Ungracious professionalism at internationals?

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by Racer26

Am I the only one that can look at this scenario and say, "If I was 217, I'd probably decline several alliances, but would still accept 1538/1986's invitation"?

I can't say you're the only one, but you're probably in the minority. If you're going to accept a pick from #1 and try like heck to fix your robot, you're going to accept a pick from #8 and try like heck to fix your robot. To act otherwise is to admit that you're really just planning on riding #1's coattails with your broken, unfixable robot.

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

Is it right to tell teams you are done and then accept an invitation to an alliance? If you were going to accept no matter what , why even take the time to tell teams you're broken?

If your robot is broken and requires significant repairs to reach some sort of competitive level, is it right to withhold that information from teams and hope you get pick based on prior competition's performance or reputation? How do you think the #4 or #5 seed would feel when they discovered they spent a pick on a robot that was barely working? I think 217's choice was one of two honorable paths they could have picked. The other option being to decline any pick because they felt their robot truly was completely and utterly unfixable. (Caught fire at the PDB and significantly damaged 80% of the wiring or something. Though even then you could get a driving robot together.)