Alliance selection rules

[rsaitz]

during alliance selection, can the captain of the team designate another person from the team to represent him/her for alliance selection? It doesn't seem to be specified in the rules book. thanks!

[Alex Dinsmoor]

Originally Posted by rsaitz

during alliance selection, can the captain of the team designate another person from the team to represent him/her for alliance selection? It doesn't seem to be specified in the rules book. thanks!

Of course! On my team the head of scouting is the one to go up since they know the most about the robots.

[Chris is me]

FIRST makes no distinction as to "student team captain". There doesn't even have to be one. You can send anyone on your team to pick, and whomever happens to be wearing the armband on your team is the Alliance Captain for rules purposes (for timeouts, etc)

[EricH]

Who the representative is doesn't really matter, as long as whoever it is is a student. See Section 9.4.1, first sentence.

I'm not sure if the Alliance Captain position is transferable within the team, though. In past years, that's been called out as one or the other, but not this year.

[GaryVoshol]

9.4.1 Alliance Selection Process
Each TEAM will choose a student Team Representative who will proceed to the ARENA at the designated time (typically before the lunch break on the final day of the Competition) to represent their TEAM. The Team Representative for each Alliance Lead is called the ALLIANCE CAPTAIN.

Unfortunately the rest of the rules refer to this ALLIANCE CAPTAIN (e.g. calling a time out) but doesn't explain whether this person is the same person who did the selecting. But just like drivers can be exchanged by swapping the pin, CAPTAINs can be changed by switching whatever device (armband, vest, bucket hat, etc.) is used by the tournament to designate the CAPTAIN.

[DonRotolo]

So, it's true that all high school students look alike?

[scawsome]

I would watch out if you are going to send a rep who is not on the drive team. We asked at the WPI regional and they said that it has to be a student member on the drive team, which is weird because drivers usually don't have any time for scouting! But, for Connecticut our scouting captain will be our human player. Just a word of warning, ask before you do...

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by scawsome

I would watch out if you are going to send a rep who is not on the drive team. We asked at the WPI regional and they said that it has to be a student member on the drive team, which is weird because drivers usually don't have any time for scouting! But, for Connecticut our scouting captain will be our human player. Just a word of warning, ask before you do...

This is definitely not true. 2791's rep was not on the drive team and did not have a drive button on. Unless you're referring to appealing a call, I believe you were misinformed.

[scawsome]

Huh, we asked the head ref about that just right before alliance selections to make sure and he said we needed to be a member of the drive team. I guess I'll read the rules again, and ask at Hartford.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by scawsome

Huh, we asked the head ref about that just right before alliance selections to make sure and he said we needed to be a member of the drive team. I guess I'll read the rules again, and ask at Hartford.

It may be that that's who they'd like, to make it easier for the queuers to know who to let through.

For the rounds themselves, yes, you probably want the alliance captain on the drive team. But for the selections, who cares?

And there is no restriction in the team rules that the representative MUST be on the drive team. If the ref can show you one, then I retract that statement. But it has to be in the team rules, not reffing guidelines or anything else that the teams in general have limited access to.

[Nathan Streeter]

I've made the alliance selections at all of the regular-season events and most of the off-season events for our team since 2007, so 3+ years of experience... I have never been on the drive team or designated the team captain, and never had any problem with it. I would suggest never having the alliance selector be anyone but a scout. Most drive team members or alliance captains have not been watching robots the entire day... I would also strongly recommend having the pick-list maker a scout who goes down to represent the team. Anyway, I'll hold back on my person "do's and don't's" of scouting... FIRST truly does not care who makes the picks as long as it's a pre-college representative of the team. Whether the student is the "team captain" or is a member of the drive team is irrelevant. Hope this helps you!