Do We have a trend here?

[Richard Wallace]

My team was on the losing side (Blue Alliance) of the 5 match quarterfinal in St. Louis. Much as I would like that match to have gone our way, I would feel very bad about the outcome if it had been determined by the original version of rule 7.4.4 (max pt total decides if tied after 4 matches). Continuing until one alliance has won two matches is easier for the audience to follow, and it favors the better built robots.

The audience excitement during our quarterfinal was equalled only by the final round. Exciting elimination rounds are good for our Regional and good for FIRST.

Any game can be improved, but I think the 2004 game is much better than the previous two years. Thanks and congratulations to the game design folks at FIRST.

Now if they can just continue the trend toward simplifying the rules...