Scoring system for 2004?

[Karthik]

I'm proponent of FIRST moving to a much simpler scoring system. I would like to see team be seeded on the basis of their won-loss record, using some form of qualification points as a tiebreaker. Under this system, a highly defensive robot would not be punished.

Too often we have had scoring systems where defensive robots could seed high. Last year three of the most dominant robots, teams 60, 71 and 469 all had difficulties obtaining QPs. Under my proposed system a defensive robot who wins all of their matches in a low scoring manner would still seed very high.

With the first tiebreaker being QPs (say three times the losers score), teams would still have incentive to avoid blowing their opponents out. Remember with 50+ teams playing 7-10 matches at a regional, it's easy to see that many teams would have the same record.

Also if FIRST moved back to best 2 out of 3 for the eliminations, we would have consistency between qualifying and eliminations. In both rounds teams would be rewarded for winning.

This proposed system also makes scoring fairly easy for the inexperienced viewer. I struggled very much in explaining this game to my friends. For most, the scoring system was too complicated for them to want to try and figure out. As a result most were disinterested in the game.

This system may encourage more defensive strategies than FIRST would want, but I think enough teams would still play offensively and keep things interesting.