Do QP's matter?

I think qualifying points are always important, but not for any of the reasons discussed. We usually seed anywhere from around the midpoint towards the top. Our sponsors like to know how well the robot they're helping pay for is preforming. It's nice to go home and say things like, "Well our robot seeded 22nd out of 39 teams and was the second draft pick for elimination"

Or in the case of Nationals last year, "We were ranked #2 for most of the morning on the first day but then fell to 16th place out of [how ever many teams there were in our division. it was alot]." All i could say was it was quite impressive to them, who were amazed to begin with what students can do [re: building robots etc.]

[Jay Lundy]

Originally posted by Jeff Waegelin
It is better to win a match 30-20 than to try to build your QP's up and accidentally lose 40-41.

Funny you should mention that, we lost our final match in Cleveland 41-40 to the number one seeded HOT team. We thought we had won, and if they had gotten one less ball we would have because we had two goals. That would have given us some much needed QPs since we were not doing incredibly well (ranked around 20th). Oh well,

Anyway, yes QPs are important but only for the top 8 seeded teams, and if you can get #1 seed that gives you an incredible advantage. We were able to choose kingman in the first round of choosing at SV, and then 359, another great goal grabbing team, in the second round, all because of #1 seed.

Being able to pick first is especially important this year since both teams you choose need to be good because everyone will have to play. In both Cleveland and Silicon Valley, our alliances have consisted of teams with specific strengths and weaknesses, and in both cases each team would have gotten to play even if they weren't required to.

If you are not in the top 8 then it does not matter what rank you are. Teams don't scout by looking at the rankings, they scout by robot ability and if they feel you will be a good partner you will be chosen. Hopefully the teams that do the picking will look at every team, and not just the ones that pass out the coolest buttons.

[Jim Meyer]

I can't get over all of the people saying that qualifying points don't matter. We spend 3/4 of every event playing the qualification game. If you're not out there trying to qualify well, you are throwing away 3/4 of the fun. How can qualification points not be important when 1/3 of the teams in the finals are there because of their qualification points?

[DaveO'B365]

It's fun playing and not worrying about QP, that's for sure, we were all stressed last year cause of them, and it's a bit of a relief, although the stress does return when picking begins... also, 2/3 of the teams are there and their QP had nothing to do with it, just to be the devil's advocate...
Dave- the self-proclaimed best student hack-sawer on 365...
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"Like olympic medals and tennis trophies, all they signified was that the owner had done something of no benefit to anyone more capably than everyone else."
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