Teams missing matches, something must be done

[CircularLogic]

It seems that SandDrag's point is that its not fair that an alliance should have to suffer a loss because one team cannot make it out to the field. With this type of system, a team who would have easily made a top notch seeding otherwise, could get screwed by having several odd-man matches.


Lets just get something out of the way right now. These regional competitions are not fair.

The following things are not fair about them

1. The random alliance matches. In particular, my team did not play with a single team that made it to the final rounds meaning that our alliances never really had some of the strongest robots on the field. During some matches the line up was three great shooters vs. three decent dumpers. Was it a fair match to being with? No but thats the nature of the game.

2. Some robots dont make it to the field for their matches. My team had 6 losses at SBPLI. Two of those losses, we only had two robots on our alliance and in one match, we were the only robot that worked on our alliance. It wasnt fair that in a match against some of the best teams there, we were the only ones to work. Yes, those matches affected our standings severely (a possible 9-3 record is much better that 6-6). But its the nature of the game.

3. Some teams have virtually unlimited resources with lots of professionals to help with design and buildings while other teams have to build their robot in a physics classroom with little more than hand tools and have to raise every bit of their money through selling candy, etc. At that point the prowess of the team members are not the deciding factor of the relative success of their robot. Its not fair. But its the nature of the game.


FIRST isnt about winning. There are far too many inequities to make it about winning. FIRST is about pride. Its about the pride that you take in your robot, no matter how bad it may look or to what degree it functions. It is about the pride you take in your team for uniting behind a common goal no matter what type of awards you win. Its about the pride that you have for devoting your time and resources to helping teams that may very well be your opponent in the next match.


I dont compete to win prizes, I compete to win Pride.