Real Week 2 update

[Boltman]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

There is no "perhaps" here. The algorithm does not factor in team numbers or team history. Rather than pontificate here, consider talking with an FTA or reading up on the matchmaking algorithm to understand how it works.

http://www.idleloop.com/matchmaker/

Thanks for the link! I like having more info.

"it's desirable to minimize duplicates so that teams see as many different teams as possible. It's especially desirable for a given team not to have the same team as a partner more than once, nor as an opponent more than once."

I think they could have split 1678's second match against us to another match just sayin'. Its not really ideal for any team to face consensus #1 twice in qualifications or 20% of their matches.

I'm sure the algorithm tries to be unbiased however as we know it can be imperfect (as the above link states) a human FTA should look for duplicates and adjust as necessary. Just flip teams above or below any "peculiarity" a one game switch in the schedule is doable.

I am not pontificating (you chose to read a post in my week 2 update thread), just pointing out the realities of a single regional's scheduling that happened to have 4 World Champions everyone in FRC knows.

Also I disagree with this statement "This is not only a scheduling algorithm issue, but a simple matter of not knowing in advance which teams will turn out to be more effective than others."

I believe "Class" has a lot to do with year to year success in a 20 year organization of 4000 or so teams... just like in horse racing. So to say that 254 or 1678 or 973 or 1323 are all the sudden not going to be good is a false statement. they will likely be very good because of their programs and their history. They would not accept anything less. Same here we are not going to fall off the face of FRC either every year we will iterate better. You can assume certain things from how teams have done in the past. Just look at their year over year results its all there.

I think to really do scheduling "correctly" some unbiased FTA needs to "adjust" when the computer prints out what it thinks is optimal based on some algorithm. The FTA knows or should know the perennial teams and could easily see the duplicates or inordinate amount of powerhouse pairings with a single highlighter . They could adjust anytime up to when its posted. It can be done and I think it improves the game play as well if instituted correctly.

The main problem is.. teams only get maybe 20 matches in two regionals so scheduling draw is huge just like "missed RP's" as a high order ranking metric.

I'm not afraid to point things out to improve the game hopefully for every team. FRC is great yet can still improve and tweak. Its good to be questioned and not accept always the status quo. I may just have a fresh view on an older institution. Things can always improve.

This is not why we are not in St Louis. All I'm sayin' it could be done better...and perhaps it makes a smidgen of difference if they actually tweak the way schedules are made. Might take a half hour or less at each regional to flip a few teams a few spots with the analytic help.

-----------------------------------------------

Attached is the way I do schedules lets pretend its a different season and in this scenario 3495 is a super powerhouse and consensus #1 or won 4 WC divisions and its our second match with them on our side. Great for us but seemingly "unfair" for having #1 twice on our side (or against us)

I mark partners in green and opponents in red for my scouts. Whites we do not play.

So if an FTA wanted to by switching 5137 for 2135 a one game switch a second powerhouse pairing match is avoided then all they have to do is make sure the other 5 teams did not play that team on same side or not. There are plenty of white spaces to switch teams around IF the goal is to be more random and possibly more fair to all teams.

If that does not work then there are two other "blue" teams that could make the switch.

We could have probably used the extra game in between as well there...in that scenario.

Just like with instant replay, changes can be made that are fairly simple and don't open a can of worms.... what might actually happen is all the sudden more teams get super good alliance partners and avoid facing powerhouses too much until eliminations. Schedules are always pretty late anyhow.

I think a human eye on it could easily sort out inconsistencies, much easier than trying to program some algorithm..its not rocket science. Let the algorithm do the sort.. then highlight several inconsistencies and move things around slightly.