Proposal for Wildcard Reform

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by SoftwareBug2.0

How often do you estimate this will generate results that are different than the current system? It seems like the finalist captain and first pick would still usually be the first two teams.

Do you know of any cases where the altered order would have made a difference? What's the largest number of wildcards that's ever been given out at an event?

At the 2016 Tech Valley Regional, the entire finalist alliance, including a backup robot made it to the championship event via the wildcard system. This included 1665, a competent backup robot whose defense was necessary to make it to the finals, but I doubt anyone would say they were more worthy of a championship bid than, for example, the captain of the third seeded alliance, 5236, or their first selection (and winner of the quality award), 2791.

Similarly, at the 2016 Finger Lakes Regional, the #1 seed was upset in the semifinals, despite having the two best scoring robots at the event, and 2791 yet again did not get a bid to championships.

Now I'm using the example of 2791, because I know them well, and they're a team that this regularly happens to. 2791 has missed championships by the tightest of margins at two regionals in 2012, one in 2013, and two in 2016, while also fielding a tremendously competitive robot in 2014.

Essentially this would come into play whenever a regional would generate enough wild cards to bring along the finalist alliance's third robot, or whenever a wild card slot is wasted, it could instead just go to the next team with the most points.