[Official 2005 Game Design] Radical Tournament Ideas

[Andrew]

Drawback to Current Tournament Structure
In order to control your destiny, teams have to place into the top 8. Otherwise, you have to rely on a very political alliance selection process to get into the eliminations.

Ranking in qualifying is equally strongly affected by alliance pairings as it is by actual performance.

Teams whose performance (for whatever reason) places them at the bottom of the rankings, have to keep playing, without any real hope of making eliminations. This sometimes incentivizes "bottom of the ranking teams" to engage in wanton brutality.

Tournament Structure Idea
Day One ... Qualifying
This would proceed the same way that qualifying currently proceeds. Random pairings. Ranking proceeds with wins/losses, high score, etc.

At the end of day one, the top 24 seeds are passed on to Round Two. Teams must pass a functional test/reinspection. Failing this would remove them from the seeding.

The remaining seeds are done for the competition. If the bottom teams want to spend day two working on their robot, they can do so without match interruption. If they want to go home and save some hotel money, they can do that as well.

This "cut" is the same as in golf.

Day Two ... Seeding
Scores for the top 24 teams are zeroed; however, rankings are retained.

Teams are not paired randomly for seeding matches.

Round One
Seed 1+2 versus Seed 23+24
Seed 3+4 versus Seed 21+22
Seed 5+6 versus Seed 19+20
Seed 7+8 versus Seed 17+18
Seed 9+10 versus Seed 15+16
Seed 11+12 versus Seed 13+14

Round Two
Seed 1+3 versus Seed 22+24
Seed 2+4 versus Seed 21+23
Seed 5+7 versus Seed 18+20
Seed 6+8 versus Seed 17+19
Seed 9+11 versus Seed 14+16
Seed 10+12 versus Seed 13+15

Round Three
Seed 1+7 versus Seed 18+24
Seed 2+8 versus Seed 17+23
Seed 3+9 versus Seed 16+22
Seed 4+10 versus Seed 15+21
Seed 5+11 versus Seed 14+20
Seed 6+12 versus Seed 13+19

Rankings are determined by win/loss or high score total in these three matches.

Day Two Alliance Selection
Alliance selection proceeds with the top eight after the Seeding matches.

Day Two Eliminations
Eliminations proceed as they do right now.


Advantages to this scheme
Teams that are out of contention can focus on going home or preparing for the next competition.

Teams that are contenders can focus on making the top 24, instead of the top eight. You just have to make the cut to be within striking distance.

Teams that are contenders get more matches. Ie there is an instant reward for making the top 24.

Teams are rewarded for making the top eight in qualifying. They potentially have an easier match schedule at the beginning of day two.

Teams that "luck" into the top eight will have to win against a tougher schedule on day two and will probably not remain in the top eight.

Good teams that are "unlucky" on day one can play into the top eight on day two.

Teams in the top 24 have a smaller field to scout after day one and will make better alliance picks on day two. If you are in the top 24 at the end of day one, you know that you will be playing in eliminations and can prepare accordingly.

Day two is deterministic. It can be scheduled more tightly. FIRST can adhere to an agenda, especially vacating the arena on time.

Disadvantages to this scheme
A good team with exceptionally bad luck can be eliminated without making the cut.

This is a disadvantage to the current scheme as well. It is just not as apparent.