Clearly the grocery store was out of tin foil.
Last year and this year are the first time we have “advertised” to other teams. One thing to take into account is who you are lobbying to. Generally when we lobby to other teams they are ranked in the top few teams or a team we would really like to pair with that is ranked higher than us. Whenever we lobby we use our own scouting data. You need to have data to back up your claims. The only way we tell other teams about ourselves is through data. Teams are very receptive to it and really like it. And most of the time they will listen because you can prove why you are talking to them. We have has good success with it this year by being the 1st pick by the number one seed in two events.
Of our five years at Bayou, the only time we were picked for an alliance was our second worst seed (#42 of 57). Our selection (by the #2 seed) was largely due to “reverse scouting” by our drive captain. When it became obvious on Friday afternoon that we were not going to seed high, she approached high seed teams to see what they would be looking for in a second pick. She found a need that we could fill, and Saturday morning, we showcased that capability (ability to flip totes and get to an RC on the step) rather than going for the points. IIRC, the extra RC we delivered and the totes we scored were the margin of victory in every match throughout eliminations.
There are many roads to success; recognizing them and acting is the key.
Whatever you do, do not annoy selecting teams - the last thing you want to do is get on a “do not pick list” because of personnel friction.
Earlier this season at NYC we seeded terribly (44/66). This was not due to our robot. We just got really unlucky going through a ton of matches with either 1 alliance partner working or none.
We ended up getting chosen by the 8th alliance as their first pick. What is crazy is we never even played with them. We then went on to pick the 46th seed. We ended up beating the #1 seed in the first match and setting the second highest score for the regional. We did lose the next two matches but there were a lot of missed calls and technically we did win.
When I got up to accept the invitation the first thing I said to them was “Wow, I was not sure we were going to get picked. since we were such low seed” and they said “Are you kidding? You carried your alliance every match”.
If your robot performs well, stays connected to the field, and you present your team well you have a good chance to be picked regardless of seed.
The alliance also said some of the reasons they chose us was because of seeing me on chiefdelphi and, our reveal video… So, the moral of the story is to be active on CD and make a reveal video.
Everyone’s summarized it pretty well.
Know who you’re talking to. Pit students usually don’t care how good your team is because they don’t have any idea what the pick list looks like and they won’t be watching your matches. The priority for them is making sure the robot performs. They’ll usually be polite about it, but you’re wasting your time and theirs. Ask who the scouting lead is and where you can find them.
If you’re in the middle of the serpentine you’re already doing something right. You won’t move up by selling yourself to teams at the event. The top teams know who you are and what you can do. You’re not one of the first few picks because you’re not the best robot. Make a good pick list and figure out how to beat the top seeded teams since your 3rd robot is way better than theirs. CarNack made his prediction for a reason.
Be honest when they look at your robot. They have the data and know if you’re lying to them. They won’t pick you for what you say you can do. Prove it.
They don’t always know or care where you’re ranked. Play smart, play the role your alliance needs, be willing to adapt to the situation that occurs. You’ll get noticed.
Almost everything in this thread is extremely valuable information, and I would highly recommend reading through it and taking in the main points.
I’ll just put in a few of my opinions:
1: Try and talk to teams a few hours before Alliance Selection, or even the Friday afternoon if you can. Many powerhouse teams hold Strategy/Pick list meetings on the Friday night, and reminding them about your team is a great way to spark discussion about your team during that meeting.
2: Approach high-seeding teams. Questions that you’ll mainly want to ask them run along the lines of “What are you looking for in a second pick alliance partner?”. Another great way to communicate teams is to ask them if they want to see anything performance-wise out of your robot in matches. If they are looking for anything in particular, try and exhibit it on the practice field, inviting them to watch, or plan to fulfill that role for your next quals match to demonstrate. People can talk about their capabilities all they want, but claims mean nothing unless they hold up on field in real matches.
We’ve talked to teams before at competition, and taking 2014 as an example, some of the higher seeds that we talked asked us to demonstrate our ability to play position 3(first assist and shot defender), and for the next few matches, we played matches focusing on displaying our ability in that role. While it didn’t change our end result, I believe that it put to rest the question of whether or not we were able to play that role, and might have moved us up a few spots on that pick list.
3: Form relationships. We have the resources to assign an “expert scout” to every team at a regional, but if you don’t quite have that much manpower, you’ll want to try and find a contact for each of the powerhouse teams that you can comfortably talk to. Not a business relationship, but legitimately find someone to become friends with. In those crucial Friday night meetings, teams who are friendly to work with and cooperative will end up much higher on teams that are not on pick lists.
4: Try and be honest. It’s hard to tell potential captains that you’re having issues, but they’ll hold you in higher regard if you just tell them what’s wrong. They may even offer to help fix it if they can! In 2015 at CMP, we had to remove a motor in our intake rollers to dedicate ourselves to our 4-bin grab, but it meant that we would be of little use to our alliance partners. By telling our alliance partners this, we were able to modify our strategy so that we could minimize the effect of our problem, and all involved parties ended up more satisfied.
My input on this is to say at least something to any top seeded alliance you think you can work well with. Do this even if you know they have noticed you before, because the last thing I wanted to hear playing as a backup team was that the scouting team of the alliance we ended up with forgot to tell their rep to pick us in the first place 
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It also can’t help to suggest teams or types of teams you think will complement both you and the team you are lobbying to.
