MARC 2010 IS OPEN

[Mr.G]

We are planning on attending and I must say i am excited about the mentor matches.

I was thinking about how to format the mentor matches and nothing I could think of really made it clean and easy. Was wondering how you were going to match the mentor teams up?

[Steve Ketron]

Originally Posted by Mr.G

We are planning on attending and I must say i am excited about the mentor matches.

I was thinking about how to format the mentor matches and nothing I could think of really made it clean and easy. Was wondering how you were going to match the mentor teams up?

There are only 24 spots with a waiting list available if something goes wrong. The teams that pay first (with exception to last years winners) are in. As far as format, it is the same as eliminations rounds go except when the team arrives/pays they will pull a number out of a hat and they fill that spot in the brackets. Double eliminations.

[Steve Ketron]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

What's the current team list?

1 51 Pontiac, MI Wings of Fire
2 70 Goodrich, MI More Martins
3 226 Troy, MI HammerHeads
4 240 Monroe,MI TEMPEST
5 279 Ottawa Lakes, MI Tech Fusion
6 503 Novi, MI Frog Force
7 910 Madison Heights, MI Foley Freeze
8 1023 Temperance, MI Bedford Express
9 1243 Swartz Creek, MI Dragons
10 1504 Okemos, MI Desperate Penguins
11 1528 Monroe, MI iPirates
12 1732 Milwaukee, WI Hilltoppers
13 815 Allen Park, MI Advanced Power
14 830 Ann Arbor, MI RatPack
15 2719 Monroe, MI Ketronix Trojan Robotix
16 245 Rochester Hills, MI Adambots
17 2834 Bloomfield Hills, MI Bionic Barons
18 2612 Waterford,MI WMD
19 3098 Waterford,MI The Captains
20 33 Auburn Hills, MI Killer Bees
21 280 Taylor, MI TnT
22 201 Rochester Hills, MI The FEDS
23 234 Indianapolis, IN Cyber Blue
24 107 Holland, MI Team R.O.B.O.T.I.C.S.
25 2337 GrandBlanc, MI EngiNERDs
26 1918 Fremont, MI NC GEARS
27 3147 Munster Indiana
28 461 West Lafayette, IN Westside Boiler Invasion
29 302 Lake Orion, MI Dragons
30 494 Goodrich, MI Martians
31 2338 Oswego, IL Gear It Forward
32 1718 Armada, MI The Fighting Pi
33 548 Northville, MI Robostangs
34 3096 Detroit, MI Finney Highlanders
35 1024 Indianapolis, IN Kil-A-Bytes
36 469 Bloomfield Hills, MI Las Guerrillas
37 1741 Greenwood, IN Red Alert Robotics
38 3322 Ann Arbor, MI Skyline Robotics Team
39 326 Romulus, MI Extreme Eagles

I haven't heard anything from 1504 but they are guarrenteed a spot up to the registration deadline.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by johnr

This will probably be like blasphemy to some but i would like to see someday all the teams participate in the eliminations. I know time constraints would be one problem and how would you divide up the teams another. Maybe based just on rank with team 1 getting 9,team 2 getting 10 and so on. It could be run like wrestling were if you lose one match you drop into a second tier and can work your way back up to the top. Lose two matches and go home. Just a thought. It looks like you are having four teams on an alliance. Do they all have to play?

You could have everyone play - with 3 teams per alliance that's 14 alliances. Alliance 1 & 2 get a bye in the first round (pre-quarters). But it nearly doubles the length of the elims - I really don't want a 4.5 hour elimination round!

If you want "almost" everyone to play, you can create 4-team alliances and have an Alliance 7 vs 10 and 8 vs 9 "play-in" round.

Originally Posted by Steve Ketron

I am still looking into that. You should have received an e-mail and I am waiting on those replies. I am currently favoring 4 team alliances and every team has to play at least one match. Not one match per round like last year.

The selection of 1-9, 2-10, 3-11, 4-12, 5-13, 6-14, 7-15, 8-16 and then captain selections 1-8, 8-1 might be a possibility also.

Forcing 1-9 etc. could cause teams to look at the standings and manipulate their final matches. For example, suppose the number 1 team doesn't think they can work well with #9, but would with #10. Why not try to get yourself into 2nd place?

