Suggestion for a new overall approach

[Pault]

Originally Posted by Citrus Dad

I believe most mentors want to see a higher level of play across the board. Not supporting the younger teams leads to a lower level of play, and for the more proficient teams, a smaller pool of available competent alliance partners during eliminations. The drag from a non-functioning alliance partner is much worse than the potential loss from facing a more competent opponent in this game. The best teams have taken that lesson from this year's competition, not the lesson you propose here.

And if the more experienced teams are given an incentive to engage those teams in the pre-season, then you are less likely to see the resistance to suggested strategies that you note (and others have noted as well--see the thread "the ethics of saying no".)

Engaging other teams to increase teamwork across the organization is an important goal. Remember that FIRST is not the NFL--the objective is not about winning a championship trophy; it's about increasing education and engagement in STEM. Competition is only a means to an end, not the other way around.

But I still don't see how coopertition among an alliance makes a team more likely to help other teams. The good teams out there always have helped teams, and always will, not at all because they are afraid of getting bad alliance partners but because it is making progress towards the ultimate goal of FIRST. I can't imagine a team saying "I don't want to be with bad alliance partners, so I am going to help all the teams around me to be better alliance partners... Even though it is more likely that they will be competing against me." I imagine them saying "I am going to help the teams around me because it will help to inspire them and their community to take up STEM carreers, as well as increase the competitiveness of FIRST in order to better bring about the culture change which we all desire."