Anyone else notice that for the first time since the Einstein Round Robin started in 2017 that first tiebreaker is NOT the same as the first qualification ranking tiebreaker? This year, the first qualification ranking tiebreaker is average match points, but for Einstein it’s Hanging points.
While I don’t really like the Round Robin in general, I feel this rule change (or oversight?) is taking an additional step back. Throughout the entire season (every district, regional, district championship, championship divisions) teams are told that points are points and that if teams end up tied, whoever scores more points seeds higher. But, then when we get to the most competitive matches with the most at stake, the game changes – Hanging points are now most important.
Since the Round Robin started, 50% of the eventually winners advanced to the finals via tie-breakers, so this has historically been a pretty big factor in who wins the world championship.
So for qualifications ranking match points means the total points in the match (Red+Blue Alliance Scores). If they were to leave Einstein with this as the tiebreaker it would promote full offense matches and handshake agreements which is what I think they are trying to avoid.
Oh, I misunderstood the qualification tie-breaker, thinking it was the average of just your alliance match points. Looks like I have one less thing to complain about regarding the Round Robin
Hmm. I had understood the qualification first tiebreaker as well to just be one’s own alliance’s match points, yet the fact that the row doesn’t include the word “ALLIANCE” while the 3rd and 4th order sorts do does kind of imply otherwise.
However, if I look at the definition of DISQUALIFIED in Table 6-2, it says that a DISQUALIFIED team will “receive 0 MATCH points”. Which kind of implies that “MATCH points” are specific to a team, rather than to an alliance (as one team could be DISQUALIFIED from an ALLIANCE without the other teams on it being DISQUALIFIED).
Might be worth a Q&A to confirm which is the intended meaning.
I had also assumed that it was the individual alliance’s match points. If it is in fact the total alliance match points this changes the nature of defense in qualification rounds. It could be better for both alliances to purely score & boost the total match score. A simple Q&A would clarify.
Regardless of whether it means individual alliance match point or total match points - if there’s a compelling reason it shouldn’t be used in the Einstein Round Robin, wouldn’t it also apply just as well to qualification matches? If a tiebreaker metric creates undue temptation to collude, why keep it for quals? Why not make it Hang points for both if there’s a reason that’s better?
In quals, Hang Points can lead to a Ranking Point.
In playoffs, there are no Ranking Points. So perhaps the tiebreaker on Hang Points is to encourage Alliances to include Hanging in their strategies. Because after all, Hanging is the exciting part. (“I only watch car races for the crashes.”)
