results look more competitive then ever and the margin of victory is always low, and NASCAR constantly puts out races to this effect. But is the race really any more exciting? No. It's just manufactured excitement, making the final results look close when in reality the cars may have been far apart in performance. FIRST is trying to do the same thing, and it won't work. Besides, why do they need to? This game is level enough already! And what ever happened to the "successful teams inspire others" theory?