2008 IRI (Indiana Robotics Invitational)

[rick.oliver]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Last year, IRI put 4 teams on each alliance in an attempt to allow more teams into the elimination rounds. While this was quite interesting and added an extra dimension of strategy, many of these "4th" teams didn't even see the field (both of the finalist alliances never used them, for instance). ...

If the objective is to provide more teams the opportunity to participate in the elimination rounds, then it would seem logical to require that all four teams in each alliance play a match in each round. Otherwise, simply use the stand-by system.

If however, there is a different objective, say wanting to ensure that each alliance has the ability to execute their desired strategy by having a known "spare", then perhaps what was executed last year better serves that purpose.