Winning a Match vs. Winning Strategically

[bduddy]

Originally Posted by rick.oliver

The best way to ensure that each team plays to win every match is to ensure that the seeding system rewards that behavior. Qualifying points based on wins and ties with tie breaker points based on a team's own alliance performance (not the opposing one's) should do that.

This is the system in place for this year. The remaining incentive which may influence behavior is the draft process. In my opinion, drafting 1 to 8 in both rounds would remove any incentive for a team to "throw" a match.

Under these circumstances, I cannot think of an ethical (or even gray area) which would justify a team "throwing" a match.

I don't think many teams throw matches because of the "snake" drafting system - in any case, this would probably not be a good idea because, year after year, higher seeds still win more often anyway. What I see discussed much more often is the manipulation of matches to ensure that a certain team is or is not ranked highly, to try to ensure a given result in the first round of alliance selection, and I don't see how going to a 1-8, 1-8 system would change that. I do agree that the "simpler" ranking system this year has removed the incentive for the 6v0, etc., and I'm all for that.