paper: Alliance Seeds and Results

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by Rypsnort

This made me wonder about the average seeding of an alliance and how that impacts the outcome. Especially the impact of the 1st seed alliance picking the #2 seed team. I have seen it many times where the #2 "rejects" the #1 and the crowd making a big deal out of it. From this data I would think "rejecting" the #1 seed is a bad idea.

I think that this is a bad conclusion to draw from this data. Correlation is not causation. The first seeded alliance does not do well across the board because they happen to have a number 1 next to their alliance number, but because they tend to have better robots on their alliance than any other seed. Generally, the first seed has a pretty good robot, so it is beneficial for any team to accept their invitation. However, if the first seed has a robot that is not one of the top 2 robots at the event according to your pick list, there is no good reason* to accept their invitation if you are the 2 seed.

*Unless you are looking for an easier schedule in the quarter and semi finals.