Noob Question - Seeding

[assemblywaking]

I've searched for over an hour for the answer to these questions and have had no luck. (The Vbulletin search function has always been rather awful.)

I've been watching the live-feed of this robotics competition and after finding myself rather confused on the scoring/seeding I hunted down the rules, now i find myself even more confused.

#1 What keeps a 3team alliance from scoring entirely on their opponents' goals?

#2 Why is Cooperation trademarked?

#3 Why does the entire 'winning' paradigm change come elimination matches?

[vhcook]

#1 Nothing except strategy and competitive spirit (and the limit of one robot in your opponent's home zone). For example, I give you Curie match 100.

#2 Coopertition (not cooperation) is a hybrid of cooperation and competition. I'm not entirely sure why FIRST felt they needed a new word, or why they patented the concept, but I sure wish they'd picked something less painful to pronounce.

#3 In qualifiers, you're trying to get seeding points sufficient to be an alliance selector, while simultaneously attempting to demonstrate the good qualities of your robot enough to get picked for eliminations if you don't get to be a selector. Because of the seeding algorithm, there are some incentives high scoring close games and also for some "odd" behavior in order to maximize seeding score. These have been discussed ad nauseum in other threads, and I don't want to restart that debate.

In elims, it's best 2 of 3, winner take all. A 1-0 win in elims is just as good as a 20-10 (assuming you're not a spectator).

[EricH]

Nothing. Unless you count the +5 seeding points for a win, and the 1 robot in their zone rule. It's been used as a strategy before.

It's also patented. FIRST has the rights to that patent. I guess they figured on getting a trademark as well.

Because the entire seeding system is based around your seeding score. When you go to eliminations, it becomes W-L. Get 2 Ls in a single round, and you're out. See Section 9.3.9 and 9.4.4 for the comparison. Don't ask me why it's that way, though.

[Ether]

FWIW, there's a seed-point calculator here:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...19&postcount=1

just enter the total points for each alliance (including bonus points) and the penalties for each alliance. the seed points are then calculated.

~

[David Brinza]

Dean Kamen was granted a US Patent (#7,507,169) in March 2009 for "Method for Creating Coopertition." FIRST filed for trademark registration of the word "Coopertition" in April 2009.