Proposal for Wildcard Reform

[Knufire]

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.

You're correct there; the bonus you get for advancing through each around of eliminations is a fairly large percentage of the total points one earns at an event. The biggest difference comes after this point, instead of the 2nd pick of the finalist alliance getting a wildcard, it would be more likely to go to captains and first picks of a semifinalist alliance, and then to those of the quarterfinalist alliance, with a bias towards those on the higher seeded alliances.

If the goal is to ensure the most competitive robots at the event are going to the championship, I believe this is a worthy change to make. Of course, we don't know for sure that this is HQ's priority. We do know that they want to create avenues for traditionally less competitive teams (e.g. 2nd picks) to progress their season and that the sense of accomplishment can be a transformative experience.