Coopertition - Not As Easy As It Looks!

[Jim Meyer]

Originally Posted by jawebste

Our team was actually the recipient of "being left" at the bridge (being stood up for the prom?) twice. In one of the two matches the two bots on our alliance that had said they could do our bridge couldn't balance, so our alliance received no balance points while the team on the opposing alliance that had agreed to cooperate never came near the coopertition bridge and went and made a two bot balance for their own alliance.

This was the thing that I feared the most about this game. Whether it happened in actuality or was merely percieved that way, decieving your opponents can benefit you in this game. This aspect has the real potential to damage relationships between teams.

Lets not confuse deciding not to balance with your opponents with the 6v0 matches. Deciding not to balance alway hurts all of the teams on the field. They only time it helps a team on the field is if they have some outside interest in seeing a team not in that match seed higher than one that is in that match. The 6v0 scenario actually helped some of the teams on the field seed higher. It was weird that the rules the GDC laid out worked that way, but they did not make that mistake this year.

Teams have always (since 2000) had the option of pulling other teams down with them by intentionally losing matches they were in. To me, choosing not to participate in cooperitition this year is the same as "throwing" a match.