fixing of matches in Seattle

[Don Knight]

Originally posted by Bob92
I went to Seattle as a spectator and I had viewed that team 233 from Florida had continually gotten high scores. At the end of every match stacks had been left up in both zones giving the winner a high score. But after talking to teams about why they thought this always happened I found that they talked to the opposing alliance before every match. The only problem I have is that since they did this all of the time they became #1 seed not by being the best robot out there but by fixing their matches by high scores.

I just wanted to know if this happened at any other regionals.

-Bobby

Using this logic all the NBA games must be "Fixed" because they continually achieve higher scores than High School or College teams playing the same game.

In my opinion "fixing" would be setting the outcome of the match prior to playing it, who wins and who loses, and by how much. Teams that have figured out that you get more Qp's by not knocking over stacks are no more fixing the matches than the NBA basketball players are, they have just began to understand the levels of the game and how to play it better.

So many people are trying to apply the simple logic or solution to the FIRST game should be the same as baseball, basketball or any other sporting event. FIRST has been called the "Olympics of the Mind" many teams have realized the simply strategy of win/loss don't necessarily always work in this game. Strategies can be more than one layer deep.

Have any of you seen the movie "Shrek"?
Most everyone in the village were single minded in their perception of the "Ogre" Shrek. But like an onion, Shrek had layers. Even the Donkey understood that after it was explained to him.

This game has layers

Once you figure them out, and decide what is needed to advance in the game, the better off you'll be. The simply solution is not alway the best.

Think of who designed this game, Dean Kamen, Woodie Flowers, Dave Lavery, Bob Hammond, these are not simple minds and they have relished in confounding all of us with these games for years, if they had wanted it to be simply there wouldn't be Qp's just raw scores.