Sorting Algorithms as a Tool for Picklisting

[microbuns]

Since you are dealing with a relatively small number of teams, using a sorting algorithm won't help you speed up your sorting of your list. Humans are very good at just placing an item in the correct spot, and we are much less good at following algorithm instructions. As others have said, they hard part of pick ordering is just choosing who is better than who - not sorting them once that has taken place.

[JesseK]

It should be worth noting that not every team's rank preference will be the same. For example in 2014, you'd want 4 potential lists - All-Around, Finishers, Trusser and Inbound/Assister's. Once your team decides what role your robot will fill, it's a matter of finding the best robot for the other roles (and sometimes splitting up other alliances).

In 2015 there could be lists for All-around, Tote stackers, stack cappers and RC grabbers. Again - it all depends on your role and what roles the robots at the events have chosen to fill. Cheesecake throws a wildcard into the whole thing though .

[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by microbuns

Since you are dealing with a relatively small number of teams, using a sorting algorithm won't help you speed up your sorting of your list. Humans are very good at just placing an item in the correct spot, and we are much less good at following algorithm instructions. As others have said, they hard part of pick ordering is just choosing who is better than who - not sorting them once that has taken place.

I think the implicit question here was developing a ranking system that will provide a sorting of teams for a draft.

[GeeTwo]

The bottom line (as hinted and presented several places above) is that with the small number of teams at an event (or CMP division), sorting on any reasonable number of criteria is going to be essentially instantaneous on a decent laptop. (That is, for less than 100 items to be sorted, don't sweat the "big O"; simple sort algorithms are good enough).

The key is to decide which team attributes are most important, and how they rank relative to one another. Picking according to a team rubric is a "safe" course; no one will ask why you went that way. But if your gut and your spreadsheet give you different answers, my best advice is to make sure you understand why your spreadsheet gave the answer it did, and determine for yourself whether your gut instinct is better, and if so, why. If you pick right, you'll probably be considered a prodigy or genius, but if you pick wrong, it's essential that you be able to clearly communicate to your team mates why you overrode "team wisdom".