9.3.4 Match Seeding Points

[StephLee]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Does anyone else (who's been in FIRST long enough to remember) have a very uneasy presence of the ghost of 2003?
Do a search on the word "collusion" to see the very heated arguments over what people did back in the day to seed better. I can't believe FIRST would want to invite that kind of ugliness back again

I wasn't around until two years after that, but I remember it being a topic of discussion even when I joined. I don't think I'd like to see it first hand.

Originally Posted by kirtar

That is very true. But then from an audience standpoint, a collusion shutout won't be very popular. It would be boring, and for those who don't know how seeding works (e.g. a spectator just walking in like somebody's parents), it will really confuse them. With respect to the audience, an intentional tie will be more entertaining, because you might not know if somebody made a mistake, cheated, or got a penalty, which would change the outcome of the match.

From a scouting perspective, that pretty much tells me almost nothing about the robost. Sure, I can see that it's scoring, but I can't see how well the driver reacts under the pressure of a defender. I can't see how well the bot in the middle of the field is at tracking down balls and avoiding the other or causing the other to lose a ball. I can't see if the defensive bot is good at its job. The only thing it really tells me is whether the human player with the trident is fast or not.

Sure, the intentional tie doesn't really either, but I think it'd be a lot less boring to watch. Not to mention then I can at least see both alliances' human players in action.

I am hesitant to agree that an intentional tie would be likely to entertain the audience either, especially if the audience is expecting competition and realizes halfway through a match that the teams are simply scoring in their own goals with no real intention to actually compete against one another.