Opinion on This Years Game

[Conor Ryan]

I have to say, they raised the standard of competeing very high this year, the standard kit transmision is pretty good. they set the stage for a brutal competition where only the strong survive. And this year, it will be clear in the seperation of the good and the bad.

[DrShadowSML]

I like the idea for this game. It requires a lot of strategy and teamwork. But what I would like to see is a competition to see who can make a stronger robot. Ex: do a "tractor pull" with robots. We could also have them fight other robots. I know we would be wasting money but it would be cool.

[Petey]

Originally Posted by cdr1122334455

I have to say, they raised the standard of competeing very high this year, the standard kit transmision is pretty good. they set the stage for a brutal competition where only the strong survive. And this year, it will be clear in the seperation of the good and the bad.

I disagree.

In fact, I think that we'll see markedly less competition this year, and that this is the way Dean and Co. wanted it.

Think back to kickoff and Dean's speech.

Now, look at the three partner alliance. This means that

1) Three teams will be awarded the same number of QP's, not 2, which means that there will be more teams with the same QP's than there were last year
2) More teams will have the same Ranking points, for the same reasons.
3) Threee teams means that it is more unlikely that a good robot can carry an alliance. If one stellar robot is, by draw, paired with two less-than-stellar robots, that alliance will probably lose.

This is unfair. This is unfair because it is disingenuous to the very spirit of competition--any competition--to have hard work, ingenuity, and talent rewarded with loss.

It is, as AnonymousMan said, a microcosm of the same reasons Communism failed, although on a vastly less melodramatic scale. I simply draw parallels.

I predict that, at comp, you're going to have a bunch of dissatisfied teams with good robots and good strategies who are being held back by their alliance partners, and a lot of mediocre teams being vaulted to a position of prominence and winning that they do not deserve.

I know, I know--it's never been in the nature of FIRST to assure that the best team wins and moves on. But this year, we've seen a step that, instead of correcting this misguided habit, has indeed worsened this discrepancy.

--Petey

[Petey]

Originally Posted by DrShadowSML

I like the idea for this game. It requires a lot of strategy and teamwork. But what I would like to see is a competition to see who can make a stronger robot. Ex: do a "tractor pull" with robots. We could also have them fight other robots. I know we would be wasting money but it would be cool.

It would be cool if we could, in the offseason, petition Comedy Central to feature a FIRST only special edition of Battlebots where we all built gladiator bots.

--Petey

[billbuckner]

I happen to think that having partners of three is an intresting, but not a good idea. It does add challenge to the 10 point bonus for getting the robots in the end zone, but it could make massive problems if your teammates had bad robots.

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by Petey

We increased the field floor by a 18 square foot margin, but much of that is taken up by the end zones which are, for all intents and purposes, out of play.

The entire center of the field was "unplayable" last year. Sure, you could use it, but you couldn't exactly drive over it if something else was in your way. (At least, I never saw anyone use the platform for anything other than hanging.)

Originally Posted by Petey

Three teams will be awarded the same number of QP's, not 2, which means that there will be more teams with the same QP's than there were last year

That doesn't make mathematical sense. For the sake of simplicity, let's assume that there are no ties. If each team plays nine matches, there is a total of ten different combinations of QP: 0, 2, 4, ..., 16, 18. With the new format, there will now be half again as many matches, meaning each team would get thirteen or fourteen matches, making fourteen or fifteen possible QP scores. There are still going to be as many wins as there are losses, so the scores will be spread out through the whole QP spectrum. Just imagine if everybody only played one match. A lot of people would have 2, and a lot of people would have 0. When you have more matches, there is more of a chance of different scores.

[Ben Lauer]

Originally Posted by Petey

3) Threee teams means that it is more unlikely that a good robot can carry an alliance. If one stellar robot is, by draw, paired with two less-than-stellar robots, that alliance will probably lose.

This is unfair. This is unfair because it is disingenuous to the very spirit of competition--any competition--to have hard work, ingenuity, and talent rewarded with loss.

I disagree with you.

If the game was about having one team carry an alliance, it would be 1v1, not 2v2 or 3v3. Because this game and FIRST is about cooperation and coping and adapting to the new unknowns, i think that this game will bring out teams that were previously unknown, and that a good robot is even more just a small part of winning. A great robot can be beaten easily if they have a bad strategy.

