A comment about alliance selection in off season events

[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

There have been some good points made in this threads but I think we are hitting a point where the discussion is getting pointless as it is starting to come down to what works for team xxxx doesn't always work for team yyyy.

Every year teams compete at events (official and offseason) for various reasons and there isn't one blanket reason that will work for every team. Even at regionals/districts you will meet teams who aren't there to win on the field. Not every offseason event is viewed the same way by every team. Even at a pretty laid back event there will be teams who are there with the intent to do their best and are aiming to win and there are those who are just training new students or giving new ones a chance. If a team wants to do so by picking a certain robot that is their decision even if is is their own.

If you really have an issue go talk to the event organizers instead of debating here on CD where it is pointless and it isn't hard to tell what teams you are referring to.

I can't disagree with you more. Again, you're missing my point. This is not a decision that should be left to individual teams. It is a decision that should be made at an organizational level, either the event organizer or at the Regional or FIRST HQ level. Individual teams cannot effectively make an individual "disarmament" decision to avoid making certain alliance decisions. It must be a mutual agreement. At the international level, that's why we have treaties--actions by individual nations trying to influence world events are rarely effective unless there is a treaty.

As you well know, it is almost pointless to email individual event organizers--they'll simply blow me off. And I can't physically go to discuss this issue with each and every event organizer. CD is where issues can be aired publicly and where a larger

I'm actually not trying to call out individual teams, because teams usually will respond to the rules and intent of the event organizer. I'm a bit unhappy that certain teams chose to select their own B bot, but the event organizers had not stepped in to prohibit that. So they did what they thought was in their own best interest. This is an issue at other events--I just chose a salient recent example. Unfortunately what was in an individual team's best interest was not in the best interest of the region as a whole in my opinion. (See T^2's comment above for confirmation--and I know him personally and know how extremely dedicated he is.) As a professional economist I frequently must address the divergence between individual self interest and societal best interest. This is just such a case.