Alliance Captain versus last pick in Alliance Selection

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I can understand your point at the regional level, but I would wager that there has never been a World Champion alliance where the second pick did not play a crucial role in the success of the alliance. If an alliance captain dismisses the importance of the second pick at the championship level, they might as well forefeit their chance at winning the world championship.

Some examples:
2015: 1671 was a competitive scoring robot that could human load without a tethered ramp and place multiple capped stacks of six.
2014: 2848's kiss passing, defense, and occasional long truss shots helped seal the deal for the 254 alliance.
2013: 610 was one of the most consistent cyclers in the world.
2012: 16's ball starvation and feeding strategy was crucial to the success of the alliance.
2011: 973 had the fastest minibot in the world and one of the highest traction drive trains at the event, with strong driving.
2010: 177's ability to pass balls forward, occasionally score from midfield, and consistently hang were part of what gave the alliance the edge in the final matches.
2009: 971 was a very strong scorer with the ability to human load fairly easily as well.
2008: 148's maneuverability and strategic defense meant that they could often prevent opponents from acquiring game pieces or scoring for long periods of time. Check out some of the later matches on Einstein to see how this worked.

I could go on, but I think you get the point.

Agreed. I think MAYBE two of those alliances could have won with a different robot for their third partner.

He might also be talking about members of 74 or 5012, who also fall into the "not a captain/first pick" category.
These two had different, less tangible contributions to their alliances than the picks you listed above, so I could understand that kind of feeling.

There are students on 20 that don't feel like we "deserved" our divisional win this year even though I can point to examples where we contributed off-the-field to help with the win. It's a difficult mindset for some people to buy into.