Unfair? Try to look at it this way, focus the hard work, ingenuity and talent toward a different direction. These qualities will never be rewarded with loss, only with triumph. Remember, it all comes down to the finals, and even a team with a poor record can and will be pick if they have a strategy or a quality that will be helpful in the alliance.

I think this years winners will be determined by how well the scouts and strategist pick their partners. I believe that even if the 3 best robots are put together, they can be beat by another, superior alliance.

[Billfred]

Personally, I disagree that 3v3 is bad for competition.

Originally Posted by Petey

Now, look at the three partner alliance. This means that

1) Three teams will be awarded the same number of QP's, not 2, which means that there will be more teams with the same QP's than there were last year

In a very short tournament, this is an issue. Consider Robot Rodeo--they played four matches per team, so there wasn't much of a chance to score QPs. Thus RPs became important.

However, in a FIRST-sized tourney, you're dealing with seven, eight matches. There ought to be time for the spread to grow...but if you're worried, just get more RPs.

2) More teams will have the same Ranking points, for the same reasons.

True, but remember--you will play six or eight matches. There will be time for teams' scores to go up or down, especially since every match will be different.

3) Threee teams means that it is more unlikely that a good robot can carry an alliance. If one stellar robot is, by draw, paired with two less-than-stellar robots, that alliance will probably lose.

Agreed. And that's the way it should be--the alliance with the better robots (and people controlling them) should win.

This is unfair.

This is what led me to reply. To begin with, what makes a game challenge unfair? The challenge has been presented, you build a robot and strategy to deal with the stipulations of the game. On the other hand, Dean has repeatedly said that FIRST isn't necessarily fair. Life isn't either, so write it up as good preparation.

This is unfair because it is disingenuous to the very spirit of competition--any competition--to have hard work, ingenuity, and talent rewarded with loss.

Alright, I'll warn the rookies now...

YOU WILL NOT WIN EVERYTHING IN FIRST.

Take 1293 last year. We had all three of those things, and we went 3-4-1. We weren't picked for the elimination matches. On the field, we lost. But I know that 99.9999% of our team enjoyed the experience. So much so, in fact, that we're back. So, I ask you...is that winning or losing?

It is, as AnonymousMan said, a microcosm of the same reasons Communism failed, although on a vastly less melodramatic scale. I simply draw parallels.

I'd love to see how you can compare switching to 3v3 to Communism.

I predict that, at comp, you're going to have a bunch of dissatisfied teams with good robots and good strategies who are being held back by their alliance partners, and a lot of mediocre teams being vaulted to a position of prominence and winning that they do not deserve.

I am willing to bet that the mediocre teams will not advance too far. Will a great robot with relatively lousy partners not seed high? Probably so. However, teams know talent when they see it. The good robots will be picked.

[Petey]

To those of you who have made the point that the best alliance should win--

I agree. My point is that it is rather annoying to know that you could build an awesome robot, throw in a ton of person-hours, and come up with a sick strategy--in short, do everything FIRST wants you to do--and be paired with several completely ineffective robots and be unable to overcorrect. Last year, if a robot was good enough--I mean, just dominated completely--they could carry an alliance and win. It would be their own reward. This year, we find that that won't happen as much, because now a team would have to carry two other teams.

Just my own opinion, again.

Billfred--

Certainly the game isn't fair, life isn't fair, et cetera. And yet, you think that with FIRST as a social vision, we'd be attempting to move towards fairness, or at least rewarding hard work. And I'm not sure that this game serves hard work as much as it serves the vagaries and chance of any high action game.

We'll see at comp.

--Petey

[Alyna]

Took the words right out of my mouth Petey! And this game dosent focus on the original design of the robot as much as being able to survive with 6 robots on a general sized field. This should be interesting.

[snipelfritz]

In this game your robot design essentially has to do two things; move and put tetras on tetras. The games strategy can be as shallow as puting as many tetras up as possible to as deep as finding the sensor ones, knocking down the "hangers", building rows, and getting your alliance to the endzone. The strategy is as complicated as you and your alliance partners make it. Teamwork is the key. I like this years game.