Help! I need explanations... Qualifying:

[tribotec_ca88]

Hey all...I need some help. After reading the manual several times, I´m still a bit confused about rules concerning ranking points, qualifying points, seeding, divisions, etc. I understood it up to a certain extent, but for some reason it still hasn´t made much sense. Would anyone be willing to explain, in their own words, how this qualifying process works (for regionals & nationals). Just a clear yet simple explanation of how ranking points work, what this 3-teams-in-an-ally thing is all about, etc.
Thanks, appreciate your help...

[Swan217]

Originally Posted by tribotec_ca88

Hey all...I need some help. After reading the manual several times, I´m still a bit confused about rules concerning ranking points, qualifying points, seeding, divisions, etc. I understood it up to a certain extent, but for some reason it still hasn´t made much sense. Would anyone be willing to explain, in their own words, how this qualifying process works (for regionals & nationals). Just a clear yet simple explanation of how ranking points work, what this 3-teams-in-an-ally thing is all about, etc.
Thanks, appreciate your help...

FIRST makes it sound a lot more confusing than it is. It's really quite simple.

Qualifying matches: Teams play 2 on 2. Winning teams get 2 qualifying points, Tieing teams get 1 point, Losing teams get 0 points (Like in Hockey).
At the end of Qualifying Matches, the teams are ranked based on qualifying points.

Now say two (or more) teams won the same amount of matches. Then the "tiebreaker" would be the average ranking points - the points scored by the LOSING alliances during all of the matches. (If you lose, your rank points are your own points scored)
If there is still a tie, then the last tiebreaker is highest match points.

Now, for Eliminations, the top 8 teams each pick an alliance partner. Then, they all pick ANOTHER alliance partner. FIRST does this for a few reasons:
A) more teams participate in Elims
B) in case your partner (or you) break down, you aren't screwed - you have a "spare" bot.

The catch is, for your alliance to win a round, all 3 of your robots need to participate (to make it fair). So, if you win the 1st match with team 1 and team 2, then the next game (best 2 of 3 matches, remember) you have to either have teams 1 & 3, or teams 2 & 3.

I hope I explained it a bit clearer.

[Rich Kressly]

I'll try to be brief and clear about the general tournament set up.

Regional competitions work this way:
Thursday is practice round day
Friday first thing you receive a match list for all of your qualifying matches. Those matches run all day Friday and up until lunchtime Saturday. Here you are randomly assigned alliance partners and opposing alliances (2 on 2).

The key this year is to win your qualifying matches because the ultimate goal is to be ranked in the top eight and the end of qualifying on Saturday. These top eight seeds choose their alliance partners for the playoff tournament. The top eight choose two alliance partners each (3 teams total per playoff alliance, but only two perform in a match, taking turns).

There are additional concerns about the scoring, ranking tie-breaker in qualifying, but those are the basics of the tournament. Perhaps someone else can explain the qualifying points/tie-breaker for rankings.


Good luck.

[Alavinus]

To add on, robots in the elemination rounds advance to the next round by winning two matches.

Also- only nationals is split into divisions and the divisions are decided by FIRST. Nationals works by having teams compete in their division, and then the top team from the divisions go into the national finals.

[Lil' Lavery]

Also- only nationals is split into divisions and the divisions are decided by FIRST. Nationals works by having teams compete in their division, and then the top team from the divisions go into the national finals.

Each division plays out like an individual regional's competition, including the tournament at the end. The winning alliance in each division will go onto the finals. You DO NOT pick new alliances.