paper: Alliance Seeds and Results

[Caleb Sykes]

I'm assuming that you are using "you" to refer to me, since you responded directly to my post.

Originally Posted by Brandon Ha

If you do not believe that the first seed was qualified enough to hold that rank would you accept them?

The number one seed at the event is literally the most "qualified" team at the event to be the number one seed. They earned their way into that seed by earning more qualifying points than any other team at the event.

What I think you are asking is something like "if you do not believe that the first seed is the best team at the event, would you accept them?"
My answer is that it depends, if I am a captain and I think there is a good chance my team will later in the draft have an opportunity to select a better team than the first seed, then of course I would have us decline. For example, if we are the fourth seed, and according to our data the first seed is the 7th best team at the event, then of course I would have us decline, because even if the first 3 alliances contain 6 of our top 7 teams (which never happens), the worst case for us is that we end up with the 6th best team.

There are few cases ever where this situation is not true but generally speaking, the first seeded team has demonstrated the highest "skill" in the competition at the tournament whether that be through an excellent robot and drive team, or less likely, a great strategic team.

I see that you are from Michigan, which implies that you have had much experience with the district system. While 12 matches per team at 40 team events might generally, in your experience, cause the best team at an event to be seeded first, 10 or less matches per team at a 60+ team event, in my experince, does not generally cause the best team to be seeded first. Of the last 4 regionals I have attended, only at 2 could an argument even have been made that the first seed was the best team at the event. Even in those two cases, it was pretty up in the air between 2-3 teams.

Also, while you may have an easier schedule through elims, would you rather get a blue banner under a team you believe will kill the competition or suck it up with someone else who YOU believe shouldn't be there and get a nice piece of hardware.

I personally would rather give my team the best possible chance to qualify for the championship event. Generally, I believe that this means playing with the best teams available, regardless of their seeds. I think teams that expend any effort trying to get on the "easier" side of the bracket are wasting their time. However, there are instances in which I might consider trying to end up on the opposite side of the bracket (e.g. at an event with both 1114 and 2056 in attendance).

I just mentioned this point in my previous post to qualify my statement that "there is no good reason to accept their invitation," like I said, I don't generally believe in trying to get on the "easier" side of the bracket.

I dunno about anyone else but Blue Banners are really nice and generally secure yourselves a spot at championships/

No argument from me here.