[FVC]: Longer competitions

[ManicMechanic]

Originally Posted by 1885.Blake

Summary:
Come-as-you-are practice sessions & workshops = Good for each/every early season and especially for new clubs/teams/classes.
Frequent league events = Good for helping teams feel they get enough return on the time and money they invest during a season.
How to best organize champoinship matches = ???, but a small handful of Quals doesn't seem to sit well. There is too much random luck involved.

ManicMechanic - Did I get this summary right?

Blake

Yep, that about sums it up. One thing I might add about qualifying matches at Championships is that although the number of matches matters, it won't do any good if the DIVERSITY of matches doesn't improve. For example, we had 2 matches where we had exactly the same alliance partner and same 2 opponents. Big surprise: the scores of the matches were very similar -->wasted extra match. While I now understand that the software & minimum spacing were at play here, there's no reason why the same 4 teams couldn't at least have the alliances permuted differently, i.e., Teams 1 & 2 vs. 3 & 4 in one match, then 1 & 3 vs. 2 & 4 next match, rather than 1 & 2 vs. 3 & 4 in both matches. At the very least, the software needs to have a manual override so that matches like this can be rearranged. But really, there needs to be some sophistication added to the software that deliberately avoids duplicates wherever possible. While I can do the math/algorithm, the coding is beyond me, and as is becoming my habit, I am leaving the hard work to some unwitting soul who is more competent than I.