Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrs.Drake343
If you are happy to let the chips fall where they may and just accept what place you land in, then there is no strategy involved. If you would like to try and control your own destiny then different thinking will be required.
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I think this sums up my thoughts on the current ranking system... both pre and post update 16.
My question for teams is "Do you want to Pick or be Picked?". In my mind there are two very different styles of strategy & play depending on what your answer to that question is. For the Juggernaut teams, the answer might be the same, as they can outscore any team on the field. For the rest of us, there is a choice to be made.
If your answer is you want to Pick your own alliance, go for whatever strategy gets you the highest seeding scores. Its not hard to do the math, if two of your robots dont move in the match and you are up against good teams, go help the other alliance... if your opposing alliance is going to be successful defending the heck out of you... figure out a way to get a lot of points for everyone.
If your answer is you want to be Picked, then play to win every match. If you are lucky, your alliances will be set up such that you can do so, and hopefully make it to the top of the ranks anyway. If you are unlucky and your alliance partners don't move and you end up in a 3v1 match, you "show your stuff" and hope that the top seeded teams or your opponents notice/have good scouting and pick you.
Me personally (I cant speak for 1511 anymore), I like to control my own destiny. I like to be in charge of my own outcomes. I shudder at having to completely rely on luck or someone else to pick my team. A complete aside, we gave a team at champs who only had 10 members our pick list, our honest assessment was that we were 5th on our list and although the team wanted to pick us first, we told them there were better choices. They finally agreed to use our list and were able to pick our second rank team... that team then convinced them NOT to pick us, even though we were still available and highest on the pick list! Granted if I was completely selfish, we would have told them to pick us first, but its been a stellar reason in my mind to NOT rely on other team's selection.
But at any rate, if you are fortunate, don't go up against any teams playing defense, and have good alliance partners, playing to win every match will likely boost you up in the rankings. If you are unfortunate, go up against teams that play defense, and have alliance partners that have control system problems, playing to win every match is very unlikely to win you a top 8 seed no matter how hard you try.
Personally, I don't like that we have a system that forces teams to choose between the two options. I would rather a game where winning matches and climbing the ranks were
ALWAYS the same thing (Key word is ALWAYS). I'm hoping next year we go back to a game that is W-L-T then seeding points, or a game where it is clearly acceptable to EVERYONE to play a 6v0 game.