[Enigma's puzzle]

Has anyone considered that FIRST is trying to put a real life lesson into this years game? Maybe the prisoner's dilemma that they created is there to simulate the real world, where everything is not only not fair, but possibly counterintuitive?

Example: A promotion in the workplace is often not decided by who works the hardest, who does the best work, who is the best leader, or who has the best ideas, but instead SENIORITY often trumps all these qualities which would make more sense as to why they should be leading. Lets say you figured out that your Firm does promotions based on seniority, so do you not work as hard? Or do you continue to do your best work?

So knowing this did anyone not work as hard to build the best robot they were capable of? So a few robots got a free pass into the ELIMS.
But in case you haven't figured out, the FIRST system is biased towards offensive robots, as is this new ranking system. (Although this new system is even more biased.) The top tier offensive robots are going to end up selecting on Saturday (or at least until they get picked). So in order to keep you options open you have to build a scoring robot, that will have the option of declining to select your own alliance. FIRST is rewarding scoring, because scoring is harder than defending, so thus FIRST is rewarding the people that have built the more capable robots (Theoretically)? (Tell me if the logic is wrong). Sure a few slip through the cracks, but I personally believe that FIRST is trying to reward the teams that complete the most difficult tasks well.


So lets pretend you could't/weren't able to/don't have the resources to build one of the most capable robots. So how would you go about making sure you got selected in the eliminations? By showcasing your robot. By showing your tremendous defensive abilities. By showing how easily you can hang at any opportunity you can. The way that this post is sounding, is that everyone believes that the GDC put a random ranking variable into the equation or that only teams that cheat, lie, and swindle ranking points can get the chance to select there alliance. And if so, isn't the Qualifications essentially like a tryout to see who can impress the randomly selected teams enough to get selected? Kind of like a tryout for a sports team you may not have to have your best day but if you can do something to make you memorable you have that much better of a chance to get selected.


And i personally believe if any team is confident enough in themselves that they will score for the opponent to boost their score (In a match in which they hold the win already), kudos 217 and others, this system is designed to make sure you guys, the offensive juggernauts will be deciding alliances.


My personal view is that when it comes to scoring collusion that all going for one goal is less effective because of the number of robots crawling in one zone just inhibits itself, whereas there is just so much more you could gain by playing minimal defense and concentrating on maximizing your scoring.