"Random" match Schedules

[Michael Corsetto]

Man, I'm really nervous as to how SVR and Davis match pairing is going to turn out. I never got to play with/against a lot of the great teams at PNW, and I fear that even with this "improved" algorithm we still we only be seeing 1/3 of the competition at our next events. Which to me just takes all the fun out of seeing how our robot performs with and against a wide variety of strategies. I distinctly remember doing scouting review on friday night at PNW and not recognizing half of the robots our team had taken pictures of, and I feel like I missed out on all the awesome work the other teams did. Where is the inspiration in seeing the same robots over and over?

I would really like to know how FIRST rationalizes lower team numbers as "better", because in our 11 year team history we have yet to win a regional (emphasis on the "yet" ) So please, please FIRST, bring back truly random matches. I understand the constraints that need to be made so that teams are not having back to back matches, but other than that, just let the teams play.

I think FIRST made a step forward with week two, but they already took two steps back at week one, so IMO they still have a little ways to go.

Mike C.