Ethics of Telling a Team "No"

[valeriemoore]

I find this a very interesting question as well as something I have been on both sides of.

This year we started off as a very sporadic robot. And I do mean sporadic. Mecanum drivebase +Uneven weight distribution = robot that doesn't go in the direction that it is supposed to. (The physics is actually really interesting) We figured it out, and now our robot is fine. However, before it was fixed our robot ran head on into another robot during autonomous, loosing us a auto-hot-high-goal. It was an honest mistake for our robot, one that never happened again. Yet, it did happen, and I'm sure some scouters noticed it.

The thing that makes this years game interesting (and frightening) is that the actions necessary to win the match are not necessarily the ones that attract the attention for scouters. Every robot wants to prove their shooter and their ability to pass.

Some drive teams just won't be a team player, and there isn't much you can do about other than crossing them off of your pick list.

Yet, I agree with the sentiment of some of the other responses. All of these teams, regardless of their results, have worked hard on their robot. Having anyone tell them to go sit in a corner is quite honestly offensive.

The best strategy of creating a strategy from what I can see, is to make the distinction from struggling robots and stubborn drive teams. Ask the teams who have struggling robots to play defense. I saw several teams shut down because of good defense. As for the stubborn drive teams, make sure that you aren't being one of them, cross them off of your pick list, and remember not to get too frustrated with them, there isn't much you can do. Good Scouters will notice these teams. At least at CIR, they were announcing the teams that had incurred penalties.