Pit Politics

[Joe Ross]

Several regionals don't do placement by increasing team number, but by a system that tries to put a vetran team next to a rookie team. It would be interesting to see if there would still be a correlation.

[KenWittlief]

this is an interesting question, and a good topic for a little bit of engineering analysis

the 'requirement' that we pick teams 'next to us in the pits' as alliance partners (putting this in engineering system terms) is somewhat vague and fuzzy

lets look at the data :c)

how many teams are 'next to you' in the pits?

2? Id say no. unless you are against a wall there is a team to your left and right, a team across the isle from you, two teams diagonally across the isle from you, and 3 teams behind you - thats 8 teams 'next to you' that you could take out if you were a king on a chess board

if there are 40 teams at the regional, then you have an 8 out of 40 chance of allying with one of your neighbors (1/5 = 20%) on the first pick, and a 20% chance on the second - these are accumalative odds, not exclusive, so your odds are somewhere around 40% just by placement alone.

add to that the fact that when you or or neighbor needs help in the pits, or have a break and are idle, the people you are mostly likely to interact with are your neighbors - so you get to know each other, and your machines

so even though a neighbor may not have performed well in the seeding matches, you will know which one of those 8 neighbors have a great machine inwhich the bugs have been worked out - better than you will know the other 32 machines in the pit area.

given all this, the conclusion appears to be valid - in fact, you would expect it

BTW - great observation into what professionals call 'networking'. getting to know the people around you, their skills abilities and weaknesses.