Coopertition - Not As Easy As It Looks!

[gr8dragon]

Addressing the Canadian talent not good enough point, I would like to mention that 1114 and 2056 have had superior robots to any Canadian team in most if not all years. (2008 1114 had arguably the best robot in FIRST) However it is not that the other teams in Canada have no hope of beating them or that they have given up hope. The reason why choosing not to cooperate was a viable strategy was because it gave the weaker teams a possibility to win the regional, as well as had they been effectively split up, 4 teams would've had the distinct honour in working with both 1114/2056. Which may have help them figure out how to do things differently in order to do better in upcoming years.

By not cooperating a team isn't "bringing down the powerhouse" to their level or anything, they are simply giving themselves the best chance to compete. There is a significant difference between actively choosing not to cooperate, which i think is well within the spirit of FIRST, and not allowing other teams to cooperate. In my opinion it is comparable to initiating contact with an opponent's robot if you are in the key/alley to keep piling up penalty points, especially if that robot is having difficulty driving out as a lot of teams run into that problem. It is arguable that that strategy is just as far from the spirit of FIRST as disallowing coopertition. It in a small way can even be compared to playing defencee on a team knowing that your robot has the mechanical advantage to push that robot around and pin it down for extended periods of the match.(pinning within the rules) I may be wrong about this but i do believe that at one regional a team was red carded for intentionally trying to get penalty point while they were in the key/alley, but no other regional has done so(again could be wrong on that). This is just an interesting ruling for this years game and I think falls under the same discussion. Thoughts?