Losing on Purpose to Gain Advantage

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by gblake

Why didn't you suggest winning every tournament or every autonomous period, instead of winning every match? Are you assuming that all three are the same? I know that they are not? Or do you believe is there something special about a match that doesn't apply to complete tournaments, or to portions of a match?

It appears that you're trying to make these questions rhetorical, but I do not believe they are.

I certainly do believe that there is something special about the 'match' unit that makes it more special than the 'autonomous period', 'endgame period', or 'tournament' units.

I'm certain that there are those who will disagree with me, but I am equally certain that the match unit is more important than the rest, because FIRST uses the sports model, and coopertition still involves that 'rtition' part. I am equally certain that my administrators and most of my parents and students want to know if we've won a match -- not an autonomous period, not an endgame, but a match -- and that winning a tournament comes ultimately from winning matches.

Matches are special. Failure to recognize this -- or a refusal to recognize this -- will result in disagreement with my stance on how things "should be".