Buyers' remorse / Pig in a poke

[aryker]

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

Then what it the point of having alliances if you want each robot to just do their own thing? We should just play one on one if that is the case. In understand it can be frustrating to end up ranked low because of partner pairings. I've been there too, but only creating games that teams can win on their own is not pushing the teamwork between teams (coopertition) that FIRST wants to promote.

Teamwork between alliances is great, it just shouldn't be the major deciding factor of success or failure for an individual team. Take a look at what I said about Ultimate Ascent:

Originally Posted by aryker

Ultimate Ascent was, in my opinion, one of the best games FRC has ever seen because it was a game where one great robot could carry their alliance, while at the same time, 2 or 3 great robots in alliance together made things even more awesome.

In 2013, teamwork and strategy were required when you got to elims, because you were playing alliances just as good as yours. However, you could still make it to elims if you were paired with poor alliance partners in qualifications if your team built a good robot. This year, they're forcing teams to rely on factors that are completely beyond their control to get to elims. It doesn't matter nearly as much how well-built your robot is this year; if you get paired with box-bots all day, you're toast. Teamwork between alliance partners should definitely be a factor when competing, but I don't think it's a good idea to build games that force it to happen.