The smaller bits of history

[Jake177]

Originally Posted by Ian Curtis

What was the deal with 3 team alliances in 2002-2004. I know you still picked 3 teams, but were alliances required to play each robot once per round? Once per tournament?

Pre-2002: Each alliance picked an extra robot for eliminations, but they were not required to participate in any elimination matches. So you ended up with teams getting credit for being part of winning alliances without actively participating in any of their elimination matches. (I know this was the setup in 2001, but I can't speak definitively on 2000 or 1999.)
2002-2004: Each alliance picked an extra robot, but every member of the alliance was required to play at least once in each best-of-three round. This led to some interesting gamesmanship trying to anticipate which two robots your opponents were going to send out, and deciding which two you should send out.

From the manual for 2002 (Zone Zeal):
T11. Each team in an alliance must compete in at least one elimination match in each series (quarterfinals, semi-finals, and finals) unless a team’s robot is unable to move along the carpet under its own power. Alliance Captains will be the final judges of whether or not a robot is unable to move. FIRST urges all teams to use Gracious Professionalism when making this judgment so as to be fair to both opponents and partners.

(IIRC, 2005 was the first year of the current backup bot rules.)