[FTC]: FTC 2012 Season Speculation

[pantherbots4990]

Originally Posted by Coach Doug

I think the FTC game needs a few changes or updates. FRC is a good model.

3: Limit the alliance selection pool - if only twelve teams will be in the playoffs - selection pool is limited to only top twelve. current system enables the behavior of friends picking friends and de-values any team's record if their not in the top four ( 5th place team is equal to last place team - both have equal chance of making the playoffs). By limiting the selection pool - your scouting is more important as you need to know all the teams.

I think that they should do 8 alliances of 2 teams each, much like they do for FRC. If they do 8 alliances of 2 teams each, each alliance would have not have a robot sitting out for one of the matches, it would force teams to pick the team they feel they have the best chance to win with, and it would make for some more interesting matches as far as scoring goes.

[TRWSHSHLX]

Whew talking about reviving an old thread...

8 Alliances of 2 is definitely more exciting and it allows 16 teams as to 12 teams participating in elimination rounds (which I'm all for) however there are a few other things to consider:

What if one robot breaks down? In FRC you can call for backup but even so, in FTC 2 vs. 2 format, it's practically 1/2 of your alliance as to 1/3 and replacing 1/3 of your alliance is hard enough already... Maybe at championship levels this can be put in place since it's in competitive regions there's a very wide high quality selection pool to select from.

What happens to alliance balances? In the "perfect" ranking scenario, 1 would partner up with 2, 3 with 4, etc. It's nearly impossible to beat the top seeds (nearly impossible). With a 2nd pick it requires scouting, and variation of strategy and anticipating the opposing alliance, which in my opinion separates a good team from a great team.

[pantherbots4990]

Originally Posted by TRWSHSHLX

Whew talking about reviving an old thread...

8 Alliances of 2 is definitely more exciting and it allows 16 teams as to 12 teams participating in elimination rounds (which I'm all for) however there are a few other things to consider:

What if one robot breaks down? In FRC you can call for backup but even so, in FTC 2 vs. 2 format, it's practically 1/2 of your alliance as to 1/3 and replacing 1/3 of your alliance is hard enough already... Maybe at championship levels this can be put in place since it's in competitive regions there's a very wide high quality selection pool to select from.

What happens to alliance balances? In the "perfect" ranking scenario, 1 would partner up with 2, 3 with 4, etc. It's nearly impossible to beat the top seeds (nearly impossible). With a 2nd pick it requires scouting, and variation of strategy and anticipating the opposing alliance, which in my opinion separates a good team from a great team.

I think that we should do what FRC does, call up the next highest rank robot to join your alliance, true this would be like loosing half of your alliance, but it would force teams to build more reliable robots, for example this year, we had a robot in our alliance break down in the elimination rounds and we were forced to play with the third team the rest of the day, (all the way to the championship, which we got beat). Anyway, my point is having alliances of two teams would force teams to build more reliable robots that are ready to run, no matter the situation. This would force teams to look at the reliability of each robot in their scouting and would force teams to pick who they think they can play best with all the time. I simply think it would make the elimination matches more exciting than they already are!