Do you like the seeding system?

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

... and I find it amusing that those who couldn't figure out how to use the system in their strategy then bash on it.

[*start rant]
It was amazing how many teams I needed to talk to to teach the seeding system. Many had no clue how it worked and did not even read those sections ... and many were veteran teams.

Strategy involves how to advance your team within the rules. So if you don't understand the rules, then shame on you. Quit bashing on it and start using it as it was designed to be used.

... and before people start stating "Un-GP", understand that the rules are written in a specific way for a specific reason. Just because it doesn't fit your idea of what it should be doesn't make it "un-GP".

If you cannot figure out a way to adapt your strategy to use the seeding system as designed, then cry me a river, it's not the seeding systems fault. It's your own inability to adapt.

And this comes from a team that plays solid defense
[*end rant]

The above, as usual, is JM(NS)HO.

There are plenty of us who understand these rules perfectly well. We get what needs to be done to succeed in this system. But we refuse to sacrifice the reason we started competiting in FIRST to begin with simply to rank higher, and we're angry that we're being asked to.
There are plenty of engineering competitions where you don't compete head-to-head against other competitors. You simply try and obtain the highest score, fastest time, or lightest weight contraption. FRC has been different because it adapted the sports model, direct, head-to-head competition. It took a model that's engaging and fun to watch and adapted it.
There are many of us who aren't willing to give that up. We're not going to sacrifice the reasons we picked FIRST over other competitions to begin with, or to reduce the quality of the product delivered to the crowd. We're not going to throw matches to seed higher, and we're pissed that the new ranking system is asking us to do so.