Alliances in touble?

[archiver]

Posted by Chris.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Coach on team #308, Walled Lake Monster, from Walled Lake Schools and TRW Automotive Electronics.

Posted on 4/12/2000 7:05 AM MST



I've been reading a lot of posts since I got back from Florida and I've noticed that a lot of people are upset about the alliance selection process. A lot of good teams (teams that had legitimate chances of winning the competiton) were watching the eliminations instead of playing in them. This poses problems not only from a 'fair competiton' standpoint, but also from a 'we're all working toghether in the spirit of FIRST' standpoint.

It is natural for people to feel hurt, jealous, and maybe even resentful when they are not selected by another team to compete. Especially when that team feels that they have a good chance at helping win the tournament if given the chance. This is shown in a lot of the posts that has been made on this site.

Alliances have been good at getting teams together to talk to each other and see what is going on in other teams. However, it has also been good at making a lot of people upset. Personally, I think that this has a lot to do with the poor attendence for the final matches. I remember in '97 and '98 that the stands were full for the finals. The last two years have been pretty empty. I know that a lot of teams (ours not one of them) decided to take off when they were not chosen. To me it makes sense: a lot of people don't want to cheer for team that decided you weren't good enough to play with them.

Anyway, I'm not saying that alliances are dead or that they're a bad idea. It just seems that judging from everything I heard at the competition and what I've been reading here, something needs to change. If people continue to be upset following the competitions, people will start to decide not to come back. I don't think any of us want that.

Any thoughts? Does anyone have any ideas as to how to improve the system? Does the system need any improving? Please share your thoughts.