[Steve Ketron]

Ideas are flowing. Keep them coming.

[johnr]

I like the ten alliance play-in plan but you would have to cut registration off at 40. I'm sure some teams would gladly fill in during qualifying rounds. You would be looking at 6 extra matches barring ties. Now to really mess with everything-first round pick order- 1,10,2,9,3,8,4,7,5,6- repeat till done. OK, maybe that is going to far.

[Josh Murphy]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

Forcing 1-9 etc. could cause teams to look at the standings and manipulate their final matches. For example, suppose the number 1 team doesn't think they can work well with #9, but would with #10. Why not try to get yourself into 2nd place?

Exactly. The ranking system already has the manipulation in it and we've already seen the 6v0's this year. I would like to see it stay the way it is and let the team that ranks 1st pick 1-8, 1-8, 1-8 as they have earned it. I personally don't like the "partners by rank" system. Maybe make the finals be 3 out of 5.

[johnr]

OR HOW ABOUT, keep everything just like the regular season but just don't post a running rank. Keep it unknown till the top 8 are called out. A bit of suspence for everyone. Don't know what that would do to peoples pick lists, scouting or qualifying game play. I guess everyone would play to win. Just throwing ideas out there.

[Steve Ketron]

Originally Posted by johnr

OR HOW ABOUT, keep everything just like the regular season but just don't post a running rank. Keep it unknown till the top 8 are called out. A bit of suspence for everyone. Don't know what that would do to peoples pick lists, scouting or qualifying game play. I guess everyone would play to win. Just throwing ideas out there.

How about we do this but post the top 8 throughout the qual rounds (in no particular order). That would really get people excited about making the top 8.

[nikeairmancurry]

Originally Posted by johnr

OR HOW ABOUT, keep everything just like the regular season but just don't post a running rank. Keep it unknown till the top 8 are called out. A bit of suspence for everyone. Don't know what that would do to peoples pick lists, scouting or qualifying game play. I guess everyone would play to win. Just throwing ideas out there.

Hmm... Very interesting.. I think this would be nice, but to many teams might complain. And I doubt this would stop the 6v0 stragey. So why not just go to wins and loses!!! Play to win!!

[Mr.G]

Originally Posted by johnr

OR HOW ABOUT, keep everything just like the regular season but just don't post a running rank. Keep it unknown till the top 8 are called out. A bit of suspence for everyone. Don't know what that would do to peoples pick lists, scouting or qualifying game play. I guess everyone would play to win. Just throwing ideas out there.

I like this idea. We always have a much better event when the rankings aren't shown. It sucks how the teams that are doing good just get attacked the whole event just because they are ranked high.

My vote for no rankings being shown.

[Collin Fultz]

Originally Posted by Steve Ketron

How about we do this but post the top 8 throughout the qual rounds (in no particular order). That would really get people excited about making the top 8.

This is a great idea. Maybe every 8 qualification matches, a white board is erased and updated with the current top 10 in team # order. I say top 10 so that if you are #9 all day and blow up on your last match, you arent' suprised to move into the Top 8 right before eliminations.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Mr.G

I like this idea. We always have a much better event when the rankings aren't shown. It sucks how the teams that are doing good just get attacked the whole event just because they are ranked high.

My vote for no rankings being shown.

I think people are going to attack the good teams regardless of ranking. I mean, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the teams that are the biggest scoring threats are 217, 469, etc. and if you play defense you should play it on these teams.

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I think people are going to attack the good teams regardless of ranking. I mean, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the teams that are the biggest scoring threats are 217, 469, etc. and if you play defense you should play it on these teams.

Agreed, if a team is scoring 10 balls a match, I'm going to attack/play defense on them if they are 1st or last. Similarly, I'm not going to worry about a team that scores 1 ball a match, even if they are 1st place. I'm just worrying winning/maximizing my seeding points. We rarely know where teams are seeded when formulating our qualification match strategy.

I actually think withholding the seedings is a really fun idea. The suspense of announcing the top 8 seeds should add another fun wrinkle in the game.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

I actually think withholding the seedings is a really fun idea. The suspense of announcing the top 8 seeds should add another fun wrinkle in the game.

It also removes the "first seed advantage" of getting more time to work on their second pick, since they can't go to their first partner in advance. Interesting idea...