Unsportsmanlike conduct. 3 against 1

FIRST General Forum
1

As the competition went on we climbed up to 7th place, which we thought was pretty good for being a rookie team. We never realized that our own alliance teammate would go against us. We had gotten on the bar every time. So…as the other oppent teams had huddled around us in order to not let us get to the bar. At the end we saw our alliance member putting balls in the opposing teams shoot. We even have video of this. They managed to even shove us off the field at one time. Our sensor busted… popped a tire bent a mnuematic holder…well 2 actually.

Even after all of this, there’s nothing the ref’s say they can do. It’s bull that teams have to do this to other teams… we got knocked down to 20th place after this. I guess it happens, but I mean… come on. Where the sportsmanship? I thought it was about teamwork. Oh well. I’ll stop talking now.

2

you would think that the alliance wouldnt be broken… but i guess if the allied team holds a grudge theres nothing we can do… maybe they hated seeing us as a rookie at 7th… because theyre rookies too… simply because we had the catbird seat… all sportsmanship should not be forgotten over a simple grudge. this is a team event. alliances are to help eachother, not gang up against one team, and waste your own points for it.

3

Not sure about pusing your team off the field but, They could have been putting balls in to the other teams shoot in order for them to score more points. Was your alliance ahead or behind at the time you saw them putting balls in? If you were ahead then it was probaly to increase there score, thereby increasing your score.

-Aaron

4

Well… the ending score was 80 to 25… So, they put way to many in if they were trying to do that. But if accused, i’m sure that would be there defense. Either way I believe we got screwed. Our strategy was for us to get on the bar, and for them to protect us. Oh well. We’re a rookie team. rookie teams aren’t suppose to make it to finals. <–sarcasm

5

my words of advice, take it in stride, we all have our horror stories… as the bumpersticker says <explitive deleted> happens

6

Hey…don’t get discouraged. I know it hurts when matches like this happen, trust me, I’ve been there before :slight_smile:

Whatever happened during the match, you can’t change it. I know it may not be right, and it may not be what you planned on doing during the match, but things happen in matches that noone has control over. Maybe the opposing alliance did something that your alliance didn’t expect, and it caused them to act differently, or maybe it was something else. I dont know, noone really knows. But most importantly, its in the past and it can’t be changed.

But you can learn from it. You can learn tomorrow by playing matches differently, you can learn how to build differently for next season…competition is the best learning experience of them all. And, don’t let one bad match get you down. You have many years ahead, many more games, and many more matches. The best you can do is to keep your spirit up in these trying times.

And finally, don’t you dare tell me that rookie teams don’t get into the finals. They do, I’ve seen it…and the competition isn’t over yet…you could get picked :wink: And there’s always the offseason! Stuff that happens there yields huge bragging rights.

So…don’t give up hope. And if you want to vent, feel free to pm me personally, I’d be happy to listen.

7

If it’s any consolation - Happy Birthday :smiley:

8

I wasn’t there, I don’t know what happened…

There could be lots of explainations for what you describe - there is only one way to find out:

(If youthink they can do it in a calm, rational manner) First thing tommorrow morning, ask your drive team to go to the other team’s pit, and ask the other two drivers if they would mind talking for a few minutes. (Probrably a good idea to go to the stands or somewhere to talk instead of doing it surrounded by thier teammates) Then tell them that you were bothered about the match, and ask why it happened. See what they say.

Just a thought.

oh… and Happy (belated) Birthday!

:slight_smile:

Aidan

9

thanks all. we’ll get it all figured out… at least nothing got serevely broken. We’ll get 'em back some way or another. We have one more match that may get us in the lead. We have had some of the top teams come to interview us for maybe being an alliance. So… that’s all fine and dandy.
New day new match.

10

Get 'em back?

Being unsportsmanlike to a team in vengance will not solve anything. And, if the top teams that were thinking of picking you see/know your team doing something like that, it is very likely that you would not be picked.

However, if you’re playing against the offending team in a match, then, sure, beat them!

11

Based on your description of your own robot “We had gotten on the bar every time.” and the 25-80 final score… it sounds like they were expecting you to hang for the win, and were trying to increase your QPs. Its a reasonable thing to do… they may simply have not counted on you not getting up there, and were a little overzealous with the ball-packing too.

12

Last year at nats, we had a very similar experience. So I know how you feel, but remember, two wrongs don’t make a right. It is possible they made a deal with the other team in order to get picked for finals or something like that, so I don’t doubt that what you said is true. However, you cannot boast your gracious professionalism and say things like “we’ll get 'em back.” You need to remember why we’re all here in the first place. Try to focus a little more on the “New day new match” part.

Oh, and anyone who may try to say that rookies shouldn’t make it into finals REALLY needs to learn what GP is all about.

13

Sorry… sarcasm on getting back at them. We got chosen as an alliance member and lost in the first round, because their drivetrain malfunctioned or something. Oh well. I think we did good for a rookie team. Hopefully next year we’ll get even further! yaay! It was fun. :smiley:

14

There is no difference between 7th and 20th place. Your experience is still the same.

Your experience is what matters. Your rank does not.

15

our rank may not matter in the long run, but it sure did feel good being in quarter finals… we now have spiffy bronze medals, and a lovely trophy that says we are the highest seeding rookie team… so i guess in a way we did “get them back” by doing so well even with losses… (they did not advance from preliminary competition) but it wasnt a vengeance, it was a way of showing our strengths as a team, and that we can pull ourselves together after the bad things happen. we really did better under pressure than we thought we could, and it was a wonderful surprise. hopefully next year we will find a way to defend ourselves from other teams, and perform the tasks. this was a truly amazing beginning year for us, and i hope that it goes just as well, if not better next year.

16

Hey great stuff and congratulations, beleive me for a rookie team that is not bad, actually its awesome!. But as some of other people suggested rank is not the main thing here, its about the experience, experience that you get while building, competing and helping other teams.

Though i would suggest that you talk to your alliance team, just to get your minds clear as to what they were thinking, and even if they did wrong to you, step up from whats expected of a normal team and forgive them and be happy with you performance this year, cause you did great!.

17

yea well it wasnt only 1 time. EVRY SINGEL MATCH we had to go rebuild the robot cuz they would all ram us repetedly, grab onto us with their arms, run over us, try to flip us, hit us to @#@#@#@#ign death, and be a general pain in the @#@#$@#.

i dotn see how having to rebuild yr robot after evry match cuz people hold you down FOR MORE THAN 10 SECONDS is normal play and no one shoudl looz points

on a lighter and better note, the team that grabed onto our arm with the multiplyer hand(2xball grabber thing…) we tore a few 175psi welds on it and tore the @#@#@#@# arm off :smiley: made me feal better.

also, in evry match exept for 1, our oponent fell over, stoped working, or fought aginst us. so every match was a 2v1, and once a 3v1. 1 time we had a workign partner, and we won incredably. and with the 3v1, he was raming us out of position, and had a clear way out…i dont see that as any acsedent

twards the end i opened up all of the pnumatic flow valves on the cylenders up all the way of 2 of our components, didnt need to use em, but i can tell you that one of them can punch through plywood, so its a good thing we had a nice partney(fell over in a good spot :smiley: ) so i didnt have to use em

not trying to be mean to the other team, i really liek them, but it dose kinda suck to looze finals cuz sumthing wasnt bolted on tight enuf…lol

Though i would suggest that you talk to your alliance team, just to get your minds clear as to what they were thinking, and even if they did wrong to you, step up from whats expected of a normal team and forgive them and be happy with you performance this year, cause you did great!.

ill talk to their web server for them