Working with alliance partners

[Eric Scheuing]

Originally Posted by bkahl

How do others remain GP and respectful to other teams while convincing them NOT to do something they really want to do.

If you are the alliance captain, you should get the final say in the matter. You built your alliance to run a strategy you already had planned (hopefully), and you may need to remind a team that you picked them for that reason. Typically I would say/like to be told "We picked you because you do ______ very well, and it is an important part of the strategy we want to use."

However, if a team has a good strategy figured out for the whole alliance rather than just something new they want to try on their own, it's probably worth considering. Again, usually teams get picked because what they do well compliments a pre-determined strategy, and asking the whole alliance to do something new, even if it sounds like a killer strat, may result in a team doing something they have little to no experience in and could fail spectacularly... or not.

EDIT: As for quals, I feel each team should be given the opportunity to play however they want to for that match. IMO, winning is secondary to playing well in quals. If a team member wants to employ a new strategy that they can execute on their own, then I have no problem with letting them try it out. However, if it requires us to do something we aren't comfortable with or well practiced at, I have no problems with saying "sorry, we're not going to do that." Our coach has a mantra: "play your game." We know the game we are going to play, and it's more important to us to do what we do well consistently than to try something new every match.