Hypothetical Situation

[Eric Bareiss]

Eric's Poll Question #4

Hypothetical situation:

You are at a competition, you aren't doing very well. You lost a few close matches and you are in 50th place. In your last match you are playing against your sister team. The team who has helped you since the beginning, if you ever need help they are there for you. They are currently in 7th place.

If they win they will move into 1st and be able to select the team that they want, giving them a really good chance of winning. You have a good chance of beating them because their alliance partner is weak.

Do you go easy and let them win?

Please give it some thought and answer honestly.

Edit: For the simple fact that no one is even considering it, we are now assuming that the team they want to pick is your team.

No, I would definitely not go easy on them.

This is not fair to your alliance or the other team. Each team has to play to their full abilities. End of story.

Similar situations have been discussed many times before in other threads.

[Jack Jones]

No way!

[Matt D]

No I would not go easy on them. In fact, we played on of the teams we mentored last year, 1120, in the finals at Sacramento this year. That was not quite your hypothetical situtation, but I would still play to the best of my ability, no matter my friend's position. I would try to show off, hoping to be picked myself.

This does not mean that I do not want my sister team to win. It simply means that I want them to win fairly.

[JVN]

Originally Posted by Eric Bareiss

Do you go easy and let them win?

Hell NO!
You play your hardest, anything less would be disrespectful.

I know if I was on the seeded alliance, I'd want everyone to try their hardest to kick my butt. I'd expect it, because if I was in that position it's what I'd be trying to do.

This isn't a Nash Equilibrium problem.
Go out there, kick some butt, and be the best you can be.
As a coach, how could I ask my HS drivers to hold back? How could I tell them "we can win this, but we're not going to". Or worse... how could I mislead them by giving them a losing strategy? Not to mention my alliance partner...

I hope this is as much a no brainer for everyone else as it is for me.

John

[Amanda M]

I think going easy on them would show disrespect.

However, this does not mean you can go around beating on them the whole time. Just play your game, and play it fairly. Whoever wins will come out on top.

I like to think about it in the terms of 60 vs. 254 last season. Had we gone up against the Poofs, we would not have ever gone easy on them.

[Zzyzx]

I'd give 'em a challenge, prove that they are worthy of the #1 spot!

[Ben Lauer]

Play your hardest. This isn't about who's in first, or who could be. Even if you are in 50th, if you prove yourself to another team, and they think you will compliment thier robot, then you show them what you are worth.

18 teams in the finals, guaranteed they are not 1-18 seeds.

[Eric Bareiss]

Would it change if the team that they wanted to pick was you? We are assuming you wanted them to pick you.

[Ryan M.]

With the addition of the fact that they'll pick you, it's harder, but I'm going to say that you should play your hardest no matter what.

[Spaztik Duck]

I would definitly still play my hardest. They are in first place because they earned it, not cuz teams 'took it easy' on them, so giving them competition is good, for both of you. Everyone wants a good showing in their last match, and a strong competitive match is definitly a good showing.
With FIRST I have noticed that the teams all carry a mutual respect for the other teams and no one gets upset about teams who 'put up a good fight' they just gain more respect because you tried your best.

[edit] when voting i accidently clicked the wrong one... its early

[Chris Fultz]

Absolutely play your hardest.
That is the only fair approach to your partner and the other teams.

If you play easy, the word will quickly spread.
Soon, the team you were being nice to "only won because you let them".
You both lose respect within FIRST, and reputations die a long, slow death.

The beauty of FIRST is that you:

COMPETE like crazy for the 2 minutes you are on the field - no friends, no allies, no debts - except to your partner at the moment,

then

COOPERATE like crazy all the rest of the time, even to the point of helping the very teams that may whip you later in the day.

When we play this way, we all win.

[Billfred]

I'd say go out and kick their collective boo-tays...in a non-damaging, graciously professional manner, of course. (wink wink)

If nothing else, it'll send the message that you fight hard in a match--all the better reason for them to pick you!

[edomus]

At the risk of angering people I would have to say that I might let them win. To me, if they were going to pick you, it is all part of strategy. Doing this is not illegal.

[Pin Man]

I believe I would not take it easy... Its not fair to your alliance partner and besides its all in fun... If you throw in the towel on the match and go easy then people would probably hold grouges or something and it would drain out the fun... *shrugs* who knows...