Looking Back: Week 3

[Mike Schreiber]

Originally Posted by daf

That's the thing about this years game though... Even with strong runs at regional events, it'll be tough at nationals because many teams (even the smaller names), can play the game pretty well. This isn't like other years where if you have a good robot you're guaranteed the win. I think it will depend a lot on luck of alliance members and luck of the draw. As stated in the first post of the thead, some of the bigger name teams are having difficulty securing thier dominance. We'll see what happens though; it's up in the air.

But if you have a decent robot shouldn't you be guaranteed something. When ranking is up to luck of the draw, and how difficult your opponents are (qualifying points), not how good you are, it is really frustrating to get second seed because of .4 ranking points, when there is no way to add to your opponents score as their has been in the past, and therefore no possible way to get first seed. Yes the randomness does hurt teams who have mentors do all the work and teams with more resources available, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it also is incredibly discouraging to a team of students who build an incredible robot and are quite competitive but get bad alliances, teams they can't work well with, and (dare I say it) teams that can't do anything (we all know they're out there). That's my frustration with this game, but like you I am biased because of the .4 ranking points we lost by.