Petition against "fixing" matches

[Alexander McGee]

Hello chiefdelphi world. As you all may know, there were a lot of what were called "gentleman's agreements" going on at several regionals. My team as well as cryptionite started a petition to stop these various acts of agreements. We started a petition, and had teams hang up copies in their pits, showing their support for the anti-fixing. I urge all teams to sign this petition.

First off, this thread is NOT for arguing, there are plenty of other threds out there for that.

This thread is simply a place to state that your team disagrees with the practice of working with your opponent to better eachothers scores.

So, talk it out with your team, and sign the petition if you agree with it. If you don't agree with this, then dont post anything.

Please note that this is not a "blacklist" at all. If there are more teams out there who deny than accept, that these "agreements" will stop.

Teams who agree with my team's oppinons, will you please follow my example below.

[Alexander McGee]

On behalf of team 68, Truck Town Thunder,

I would like to say that my team disagrees with the practice of fixing matches, and will not do it at any robotics event. I believe that this is in violation of the spirit of F.I.R.S.T., and strongly oppose it. If any team approaches me and wishes to make an agreement, my team will deny and play the game with our own skill.

[Mark Pettit]

On behalf of Team #991, The Dukes, I acknowledge that we have not and we will not engage in points fixing and/or collusion, and we have played and will play all of our matches graciously and professionally using only our own abilities and those of our robot, Uncomfortable Hunk Of Metal (UHOM).
Thank you!

[miketwalker]

FIRST is all about gracious professionalism. The world is a competition, but can come together. For example, Lockheed Martin and Boeing fought for bids with rockets, however in the end one lost, one won. This happens in our game. But at the same time these two companies can work together on one goal and create something better than they could individually. The two heads are better than one theory. So while you oppose the team, you do want to stay ahead and win, but you don't want to crush others work, you want to help. After the match you want to go to their pits and say "How can I help you guys make your robot better?" Battlebots even does this, but you seem like you feel we should make this into what it's not. FIRST is known for not being a sport in the fashion of others. This isn't football, we don't crush the other team's robot and cheer. We win, but we all try to expand our minds. I oppose this petition, because in the method it works it is transforming this game into a full fledged game where you can either win or lose, but not all win.

[DougHogg]

Team 980 was the first to sign your petition at the Arizona Regional and we are proud to sign it now.

We feel that the most basic agreement on which the competition is based is the kickoff where the game was described as a 2-on-2 competition, and that forming agreements with your opponents is a basic violation of that concept.

We further feel that making agreements with your opponents is harmful to the competition and to FIRST, because if it was continued, teams would soon agree to let all 4 robots get up on the ramp and then start sharing the bins. This would lead to a theatrical performance instead of a competition. Audiences would find this to be boring and fake. In our society, this is not acceptable in any sport or competition that we have ever heard of.

Also teams which have worked very hard to make robots that can stack are unfairly deprived of the fruits of their efforts, because teams making agreements with their opponents have huge stacks without making such a mechanism.

Additionally we observed that this practice caused bad feeling and upset at the regional we attended, and thus should be discarded as harmful to FIRST as a whole.

We have not, and will not, accept any offers by our opponents, and will not alliance with teams in the elimination rounds that do, even if it means that we will not be in the elimination rounds at a competition.

[WakeZero]

On behalf of team 1011,

We have not and will not fix any matches. Enough said

[punarhero]

Not every team is checking the forum here, and we will not be made aware of their decision on this issue. Even though I totally disagree that agreeing with your opponents is bad, our team will not do it since the majority of FIRST teams think it is invalid.

We also take the responsibility of going around in LA regional and getting a petition signed by those who wouldn't make deals with opponents, and have it printed. Here is the petition I think should be signed (Please correct anything that seems to be wrong):

[b]We, as a FIRST robotics team, in the true spirit of FIRST and that of gracious professionalism, agree not to engage in any kinds of "deals" with our opponents in any qualifying matches to keep the integrity of the game designed by FIRST.[/B

I am totally against fixing matches, but a petition won't do anything about it. Just don't do it yourself. Thats the only way people will get the point that you won't fix matches

[Soukup]

Team 74 will not and shall not fix any matches.....DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT APPROACHING US!!!!

[DougHogg]

Originally posted by D.J. Fluck
I am totally against fixing matches, but a petition won't do anything about it. Just don't do it yourself. Thats the only way people will get the point that you won't fix matches

Actually the petition at the Arizona Regional put a halt to the practice.

[T967]

Why would you waste Oxygen on something like fixing matches. That is not any fun and your bound to piss people off. Have fun don't worry so much about winning. Plus in the finals all that fixing won't help you, you'll just get your butt kicked.

[Koci]

Of course team 624 (Cryptonite) signs this petition. I would have been the first to sign it, only I was asleep.

We, as a team, voted before alliance selections at the AZ regional, and decided that if one of the two teams in the top 8 who had done this collusion picked us as their alliance partner, we would flat out reject, and forfeit our team from the regionals. We made sure everyone fully understood the implications of this action, and I believe it was unanimous to go through with it if the situation arose.

Luckily, it never did.

Oh, and WakeZero, since you stated team 1011 "have not and will not fix matches," you are one of the two teams during the regional whose drivers approached us to do this collusion, which we flatly rejected.

[Alexander McGee]

I will say it again.

Originally posted by magnasmific
First off, this thread is NOT for arguing, there are plenty of other threds out there for that.

Dont post here unless you agree with the petition. Its a waste of everyone's time.

[Alexander McGee]

Originally posted by punarhero
Not every team is checking the forum here, and we will not be made aware of their decision on this issue. Even though I totally disagree that agreeing with your opponents is bad, our team will not do it since the majority of FIRST teams think it is invalid.[/size][/B

My team will be passing out a written petition at all events that we attend. It worked once we did it in Arizona. I urge teams attending other regional events to do likewise.

PLEASE STICK TO THE TOPIC AT HAND!!!

[miketwalker]

Earlier when I posted I had the wrong impression. I thought the petition was against the 2 times the losers score plus your own. I didn't know about matches being fixed at regionals. I know our team will not do that at competition, I promise you that much. I just mistook this petition as against getting rid of the gracious professionalism, sorry about that.