I see that you didn’t put your team number in your bio. So if you don’t mind me asking, what is your team number?
I am sorry to inform you that I am not allowed to disclaim my team number due to my sometimes ignorant attitude when responding to some threads. Notice I am the only person in the world with red bars.
This is my personal opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. I think there are two different types of ‘advertising’. Going to a team’s pit ten minutes before alliance selection and asking them to pick you doesn’t work. Most people will just be annoyed by it. Even explaining all your good qualities can still turn off a lot of teams. However, if you go to a team while qualifying matches are still being played, explain the feature that you think would be a good fit for their alliance, and show that strategy in a match (or several), that will go over much better. I was talking to my friend from another team about a pick I didn’t understand and their explanation was that this team had gone out of their way to show a versatility in strategy that aligned with what they were looking for. You can’t just say that you can do something, you have to show it and make sure they see it. That is the most successful way of ‘advertising’ yourself.
They’re just bars…
Yes but I would prefer if my mentor did not know it was me not representing our team well.
And trust me, you aren’t the only one with red… not even close to the highest on the list. Could send a link to the CD member list sorted by worst rep–but that’s not necessary. Taking a quick look at your post history, you haven’t even broached one of the most flame-happy topics, and most of those folks have. Might have just managed to annoy a couple folks with hair-trigger red-rep fingers and a lot of rep power.
I think the optimum time to advertise is when doors open prior to matches on Day 2, that is usually our routine if we are not high enough to be captain. I want us to be on their radar (and get their eyes on us) the rest of Day 2 and we go about 12-13 deep and out of those 12-13 teams we probably contact three or four that compliment us. If we are captain its pretty much the same process , just knowing you hold the cards. Even so you want to be paired with the best team that WANTS to be with you and compliments you. You want the best chance to succeed.
Then rest of the day we just play ball and our scouts watch all potential captains for strengths and weaknesses for later in the day elimination matches and work on elimination game plans.
6 week build is all about building a capable bot that is the best at something (be rare) .
In each regional…
Day 1 is all about ranking high (we aim for top 20% to be in that prime pick area rank 12 or lower I’m happy) and winning your matches to give teams a night to pour over the data and watch videos of all pick worthy teams. We also make a minimum top 20-28 pick list and verify it on day 2.
Day 2 is all about ranking your self honestly “as an impartial scout” and making sure higher teams also know about you that you desire to play with. First thing that morning. Remember if you are Captain 5,6,7 or 8 you KNOW you have your work cut out for you to win that regional…so a non-captain team that comes to you with a plausible winning plan and deep pick list can be just the ticket and make your day.
We made alliance captain 8 and our 3rd bot VERY VERY HAPPY when we as a potentially very strong alliance 8 took down alliance 1 handily in 2 games…that bodes well for our future… its all about building those longer term partnerships for future seasons and remissness about previous seasons . Good will goes a long way our list of love to go to eliminations teams grows every year. Main thing is to have fun…it is fun…and never be the weak link. Hold yourself accountable.
My scouts look for two things… “consistency and reliability” because in eliminations any weakness get exposed
This does make it harder, however, you can still play the game in the way you designed your robot to play. Demonstrate your best despite your alliance partners.
A good team with good match scouting will notice. Teams planning on being top seeds are having to look deep to discover the teams that will play in a compatible way with them, this is frequently a robot not in the “top 24”.
Make sure your team is as honest as possible with pit scouts on Thursday, good teams confirm with match scouting the information given to the pit scouts. If there are a lot of inconsistency, this gives a poor impression.
Instead of advertising to them what your team does, ask them what they are looking for in an alliance partner. This tends to be a good conversation starter. Start the conversation early on Friday. Ask your self honestly, if your team will fit, if not, look for another team that could be.
Saturday morning is crunch time for the scouting teams, and they made their pick lists on Friday night, and spend Saturday confirming their thoughts, and filling in blanks. It is difficult to get your self added by then.
I get red bars too as I can be opinionated … no biggie. I learn as I go and try to make up with green bars.
I remind myself of gracious professionalism and it worked much better this season. That is not to say I still din’t get some red bars 
I’m just very competitive in my make up and sometimes go overboard.
Agreed I have had my fair share of red dots although it has definitely taught me to hold my tongue(Fingers).
I greened you a while back and tried to green you again but got the (Spread some reputation around) message. I have been there actually had Red dots show on my profile without team number and full name for a few weeks until I got greened again.
Just be respectful and helpful and I am sure eventually we can find out what team you are from.
My $.05
Say what you can do and do what you say.
Allot of teams say they are the best but a good scout team will sort out the best.
In 2014, at the Pittsburgh regional, we got paired with allot of teams that didn’t work very well. We did everything we told the pit scouters we could do and got picked. We made it to the finals and came in second.
The point is, if you have something another team can use, you will get picked.
I know that my team analyzes each robot individually when scouting, looking at stats that go beyond rankings. If you’ve got a good robot and the other team has put some effort into scouting, advertising is unnecessary, although it’s always good to be nice.
http://www.thebluealliance.com/team/694
Just demonstrate what you can do during your qualification matches, and you’ll get picked. We did that at NYC regional and ended up winning undefeated as the 8th seed.